Table Of ContentRevised Pages
The Corrigible and the Incorrigible
Social History, Popular Culture, and Politics in Germany
Kathleen Canning, Series Editor
Recent Titles
Stop Reading! Look! Modern Vision and the Weimar Photographic Book
Pepper Stetler
The Corrigible and the Incorrigible: Science, Medicine, and the
Convict in Twentieth-C entury Germany
Greg Eghigian
An Emotional State: The Politics of Emotion in Postwar West German Culture
Anna M. Parkinson
Beyond Berlin: Twelve German Cities Confront the Nazi Past
Gavriel D. Rosenfeld and Paul B. Jaskot, Editors
Consumption and Violence: Radical Protest in Cold-War West Germany
Alexander Sedlmaier
Communism Day-to-Day: State Enterprises in East German Society
Sandrine Kott
Envisioning Socialism: Television and the Cold War in the German Democratic Republic
Heather L. Gumbert
The People’s Own Landscape: Nature, Tourism, and Dictatorship in East Germany
Scott Moranda
German Colonialism Revisited: African, Asian, and Oceanic Experiences
Nina Berman, Klaus Mühlhahn, and Patrice Nganang, Editors
Becoming a Nazi Town: Culture and Politics in Göttingen between the World Wars
David Imhoof
Germany’s Wild East: Constructing Poland as Colonial Space
Kristin Kopp
Colonialism, Antisemitism, and Germans of Jewish Descent in Imperial Germany
Christian S. Davis
Africa in Translation: A History of Colonial Linguistics in Germany and Beyond,
1814–1945, Sara Pugach
Between National Socialism and Soviet Communism: Displaced Persons in
Postwar Germany, Anna Holian
Dueling Students: Conflict, Masculinity, and Politics in German Universities, 1890–1914
Lisa Fetheringill Zwicker
The Golem Returns: From German Romantic Literature to Global Jewish Culture,
1808–2008, Cathy S. Gelbin
German Literature on the Middle East: Discourses and Practices, 1000–1989
Nina Berman
Franz Radziwill and the Contradictions of German Art History, 1919–45
James A. van Dyke
For a complete list of titles, please see www.press.umich.edu
Revised Pages
The Corrigible and the Incorrigible
Science, Medicine, and the Convict in
Twentieth- Century Germany
Greg Eghigian
University of Michigan Press
Ann Arbor
Revised Pages
Copyright © 2015 by Greg Eghigian
All rights reserved
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form
(beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and
except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publisher.
Published in the United States of America by the
University of Michigan Press
Manufactured in the United States of America
c Printed on acid- free paper
2018 2017 2016 2015 4 3 2 1
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Eghigian, Greg, 1961– author.
The corrigible and the incorrigible : science, medicine, and the convict in twentieth- century
Germany / Greg Eghigian.
pages cm. — (Social history, popular culture, and politics in Germany)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978- 0- 472- 11965- 3 (hardcover : alk. paper) — isbn 978- 0- 472- 12137- 3 (ebook)
1. Criminals— Rehabilitation— Germany— History— 20th century. 2. Sex offenders—
Rehabilitation— Germany— History— 20th century. 3. Corrections— Germany— History—
20th century. 4. Criminal behavior— Germany— History— 20th century. 5. Criminal
psychology— Germany— History— 20th century. 6. Criminal justice, Administration of—
Germany— History— 20th century. I. Title.
HV9358.E44 2016
365'.6409430904— dc23
2015021565
Revised Pages
For Natascha
Revised Pages
Revised Pages
Acknowledgments
As I worked on this project, a host of people and institutions provided vital and
generous assistance. First and foremost, I thank the staffs of the numerous ar-
chives and libraries I visited: the Brandenburgisches Landeshauptarchiv, the
Bundesarchiv in Berlin and Koblenz, the Bundesbeauftragte für Stasiunterla-
gen, the Institut für Geschichte der Medizin in Berlin, the Landesarchiv Baden-
Württemberg, the Landesarchiv Berlin, the Niedersächsisches Hauptstaatsar-
chiv Hannover, the Staatsarchiv Hamburg, the Stadtarchiv Frankfurt am Main,
and the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin. Their skillful help and guidance consistently
reaffirmed my view that Germany’s archivists and librarians are among the
most professional and accomplished in the world.
Funding for research was made possible by grants and fellowships from
the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, the National Science Founda-
tion, the Wood Institute of the College of Physicians in Philadelphia, and Penn
State University’s College of the Liberal Arts, Department of History, and In-
stitute for the Arts and Humanities.
Along the way, I have also received crucial comments, criticisms, and
advice from a host of insightful colleagues and friends, including Paul Betts,
Karl- Heinz Bomberg, John Burnham, John Christman, Winson Chu, David
Crew, Matthew DeMichele, Sace Elder, Eric Engstrom, Jennifer Evans, Moritz
Foellmer, Rüdiger Graf, Volker Hess, Andreas Killen, Ulli Klöppel, Jan Loge-
mann, Alf Lüdtke, Julia Moses, Eve Rosenhaft, Sajay Samuel, Russell Spin-
ney, Marcel Streng, Klaus Weinhauer, Richard Wetzell, Benjamin Ziemann,
the members of the Philadelphia Area Workshop in Modern German History
and of the History of Medicine Working Group at the Philadelphia Area Center
for the History of Science, and two anonymous readers. I apologize if I have
inadvertently left anyone out.
Last but not least, I thank my chanteuse in life, Natascha, who always
ensured that the process involved in this project was accompanied by adven-
ture and joy.
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Contents
1 An Introduction to the Correctional Imagination in
Modern Germany 1
2 The Correctional Imagination of Nazi Germany 19
3 Correcting the Disoriented Socialist Personality 58
4 Civilizing Deviant Sexuality under Socialism 94
5 Democratizing Punishment in the Federal Republic 125
6 The West German Sex Offender as Patient 160
Conclusion 199
Notes 207
Selected Bibliography 259
Index 289
