Robert Ritter
Encyclopedia
- You may be also searching for the Luftwaffe Field Marschall, in that case see Robert Ritter von GreimRobert Ritter von GreimRobert Ritter von Greim was a German Field Marshal, pilot, army officer, and the last commander of the Luftwaffe during the Second World War.-Early years:...
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
psychologist
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
and physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
best known for his work related to the Roma people, that contributed to repressive measures against them.
Born in Aachen
Aachen
Aachen has historically been a spa town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Aachen was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and the place of coronation of the Kings of Germany. Geographically, Aachen is the westernmost town of Germany, located along its borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, ...
, Ritter received his doctorate in educational psychology
Educational psychology
Educational psychology is the study of how humans learn in educational settings, the effectiveness of educational interventions, the psychology of teaching, and the social psychology of schools as organizations. Educational psychology is concerned with how students learn and develop, often focusing...
at the University of Munich in 1927. Continuing his studies in child psychology, Ritter received his doctorate in medicine at University of Heidelberg in 1930.
Holocaust
In 1936, Ritter was appointed to head the newly created Eugenic and Population Biological Research Station of the Reich Health and Sanitation Office. By 1941, his research about the Roma led to Axis forces implementing a policy of genocideGenocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
against them. Ritter then became chief of the newly created Criminal Biological Institute of the Reich Security Head Office. Ritter's team of researchers included a number of younger race scientists, including Eva Justin
Eva Justin
Eva Justin, PhD was a German anthropologist and psychologist.She was born in Dresden in 1909, the daughter of a railroad official Charles Justin and his wife Margarethe...
, Adolf Würth, and Sophie Ehrhardt.
After the war, Ritter was employed as a psychologist for the Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
Public Health Office, along with Eva Justin. In 1948, at the behest of Roma survivors of the Porajmos
Porajmos
The Porajmos was the attempt made by Nazi Germany, the Independent State of Croatia, Horthy's Hungary and their allies to exterminate the Romani people of Europe during World War II...
, the Frankfurt prosecutor's office opened an inquiry into Ritter's Nazi-era activities. The case was closed in 1950, on the grounds of insufficient evidence.
Ritter died on 15 April 1951 at the Hohemark psychiatric clinic in Oberursel from complications of high blood pressure. Other works state that he committed suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
.