Das Erbe was a Nazi

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 propaganda

Propaganda

Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....

 movie published in 1935. Produced by Harold Mayer under the aegis of the Nazi party's Office of Racial Policy

Office of Racial Policy

The NSDAP Office of Racial Policy was a Nazi Party office created in 1933 for "unifying and supervising all indoctrination and propaganda work in the field of population and racial politics"...

 and directed by Carl C. Hartmann, it aimed at legitimizing the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring

Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring

Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring or "Sterilization Law" was a statute in Nazi Germany enacted on July 14, 1933, which allowed the compulsory sterilization of any citizen who in the opinion of a "Genetic Health Court" Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring...

 ("Gesetz zur Verhütung erbkranken Nachwuchses"), which allowed for sterilization. The movie is 12 minutes long, and was shown as part of several trailers in contemporary German movie theaters.

Plot and message

The plot was written by Walter Lüddeke. The basic message, that only the strong and healthy are victorious, is demonstrated by fighting animals commented by a "professor", e.g. stag beetles in the intro. These clips are watched by the character "Fräulein Volkmann", a young woman, who is therewith introduced to the "struggle for existence". After watching the clips, blonde Fräulein Volkmann is astonished and says to the friendly, elderly professor: "So animals actually pursue a racial policy!" In the second part, the movie discusses the sorrow of the disabled and posits a relation between choice of the right partner and hereditary diseases of the offspring. The message is carried by shock clips of asylum patients and presentation of the high care cost.

Peter Zimmermann of the House of Documentary Film in Stuttgart

Stuttgart

Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....

 evaluates the movie as follows:

The short movie Das Erbe (1935), which leads over from the animals' struggle for survival and natural selection

Natural selection

Natural selection is the nonrandom process by which biologic traits become either more or less common in a population as a function of differential reproduction of their bearers. It is a key mechanism of evolution....

 to a plea for forced sterilization of the mentally ill, marks exactly the point where Social Darwinist

Social Darwinism

Social Darwinism is a term commonly used for theories of society that emerged in England and the United States in the 1870s, seeking to apply the principles of Darwinian evolution to sociology and politics...

 biologism

Biological determinism

Biological determination is the interpretation of humans and human life from a strictly biological point of view, and it is closely related to genetic determinism...

 turns into Fascist

Fascism

Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...

 racial policy providing the reasoning for the necessity of euthanasia

Euthanasia

Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering....

.Zimmermann (2003), quote: "Der Kurzfilm Das Erbe (1935), der vom Existenzkampf in der Tierwelt und der Auslese der Arten zum Plädoyer für die Zwangssterilisierung Geisteskranker überleitet, bezeichnet genau den Punkt, an dem ein sozialdarwinistischer Biologismus in eine faschistische Rassenpolitik umschlägt, die die Notwendigkeit der Euthanasie argumentatorisch vorbereitet."

In addition to "Das Erbe", two silent movies

Silent Movies

Silent Movies are 13 solo guitar compositions by Marc Ribot released September 28, 2010 on Pi Recordings.-Reception:The Allmusic review by Thom Jurek awarded the album 4 stars stating "For those interested in one of the more compelling and quietly provocative and graceful guitar records of 2010,...

 were produced in 1935 to propagate euthanasia

Euthanasia

Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering....

 in the German population, "Sünden der Väter" and "Abseits vom Wege" ("Sins of the Fathers" and "Off track"). In the subsequent years, the media campaign was completed by another sound movie, "Opfer der Vergangenheit

Opfer der Vergangenheit

Opfer der Vergangenheit was a Nazi propaganda film made in 1937. This movie was a sequel to Erbkrank , which showed horrific images of lunatics in German asylums in order to bolster public support for the planned T-4 Euthanasia Program for the mentally ill...

" ("Sacrifice of the Past", 1937) and three more silent movies, "Erbkrank

Erbkrank

Erbkrank is a 1936 Nazi propaganda film.Directed by Herbert Gerdes, it was one of six propagandistic movies produced by the "NSDAP, Reichsleitung, Rassenpolitisches Amt" or the Office of Racial Policy, from 1935 to 1937 to demonize people in Germany diagnosed with mental illness and mental...

" ("Inherited Malady", 1936), "Alles Leben ist Kampf

Alles Leben ist Kampf

Alles Leben ist Kampf is a National Socialist propaganda film produced in 1937, directed by Herbert Gerdes, and W. Hüttig....

" ("All Life is Struggle", 1937) and "Was du ererbst" ("What You Inherit", 1939). All these movies were produced by the Office of Racial Policy, shot in the Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 area, and shown nationwide in movie theaters, factories and on Nazi party events, and together reached an audience of twenty million per year. Together with Erbkrank and Alles Leben ist Kampf, Das Erbe reflects the spirit of the Nuremberg Laws

Nuremberg Laws

The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 were antisemitic laws in Nazi Germany introduced at the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party. After the takeover of power in 1933 by Hitler, Nazism became an official ideology incorporating scientific racism and antisemitism...

by subordinating the people to the authority of a superior "breeder's" cost-benefit analysis.