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German to English: Excerpt from a speech by a researcher at the DÖW in Vienna
Source text - German Alex Hüntelmann hat die Vorgeschichte des öffentlichen Gesundheitsdienstes vor 1933 am Beispiel einer zentralen Instanz, dem Reichsgesundheitsamt, beschrieben. Das Reichsgesundheitsamt war eine Art „think-tank“. Die regionale und lokale Ebene dazu bildeten die staatlichen und kommunalen Gesundheitsämter, die für die konkrete Umsetzung zuständig waren. Der öffentliche Gesundheitsdienst wurde ab 1933 in Deutschland und ab 1938 in Österreich radikal umgebaut. Eine wichtige Komponente der Nazifizierung des Gesundheitswesens waren die Entlassung und Vertreibung der jüdischen Mediziner und die Besetzung der Schlüsselstellen mit NSParteigängern.
1934/35 wurden außerdem die gesetzlichen Voraussetzungen für
eine völlige Neuorganisation der Gesundheitsämter geschaffen. Innerhalb des NSStaates hatten sich jene Kräfte durchgesetzt die nicht auf NSDAP-nahe Strukturen setzen wollten, sondern auf die staatliche Verwaltung. Das so genannte „Gesetz zur Vereinheitlichung des Gesundheitswesens“ brachte eine Verstaatlichung und Zentralisierung des regional stark zersplitterten deutschen Gesundheitswesens. Das
Deutsche Reich wurde mit einem dichten Netz von straff geführten
Gesundheitsämtern und Amtsärzten überzogen, die ein effektives biopolitisches Instrument in den Händen der NS-Führung bildeten. Hier haben wir eine der Voraussetzungen für den geplanten umfassenden medizinischen Zugriff auf die Bevölkerung. Im Rahmen dieses Gesetzes und der dazugehörigen Durchführungsbestimmungen erfolgte die Institutionalisierung der Rassenhygiene als eigener schwerpunktmäßiger Arbeitsbereich der Gesundheitsämer.
Für die angewandte Rassenhygiene gab es eine eigene Bezeichnung, die sehr
aufschlussreich ist. Die nationalsozialistischen Medizinfunktionäre sprachen von „Erb- und Rassenpflege“. Darin kommt der doppelte Charakter des Projekts zum Ausdruck: Die „Erbpflege“ verweist auf die eugenische Stoßrichtung, die „Rassenpflege“ auf die antisemitisch-rassistische Komponente. Beide Elemente waren untrennbar miteinander verbunden und stützten sich wechselseitig.
Dazu ein Beispiel: Im Juli 1940 intervenierte Stadtrat Max Gundel beim
Bürgermeister, um die Deportation der Wiener jüdischen Bevölkerung zu erreichen. Es war ihm zu Ohren gekommen, dass die Deportation von 450.000 Juden nach Polen in Planung war. Da die Juden nach seiner Berechung das Wohlfahrtsbudget mit mehr als einer Million Reichsmark belasteten, bat er den Bürgermeister, sich beim Reichsstatthalter dafür einzusetzen, dass die Wiener Juden an erster Stelle nach Polen verschickt werden sollten. Wenige Monate später, im Oktober 1940, sollte der
Wiener Gauleiter Baldur von Schirach die gleiche Bitte Adolf Hitler vortragen, wobei er mit der Wohnungsnot in Wien argumentierte. Am 3. Dezember erhielt Schirach die Zustimmung Hitlers zur Deportation von 60.000 Personen aus Wien ins Generalgouvernement. Ich möchte damit nicht behaupten, dass die Intervention Gundels in einem direkten kausalen Zusammenhang mit der späteren Ermordung der Wiener jüdischen Bevölkerung stand, das wäre viel zu simplifizierend. In Summe
spielten jedoch solche Initiativen auf der mittleren Ebene eine wesentliche Rolle bei der ständigen Radikalisierung der antijüdischen Politik bis hin zum Massenmord. Was mir an dem Beispiel wichtig erscheint, ist zu sehen, mit welcher Selbstverständlichkeit die Verantwortlichen im Gesundheits - und Sozialwesen den Ausschluss, die Vertreibung und Vernichtung der jüdischen Bevölkerung in ihre Planungen einbezogen und voraussetzen. Die Deportation wurde genutzt, um den sozialpolitischen Spielraum für die Betreuung der nichtjüdischen Bevölkerung, soweit sie als „erbgesund“ und „förderungswürdig“ eingestuft wurde, zu vergrößern. Dieses Muster scheint mir eines der zentralen Charakteristika der NS -Medizin zu sein.
Translation - English Alex Hüntelmann has described the pre-history of the public health service before 1933 using the example of a central authority, the Reichsgesundheitsamt: Reich Health Authority. The Reich Health Authority was a kind of “think-tank”. The corresponding regional and local levels were made up of the state and communal health authorities, which were responsible for the concrete implementation of policy. The public health service was radically restructured after 1933 in Germany and after
1938 in Austria. An important component of the Nazification of healthcare was the release and persecution of Jewish physicians and the occupation of key positions with Nazi partisans. Furthermore, in 1934/35 the legal prerequisites for a completely new organization of the health authorities were established. Within the National Socialist state those forces that desired the strengthening of the state health care system prevailed, rather than those that desired a separate health care system run by organizations close to NSDAP. The so-called “Law for the Standardization of Healthcare” brought about a nationalization and centralization of the regionally
heavily splintered German healthcare system. The German Reich was covered by a thick net of tightly led health authorities and public health officers, which created an effective, bio-political instrument in the hands of Nazi-leadership. Here we have one of the prerequisites for the planned comprehensive medical access to the population. Within the framework of this law and the corresponding implementation regulations, the institutionalization of racial hygiene became its own field of emphasis for the
health authorities.
For applied racial hygiene there was one single term, which is very insightful. The National Socialist medical officials spoke of “Erb- und Rassenpflege”: “Hereditary and Racial Care”. Therein lies the double character of the project: “Erbpflege” or “Hereditary Care” indicates the eugenic direction; “Rassenpflege” or “Racial Care”, the anti-Semitic, racist components. Both elements were inseparably connected and supported each other reciprocally.
As an example of that: In July of 1940, city councilman Max Gundel intervened with the mayor to achieve the deportation of the Viennese Jewish population. He had heard that the deportation of 450,000 Jews to Poland was being planned. Since, according to his calculations, the Jews were straining the welfare budget by more than a million Reich Marks, he asked the mayor to plead to the Reichsstatthalter (governor of the Reich), that the deportation of the Jews to Poland should be made top priority. A few months later, in October of 1940, the Viennese Gauleiter (head of the Nazi district), Baldur von Schirach, was to present the same request to Adolf Hitler, whereby he argued on the basis of the housing shortage in Vienna. On
December 3rd, Schirach received Hitler’s approval for the deportation of 60,000 persons from Vienna into the General Governorate. With this I do not want to claim that Gundel’s intervention stood in a direct causal correlation to the later murder of the Viennese Jewish population—that would be much too oversimplified. In sum, however, such initiatives, at mid-level, played a significant role in the constant radicalization of anti-Jewish policies, to the point of mass murder. From this example, it seems important for me to see with what matter of course those responsible in the health and welfare systems embraced and presumed the expulsion, that is, the persecution and extermination of the Jewish population, in their planning. The deportation was used in order to enlarge the socio-political leeway for the care of the non-Jewish population, as long as they were classified as “erbgesund”: “hereditarily healthy” and “förderungswürdig”: “eligible”. This pattern
seems to me to be one of the central characteristics of Nazi medicine.
I began teaching myself German in 8th grade and officially began taking German classes in high school. I spent my senior year abroad as an exchange student in Siegen, Germany, and since then the German language has been a constant part of my life. I began translating unofficially during college, first working on poems by contemporary German author/poet Richard Wagner. During my studies at UNC-Chapel Hill, I translated a great deal of Middle High German into English as part of my regular course work - though I am probably a bit rusty on that now. As a hobby I began translating a novel (Die Puppenspieler by Tanja Kinkel), and still have about 175 pages to go - seeing that my translating career has taken off, I haven't been able to return to the book as of yet. I got my first professional translation experience while working for a researcher at the Dokomentationsarchiv des österreichischen Widerstandes (DÖW) during a summer internship in Vienna in 2004. I had the opportunity to translate several of his speeches/papers, as well as papers for other researchers at the institute. When my Fulbright funding ran out in the summer of 2005, I joined Proz.com and quickly began getting regular, paid translation work. While working for Siemens in a commercial apprenticeship program from 2005-2007, I developed my translation business on the side, becoming a fully independent freelance translator in October of 2007. I have a degree in German from UNC-Chapel Hill and am pleased to say that I use my degree each and every day and love what I do!
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Keywords: Native speaker of US-English, near native fluency in German, professional experience working at a major German company (2 years at Siemens), over 6 years of experience living, studying, teaching and working in Germany, Fulbright alumna, experience in the fields of business, marketing, general law (contracts). See more.Native speaker of US-English, near native fluency in German, professional experience working at a major German company (2 years at Siemens), over 6 years of experience living, studying, teaching and working in Germany, Fulbright alumna, experience in the fields of business, marketing, general law (contracts), academic papers, etc.. See less.
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