Natur und Staat. oder: Was lernen wir aus den Prinzipien der Deszendenztheorie in Beziehung auf die innerpolitische Entwicklung und Gesetzgebung der Staaten?

„What do the principles of evolutionary theory teach us in respect of the inner development and legislation of commonwealths?” This was the subject set by three professors, Haeckel, Conrad, and Fraas, for a competition financed by Krupp in 1900. Sixty entries were submitted, eight of which received prizes and were published in the series „Natur und Staat”. The present article scrutinizes in the main those entries that, unlike Wilhelm Schallmayer's Vererbung und Auslese im Leben der Völker , did not become better known by going through several printings. The studies by Heinrich Matzat, Philosophie der Anpassung , by Albert Hesse, Natur und Gesellschaft , and Arthur Ruppin, Darwinismus und Sozialwissenschaft , all of which received second prizes, come under this heading. Because they throw light on the wide range of Social Darwinism at the beginning of the 20th century, Alfred Methner's tract Organismen und Staaten and Walter Haecker's Die ererbten Anlagen und die Bemessung ihres Wertes Für das politische Leben are also commented upon. The analysis does not yield an unified picture of Social Darwinism but shows common traits like the opinion that common wealth must precede private interest, that man's decisions are determined by scientific knowledge, that the endangered hereditary potential had to be safeguarded by state intervention. The discussion about these problems began in that period and lead to a basic consensus at the time of the Weimar republic with its fatal consequences.