Lebenskunde Lehrbuch der Biologie für Höhere Schulen – “The Knowledge of Life – Biology Textbook for High Schools, By Dr. Erich Meyer Radebeul and Dr. Karl Zimmermann Radebeul – Introductory Volume for Higher Schools – Grade III (equivalent to middle school). Includes 214 images and 12 color plates. Published by Kurt Stenger, Erfurt, [1942]. The textbook contains Nazi ideological messages regarding the superiority of the Aryan race, extending even to the plants and animals native to Germany. Rare.
A biology textbook used in Nazi Germany’s high schools, focusing on the history and structure of animals and plants in the German region. The central theme, woven throughout the book, teaches students that everything growing in Germany is biologically “pure”, including plants and animals, while harm and corruption in nature were caused by foreign elements introduced from outside Germany. Throughout the book, expressions such as “German soil”, “German forest, ” and “German climate” are repeatedly presented as perfect and untainted, except when affected by crossbreeding and external influences. The authors state: “We must seek the oldest German agricultural lands in order to find the purest form of the biological subject.” They further emphasize: “It is absolutely necessary to make Germany as independent as possible from foreign countries in the supply of its financial products. However, it is equally necessary to make Germany as independent as possible in the supply of its domestic goods. This is very difficult. The German farmer must invest endless effort and tireless diligence to do justice to this enormous task. He must literally fight a battle with our distant lands to secure our food supply in this struggle. This battle belongs within the great National Socialist production battles and the annual plan. Every German boy and girl must know what successes the farmer has achieved over centuries of struggle and how hard agricultural labor truly is…”. Additionally, the authors claim that Germany lost its export market due to Jewish control, and that the nation must regain its dominance in exports and preserve domestic production to become “more and more independent from foreign nations in the great battle for production in the Nazi state within the broadest fields of plant cultivation.” The “natural system” of plants is examined with an emphasis on how plants grow in their original form, in contrast to “hybrids” that distort their natural purity—a striking example of how Nazi racial scientists instilled Aryan superiority ideology not only in human racial theory but also in botanical biology education.
The second part of the textbook focuses on the animal world and humans, explaining the evolution of the human brain through Nazi racial theory, asserting that diseases and deformities originate from outside influences and threaten the “pure” German race.
287 pages. Light stains on some pages. Good condition.
