Le double agenda politique de la psychiatrie : Ernst Rüdin et la délégation allemande au Congrès international de psychiatrie de l’enfant de Paris en 1937

Abstract

At the First International Congress of Child Psychiatry held in Paris in 1937, the German delegation was led by Ernst Rudin, a fervent eugenicist, and president of the Society of German Neurologists and Psychiatrists (GDNP). Rudin had a twofold political agenda: on the one hand, he acted beyond the medical community in the broader framework of German foreign policy which aimed at the expansion of Germany’s international reputation. On the other hand, he sought to secure the core claims of the GDNP as a professional body. It was his aim to integrate the newly emerging field of child psychiatry firmly into the broader field of psychiatry and neurology. The article reconstructs the politico-legal ramifications within which German physicians acted when attending professional conferences abroad and the broader context of the international congresses in Paris in 1937. Finally, it describes the impact of these contexts on the lectures of the German delegates.