Heinrich Schmidt (December 18, 1874 – May 2, 1935) was aGerman archivist,naturalist,philosopher,professor and a student ofErnst Haeckel.
Schmidt was born inHeubach in theGerman State ofThuringia. From 1890 to 1894 he attended a teacher training school inHildburghausen and then worked as an elementary school teacher. In 1897 he moved on to scientific training inJena. He studied there under the financial support ofErnst Haeckel and in 1900 became his private secretary. Since Schmidt lacked formal college training, Haeckel sent him theUniversity of Zurich to study under his former student,Arnold Lang. There Schmidt earned his Doctorate in 1904. By 1912 he was an archivist in the Phyletic Institute and in 1916 he became head of the Haeckel Archive. Schmidt was awarded the title of full Professor in 1919.
After Haeckel's death in 1920, Schmidt became his executor and director of theErnst-Haeckel-Haus at theFriedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena. Schmidt, as Haeckel before him, was also a member of theDeutsche Monistenbund, a society ofMonists. In 1920 he became its chairman and remained so until his death in 1935. Schmidt was a staunch representative of "Haeckelism" and its theories of evolutionary development. He was also editor of the journalMonistische Monatshefte. After this publication was abolished in 1933 for political reasons, Schmidt founded the journalNature and Spirit.[1]
The management and archiving of Haeckel's vast legacy in the years following his death formed the bulk of Heinrich Schmidt's work. By 1933, however, ideological and political issues increasingly became a priority. Schmidt's predominantlysocial democratic thinking gave way to a radicalnationalism then being espoused by theNazis. In this context he took up some racist views which, while extreme by today's standards, were far exceeded by the opinions of his colleaguesLudwig Plate andHans F.K. Günther.[2]
In its later editions, Schmidt's journal "Nature and Spirit" took a detour from its monistic tradition and published works oneugenics andracial hygiene byErwin Baur,Eugen Fischer andFritz Lenz. However, their attempts to reinterpret the legacy of Ernst Haeckel into aNational Socialist meaning ultimately failed.[3]
