Alfred Ploetz

Alfred Ploetz (March 22, 1860 – March 20, 1940) was a German physician, biologist, eugenicist known for introducing the concept of racial hygiene (Rassenhygiene).

He was born in Swinemünde, Germany (now Świnoujście, Poland).

Ploetz first proposed the ideology of racial hygiene in his "Racial Hygiene Basics" (Grundlinien einer Rassenhygiene) in 1895.

In 1905, Ploetz founded the German Society for Racial Hygiene (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Rassenhygiene), advocating eugenics.

He died at the age of 79, two days before his 80th birthday, and is buried at his home in Herrsching on the Ammersee in Bavaria.

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"The high aptitude of the Jews and their outstanding role in the progress of mankind considering men like Jesus, Spinoza, Marx has to be kindly acknowledged without hesitation... All this anti Semitism is a flop which will vanish slowly in the light of scientific knowledge and a humane democracy" ("Die Tüchtigkeit unsrer Rasse und der Schutz der Schwachen" p. 141, 142, 1893).