Carl Schneider (1891 – 1946)

Carl Schneider, chief physician of the Bodelschwingh'sch institutions in Bethel from 1930 to 1933, took over the renowned Heidelberg Chair of Psychiatry in the autumn of 1933. In the Heidelberg Psychiatric Hospital he also introduced work therapy for acutely ill patients. He wrote the first textbook on psychiatric therapies: »Treatment and prevention of mental illness«.

Healing and annihilation were not opposites for him: the funds that were saved by the killing of »useless« patients were to be used to treat curable patients. He was thus was an expert of »Aktion T4«. At the same time, by exploring the hereditary and non-hereditary causes of »feeble-mindedness« and »epilepsy«, he wanted to create a scientific basis for decisions regarding the selection of patients as part of the »euthanasia« campaign. With the support of the T4 headquarters, he set up a research department in the Wiesloch State Hospital and Nursing Home. After its closure, he carried out an extensive research programme on mentally handicapped children in the Heidelberg Hospital. In the years 1942 to 1944, 21 children were murdered in the children's ward of Eichberg State Hospital so that their brains could be examined in Heidelberg.

In 1946, Carl Schneider committed suicide while in custody.