William Nussbaum Collection

William (Wilhelm) Nussbaum was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1896. His parents were Bonum and Veilchen Nussbaum (neé Kaufmann). During World War I, he worked as a military physician at a hospital for contagious diseases. For his service, he received the Iron Cross.

After the war he studied medicine and art in Munich and Berlin. He finished his undergraduate studies in 1921 in Berlin and began to focus on the natural sciences and anthropology; other interests included the history of the Jews. For his medical internship he worked at the university clinic in Frankfurt and at the Abel'schen Frauenklinik in Berlin. In 1923, his resume included membership to both the Gesellschaft für Gynäkologie und Geburtshilfe (Organization for Gynecology and Obstetricianal Aid) and the Gesellschaft für Volkshygiene (Association for People's Hygiene). Nussbaum was also an active member of the International Congress for Anthropology and Ethnology, where he worked in the subject of "female sexual hygiene." In 1929, Nussbaum married Lotte Frankfurter. They had two children, Bernhard and Michael.

William Nussbaum entered Berlin University in the winter semester of 1929, already a practicing gynecologist, to further study anthropology under the guidance of Eugen Fischer. Fischer's courses focused on race, genetics, and heredity. Nussbaum became a fervent advocate of hereditary hygiene. He believed a strong understanding of hereditary hygiene could make for a healthier population.

In 1933 Nussbaum founded Die Arbeitsgemeinschaft für jüdische Erbforschung und Eugenik (The Organization for Jewish Genetic Research and Eugenics). The name was later changed to Die Arbeitsgemeinschaft für jüdische Erbforschung und Erbpflege (The Organization for Jewish Research and Hereditary Care). Through this institute, Nussbaum examined more than 1100 German-Jews (including 300 twins) between 1933 and 1935 from an "anthropological and race" perspective, which included measuring heads and noses, checking hair and eye color, and examining and questioning their genetic ancestry. Measurements were carried out at Jewish institutions in Berlin, such as schools, hospitals, children and old age homes, and in various communities in southern Germany, including Wuerzburg, Burgkunstadt (Oberfranken), Altenkundstadt, Goeppingen, and Jebenhausen (Wuerttemberg).

William wrote a number of articles and delivered lectures on the work of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft, and on hereditary hygiene and theory. His main conclusion was that Jews had been in Germany long enough that they had mixed in genetically with the local non-Jewish population. He argued that, therefore, there was no specific "Jewish hygiene" question in Germany.

The work of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft appears generally well received by the Jewish community at the time, and was also accepted among the scientific and anthropological communities. Leo Baeck called him, "our foremost authority in the field of heredity and racial research" ("unserer ersten Autoritäten auf dem Gebiete der Erb-und Rassenforschung").

In the first years of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft the Nazi authorities approved of the organization. Letters from the Ministry of the Interior and the Gestapo show that, though not funded by the government, the organization was allowed to exist with the blessing of the Nazi administrators. But, in 1935 the Gestapo officially dissolved the organization.

In 1935, Nussbaum received an invitation from renowned anthropologist Franz Boas, who was teaching at Columbia University in New York City, to serve as a research associate. Nussbaum and his wife Lotte immigrated to New York, but they had difficulties securing a visa for their youngest son. Lotte Nussbaum traveled back and forth between both countries until Michael was able to join them in New York in 1938. Nussbaum worked at Columbia until 1940, continuing in the field of Jewish race research, and later practiced as a general physician and gynecologist.

Nussbaum presented a paper, Anthropological Studies on German Jews (1933-1934), at a 1948 conference in Brussels. Nussbaum advanced the earlier work of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft in this presentation. He stated that not only had the Jews mixed genetically into the local non-Jewish population, but in fact Jews could not be considered a separate race. Though certain physical characteristics had in the past been associated as "Jewish traits," there was no racial basis for many of these characteristics, and in fact many of these "traits" had only been stereotypes and were not actually common in the Jewish population.

Nussbaum's home in Queens was frequented by other Jewish émigrés from Germany. Many of these figures were involved with literature. In 1952, Nussbaum and his wife organized a lecture series by playwrite Julius Bab. In the following years, lectures were held by Herbert Marcus, Paul Tillich, Paul Zucker, Fritz von Unruh, and other notable individuals.

William Nussbaum himself was active as a poet and painter. In 1953, he published a collection of poems called Überfahrt. Some of his paintings were shown in 1976 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York as part of an exhibition on artwork by physicians. He also served in various local New York community and health organizations. In addition, he remained involved in the field of Anthropology, and was a member of various anthropological societies in both the United States and abroad.

Upon his retirement, William Nussbaum continued to be active. He remained interested in the medical field, once commenting that he would die a medical student. He passed away in 1985.