Animal welfare in Nazi Germany: Facts, Discussion Forum, and Encyclopedia Article

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Animal welfare in Nazi Germany

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	Animal welfare in Nazi Germany
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	Topics Animal welfare in Nazi Germany Topic Home There was widespread support for animal welfare in Nazi Germany and the Nazis took several measures to ensure protection of animals. Many Nazi leadersList of Nazi Party leaders and officials Nazi Party leaders and officials... including Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler Adolf Hitler was Chancellor of Germany from 1933, and Fhrer of Germany from 1934 until his death.... and Hermann GöringHermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Gring was a German politician and military leader, a leading member of the Nazi Party, second in command o... were supporters of animal protection. Several Nazis were environmentalists, and species protection and animal welfareAnimal welfare Animal welfare is the viewpoint that animals, especially those under human care, should not suffer unnecessarily, including ... were significant issues in the Nazi regimeNazi Germany Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, refers to Germany in the years 1933 to 1945, when it was governed by the National So... . Heinrich HimmlerFacts About Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was the commander of the German Schutzstaffel and one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germa... made efforts to ban the hunting of animals. Göring was an animal lover and conservationistConservation movement The conservation movement is a political and social movement that seeks to protect natural resources including plant and ani... . The current animal welfare laws in GermanyGermany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in central Europe.... are more or less modification of the laws introduced by the Nazis. Measures At the end of the nineteenth century, kosher butcheringShechita Shechita is the ritual slaughter of animals, as prescribed for slaughter of mammals and birds according to Jewish dietary la... and vivisectionVivisection Etymologically, vivisection refers to the dissection of, or any cutting or surgery upon, a living animal.... were the main concerns regarding animal protection in Germany. These concerns continued among the Nazis. According to Boria SaxBoria Sax Boria Sax is an award winning author and lecturer and a teacher at Mercy College.... , the Nazi view on animal protection rejected anthropocentric perspective — animals were not to be protected for human interests, but for themselves. In 1927, a Nazi representative to the Reichstag called for actions against cruelty to animals and kosher butchering. In 1932, the Nazi party proposed a ban on vivisection. In the early 1933, representatives of the Nazi party to the Prussian parliament held a meeting to enact this ban. On April 21, 1933, almost immediately after the Nazis came to power, the parliament started to pass laws for the regulation of animal slaughter. On April 21, a law was passed on the slaughter of animals. On April 24, Order of the Prussian Ministry of the Interior was enacted regarding the slaughter of poikilothermsCold-blooded Cold-blooded organisms maintain their body temperatures in ways different from mammals and birds.... . Nazi Germany was the first nation to ban vivisection. A law imposing total ban on vivisection was enacted in August 16, 1933, by Hermann GöringHermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Gring was a German politician and military leader, a leading member of the Nazi Party, second in command o... as the prime minister of PrussiaPrussia Prussia was, most recently, a historic state originating in Brandenburg, an area which for centuries had substantial influen... . He announced to end the "unbearable torture and suffering in animal experiments" and told that those who "still think they can continue to treat animals as inanimate property" will be sent to concentration campsFacts About Nazi concentration camps Prior to and during World War II Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps throughout the territory it controlled.... . On August 28, 1933, Göring announced in a radio broadcast: Goering also banned commercial animal trapping, imposed severe restrictions on huntingHunting Hunting is the practice of pursuing animals to capture or kill them for food, recreation, or trade in their products.... , and regulated the shoeing of horseHorse The horse is a large odd-toed ungulate mammal, one of ten modern species of the genus Equus.... s. He imposed regulations even on the boiling of lobsterLobster Clawed lobsters comprise a family of large marine crustaceans.... s and crabCrab Overview Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short "tail", or where the abdo... s. In one incident, he sent a fisherman to concentration camp for cutting up a bait frogFrog The frog is an amphibian in the order Anura .... . In 24 November 1933, Nazi Germany enacted another law, Reichstierschutzgesetz (Reich Animal Protection Act), for protection of animals. This law listed many prohibitions against the use of animals, including their use for filmmakingFilmmaking Filmmaking is the process of making a film.... and other public events causing pain or damage to health, feeding fowls forcefully and tearing out the thighs of living frogs. The two principals (Ministerialräte) of the German Ministry of the Interior, Clemens Giese and Waldemar Kahler, who were responsible for drafting the legislative text, wrote in their juridical comment from 1939, that by the law the animal was to be "protected for itself" ("um seiner selbst willen geschützt") and made "an object of proctection going far beyond the hitherto existing law" ("Objekt eines weit über die bisherigen Bestimmungen hinausgehenden Schutzes"). The law was the first which abolished the distinction between domestic and wild animals. It defined as legal subjects "all living creatures that in general language and biologically regarded as animals. In a criminal sense, there is no distinction between domestic and wild animals, higher or lower valued animals, or useful or harmful animals to humans." On February 23 1934, a decree was enacted by the Prussian Ministry of Commerce and Employment which introduced education on the animal protection laws at primaryPrimary education Primary or elementary education consists of the first years of formal, structured education that occurs during childho... , secondarySecondary education In most contemporary educational systems of the world, secondary education is a stage of formal education characterised by t... and collegeHigher education Higher education is education provided by universities, vocational universities and other collegial institutions that aw... levels. On 3 July 1934, a law Das Reichsjagdgesetz (The Imperial Hunting Law) was enacted which limited hunting. On 1 July 1935, another law Reichsnaturschutzgesetz (Reich Nature Conservation Act) was passed to protect nature. The animal protection laws made by the Nazis were the strictest in the history. Conservation zones were established all over the country for the protection of endangered speciesEndangered species Summary An endangered species is a population of organisms , which because it is either few in number or threatened by changing en... . LithuaniaLithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania , is a country in northern Europe.... and major parts of UkraineUkraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe.... were outlined for afforestationAfforestation Afforestation is the process of converting open land into a forest by planting trees or their seeds.... into their natural state as soon as their population was destroyed. Nazi GermanyNazi Germany Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, refers to Germany in the years 1933 to 1945, when it was governed by the National So... was the first in the world to place the wolf under protection. In 1934, Nazi Germany hosted an international conference on animal protection in BerlinBerlin Berlin is the capital city and a state of Germany.... . On March 27, 1936, Order on the slaughter of living fishFish A fish is a water-dwelling vertebrate with gills, that remains so throughout its life.... es and other poikilothermsCold-blooded Cold-blooded organisms maintain their body temperatures in ways different from mammals and birds.... was enacted. On March 18 the same year, an order was passed on afforestationAfforestation Afforestation is the process of converting open land into a forest by planting trees or their seeds.... and on protection of animals in the wild. On September 9, 1937, a decree was published by the Ministry of the Interior which specified guidelines for transportation of animals. In 1938, animal protection was accepted as a subject to be taught in public schools and universities in Germany. Effectiveness Despite enacting various laws for animal protection, there was a lack of enforcement. The Nazis also felt that vivisectionVivisection Etymologically, vivisection refers to the dissection of, or any cutting or surgery upon, a living animal.... was important for research, including research necessary for rearmament. As a consequence, the original intentions of the law were abandoned and regulations became weaker. The law enacted by Hermann GöringHermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Gring was a German politician and military leader, a leading member of the Nazi Party, second in command o... on August 16, 1933 banning vivisection survived only three weeks and it was revised by a decree of September 5 with more lax provisions. In the end, the Reich Interior Ministry distributed blank permits to the universities and research institutes to conduct animal experiments and did not interfere in experiments on animals. According to Pfugers Archiv für die Gesamte Physiologie (Pfugers Archive for the Total Physiology), a science journal at that time, there were many animal experiments during the Nazi regime. In 1936, the Tierärztekammer (Chamber of Veterinarians) in DarmstadtDarmstadt ----Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hessen in Germany.... filed a formal complaint against the lack of enforcement of the animal protection laws on those who conducted illegal animal testing. In general, the effectiveness of the law remain limited. Controversies Equating animal protection with Jewish persecution There is some controversy over the attitude of the Nazis for legislation regarding animal welfare. As the Nazis equated animal protection with Jewish persecution, the laws and accusation of vivisection were often used as a pretext to prosecute Jewish scientists. In 1940, a discussion was started within the administration about prohibiting pets which are not much useful for the purpose of saving foodstuffs for human consumption. But personal interference by Hitler stopped this proposal. Ultimately a decree was published by the administration against pets, but it referred only to the pets in the possession of non-AryanRacial policy of Nazi Germany The Racial Policy of Nazi Germany refers to the policies and laws implemented by Nazi Germany, asserting the superiority of... citizens. On February 15, 1942, a decree was published prohibiting Jews from keeping pets, which the Jews found humiliating. Intolerance for non-Nazi activists Boria SaxBoria Sax Boria Sax is an award winning author and lecturer and a teacher at Mercy College.... in his book Animals in the Third Reich: Pets, Scapegoats, and the Holocaust documented that the Nazis manipulated attitudes towards animal protection to conform to their own symbolic system. By equating the National Socialist German Workers Party with "natureNature Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, 'physical universe, 'material world or ... ", the Nazis reduced ethical issues to biological questions. As a result, predatory animals were honored along with their human counterparts i.e. leaders and functionaries of the Nazi party, and opponents were identified as sheep destined for being killed. With the claim of having a special bond with nature, the Nazis stigmatized their opponents as being unnatural. The Nazi regime showed intolerance for activism related to environmentalism and animal protection by their adversaries. The Friends of Nature was a socialist-oriented environmental organization which had a membership of over 100,000. The Nazis disbanded this organization and all of its properties were confiscated. Influence after World War II The views of Nazi Germany on protection of animals often came up within some far right-wingFar right Far right, extreme right, ultra-right, radical right, or hard right are terms used to discuss the qu... political parties. Support for animal welfare is seen among neo-fascistsNeo-Fascism Neo-fascism is the term used to describe a range of movements emerging after the Second World War that display significant e... and many have observed there are affinities between neo-fascism and some ecocentric ideas. There has been the Green Nazi phenomenon in the United StatesUnited States The United States of America, also known as the United States, the U.S., the U.S.A., and America, is... . The famous speech by Hermann Göring on prohibition of vivisection is found on some neo-Nazi websites. The Nazi efforts on animal protection have some influence on FinnishFinland The Republic of Finland , is one of the Nordic countries.... radical deep ecologistDeep ecology Deep ecology is a recent branch of ecological philosophy that considers mankind as an integral part of his environment.... Pentti LinkolaPentti Linkola Kaarlo Pentti Linkola is a radical Finnish environmentalist who has often been accused of ecofascism.... . Difference from animal liberation movement The Nazi concept of protecting animal rights was different from the modern animal liberation movementAnimal liberation movement The animal liberation movement or animal rights movement, also sometimes called the animal personhood movement, ... . The view which Nazis had about the relationship between human and nature was mystical. The animal liberation movement is based on the concept of equality of humans and animals and seeks an end to the rigid moral and legal distinction drawn between human and non-human beings. The Nazi ideology justified similar arguments by inequality. According to the Nazi view, a hierarchical continuum was seen. At the top of this hierarchy was the Aryan raceFacts About Aryan race The "Aryan race" is a concept in European culture that was influential in the period of the late nineteenth and early twenti... , then came the animals, and finally, the UntermenschUntermensch Untermensch is a term from Nazi racial ideology used to describe supposedly inferior people, especially "the masses from the... or the races the nazis regarded as sub-humans (i.e., Jews). The ones on top of the hierarchy had the moral duty to defend their weaker brothers. Humanity as a concept was completely rejected. There was an ideological tradition behind the Nazis' ideas of animal rights. In the spirit of nationalism, German thinking already imagined a connection with the nature and animals during the rise of RomanticismRomanticism Romanticism was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in late 18th century Western Europe.... in the 19th century. Richard WagnerRichard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner was an influential German composer, conductor, music theorist, and essayist, primarily known for hi... linked vegetarianismVegetarianism Vegetarianism is the practice of not consuming meat, with or without the use of other animal derivatives, such as dairy prod... and prohibition of animal testingAnimal testing Animal testing, or animal research, refers to the use of non-human animals in experiments.... with Antisemitism. He opined that meat eating and animal oppression originated from Jewish culture and animal testing was related with the Jewish custom of kosher butcheringShechita Summary Shechita is the ritual slaughter of animals, as prescribed for slaughter of mammals and birds according to Jewish dietary la... . The influence of Wagner on the thoughts of the Nazis connects their actions against vivisection with the persecution of the Jews. The latter was partially justified as animal protection. The Jews oppressed animals, therefore attacking them was defending the animals and a moral duty. The concept of the Nazis regarding vegetarianismVegetarianism Vegetarianism is the practice of not consuming meat, with or without the use of other animal derivatives, such as dairy prod... had little link with the recognition of the moral significance of animals. It was primarily an anthropocentric concern for the quality of food, which was connected with racial purity. Further reading