Alfred Hoche

Alfred Erich Hoche (German pronunciation: [ˈalfʁeːt ˈʔeːʁɪç ˈhɔxə]; 1 August 1865 – 16 May 1943) was a German psychiatrist known for his writings about eugenics and euthanasia and his later recanting thereof.

Life

Hoche studied in Berlin and Heidelberg and became a psychiatrist in 1890. He moved to Strasbourg in 1891. From 1902 he was a professor in Freiburg im Breisgau and was the director of the psychiatric clinic there. He was a major opponent of the psychoanalysis theories of Sigmund Freud. Hoche's body of work on the classification system of mental illness had a great influence. He also published poetry under the pseudonym Alfred Erich.

According to Michael Burleigh's book Death and Deliverance, he was married to a Jewish woman and left his post in Freiburg after National Socialists came to power. He was privately critical of the Nazis' euthanasia program after it claimed one of his relatives, despite its rationale being based on his own ideas. After losing his only son in 1915 he became increasingly taciturn and depressed and his death in 1943 was probably due to suicide.

Die Freigabe der Vernichtung Lebensunwerten Lebens (Allowing the Destruction of Life Unworthy of Life)

In Binding and Hoche's book, Hoche calls for the killing of the mentally ill and especially considers those who have been what he calls "mentally or intellectually dead" since birth or early childhood.

Hoche begins his relatively short text by reminding readers that in the society of the day (1920s Germany) deaths caused by doctors were, in some cases at least, actually taken for granted. He mentions the risk taken by patients during operations and the killing of a child during birth to save the life of a mother. Hoche stresses that none of these killings are actually legal, and although a doctor cannot always be sure of escaping prosecution, they are examples of where non-legal killings are accepted by the society of the day.