Copy of Asperger's 1938 paper

Post Reply New Topic

Can anyone point me to a copy of Hans Asperger's 1938 paper, in German or English?

Parts of the translation are quoted in this book:

The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome

Hans Asperger worked as the Director of the Department of Orthopaedagogy at the Children’s Clinic of the University of Vienna, under Franz Hamburger. Some critics have claimed that his thesis was consistent with the eugenic approach, as set out by Hamburger.
This appears to be a serious misconception. The Nazis annexed Austria in March 1938 and it seems clear that Hans Asperger feared they would shortly introduce the eugenics law, already in place in Germany, ordering the extermination of, among others, the mentally handicapped and “subnormal.” Indeed, his daughter claims that he personally witnessed some unpleasant incidents during his visits to Germany in the early 1930s.
A PhD student, Marc Bush, has carried out a very detailed stylistic analysis of Asperger’s papers of 1938 and 1944 and believes that Asperger deliberately couched them in “Nazi-style” vocabulary to deceive the Nazis, while protecting the children in his charge in Vienna. “That explains why the 1938 paper, or Asperger’s follow-up paper in 1944, did not become known in the United States, where you might have expected German-speaking, scientific-minded immigrants to mention them: they saw them virtually as Nazi propaganda and not worth citing. Whereas nothing could be further from the truth.”
Asperger’s colleague, Elizabeth Wurst, told me: “Asperger had a very clear standpoint against the Nazis. He tried to develop this position. Two of his colleagues . . . emigrated to the United States and when he himself visited the US, he met them and discussed the old times. If there had been any problems with Jewish people in his team, he would not have sought them out in America.”
A close reading of Asperger’s 1938 paper throws up some fascinating clues to why he wrote this article in the way he did, as well as to how his vocabulary was misinterpreted. The paper begins by appearing to praise the Third Reich and he then refers to the need to avoid “the transmission of sick genetic material”—apparently falling firmly into line with Nazi thinking on eugenics. However, as Marc Bush has so rightly pointed out, in virtually the same breath, Asperger goes on to defend and praise the children (with autistic psychopathy) in his charge. He speaks about “how much we can do to help” abnormal children.

I haven't read that one. Does it mention AS at all?

Uta Frith (whatever her name is) translated it and put it in a book. I recall reading it on Google Books (the preview contained most of it).

It's probably still there.

Uta Frith (whatever her name is) translated it and put it in a book. I recall reading it on Google Books (the preview contained most of it).

If you can find it in German, we could all work together to translate the rest of it. I know quite a few of us on here speak German; I do. We could all do a page each and have it done in no time. It's quite a historical document, though, so maybe someone has done it already?

I have it in german but I can't find the pdf copy and the hard copy is packed because I'm moving house

it's called:

Das psychisch abnorme Kind