Editing Konrad Lorenz (section)

== Involvement with Nazism ==
=== Nazism ===
Lorenz joined the [[National Socialist German Workers Party|Nazi Party]] in 1938 and accepted a university chair under the [[Nazi Germany|Nazi regime]]. In his application for party membership he wrote, "I'm able to say that my whole scientific work is devoted to the ideas of the [[Nazism|National Socialists]]." His publications during that time led in later years to allegations that his scientific work had been contaminated by Nazi sympathies. His published writing during the Nazi period included support for Nazi ideas of "[[racial hygiene]]" couched in [[pseudoscience|pseudoscientific]] metaphors.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Eisenberg |first=L. |year=2005 |title=Which Image for Lorenz? |journal=[[American Journal of Psychiatry]] |volume=162 |issue=9 |page=1760 |pmid=16135651 |doi=10.1176/appi.ajp.162.9.1760 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Sax |first=Boria |chapter=Konrad Lorenz and the Mythology of Science |title=What Are Animals to Us? Approaches from Science, Religion, Folklore, Literature and Art |editor-first=Dave |editor-last=Aftandilian |location=Knoxville |publisher=[[U. of Tennessee Press]] |year=2007 |pages=269–276 |isbn=978-1-57233-472-4 |display-editors=etal}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Sax |first=Boria | author-link = Boria Sax|title=What is a 'Jewish Dog'?: Konrad Z. Lorenz and the Cult of Wildness |journal=[[Society and Animals]] |volume=5 |issue=1 |year=1997 |pages=3–21 |doi=10.1163/156853097X00196 }}</ref><ref>Föger, B., & Taschwer, K. (2001). Die andere Seite des Spiegels: Konrad Lorenz und der Nationalsozialismus. Czernin-Verlag.</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Kalikow | first1 = T. J. | year = 1983 | title = Konrad Lorenz's ethological theory: Explanation and ideology, 1938–1943 | journal = Journal of the History of Biology | volume = 16 | issue = 1| pages = 39–73 | doi=10.1007/bf00186675| pmid = 11611248 | s2cid = 26788185 }}</ref><ref>Kalikow, T. J. (1978). Konrad Lorenz's "brown past": A reply to Alec Nisbett.</ref>

In his autobiography, Lorenz wrote:
<blockquote>The same individual geese on which we conducted these experiments, first aroused my interest in the process of domestication. They were F1 hybrids of wild Greylags and domestic geese and they showed surprising deviations from the normal social and sexual behaviour of the wild birds. I realised that an overpowering increase in the drives of feeding as well as of copulation and a waning of more differentiated social instincts is characteristic of very many domestic animals. I was frightened – as I still am – by the thought that analogous genetical processes of deterioration may be at work with civilized humanity. Moved by this fear, I did a very ill-advised thing soon after the Germans had invaded Austria: I wrote about the dangers of domestication and, in order to be understood, I couched my writing in the worst of nazi-terminology. I do not want to extenuate this action. I did, indeed, believe that some good might come of the new rulers. The precedent narrow-minded catholic regime in Austria induced better and more intelligent men than I was to cherish this naive hope. Practically all my friends and teachers did so, including my own father who certainly was a kindly and humane man. None of us as much as suspected that the word "selection", when used by these rulers, meant murder. I regret those writings not so much for the undeniable discredit they reflect on my person as for their effect of hampering the future recognition of the dangers of domestication.<ref name="Nobelprize.org"/></blockquote>
{{Eugenics sidebar}}
After the war, Lorenz denied having been a party member,<ref>{{Cite web|last=World Jewish Congress|date=18 December 2015|title=Late Austrian scientist Konrad Lorenz stripped of doctorate for lying about Nazi past|url=https://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/news/late-austrian-scientist-konrad-lorenz-stripped-of-doctorate-for-lying-about-nazi-past-12-5-2015|access-date=20 June 2021|website=World Jewish Congress|language=EN}}</ref> until his membership application was made public; and he denied having known the extent of the genocide, despite his position as a psychologist in the [[Office of Racial Policy]].<ref>Klopfer 1994; Deichmann 1992.</ref> This practice of denial was common practice in postwar Austria, as it allowed Nazi-involved academics to return to their posts after WWII and the postwar administration was all too happy not to ask too many questions.<ref>Pfeffer & Pfeffer. 2014. Glimpflich entnazifiziert [Softly denazified]: Die Universität Wien nach dem 2. Weltkrieg. Vienna U Press.</ref> These rehirings included Nazi functionaries (e.g. [[Eberhard Kranzmayer]], [[Richard Wolfram]]), and very early NSDAP members (e.g. [[Otto Höfler]]), who were thus able to influence entire fields.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dollinger |first=Stefan |date=2024-08-07 |title=Eberhard Kranzmayer's dovetailing with Nazism: His fascist years and the 'One Standard German Axiom (OSGA)' |journal=Discourse & Society |volume=36 |issue=2 |pages=147–179 |language=en |doi=10.1177/09579265241259094 |issn=0957-9265|doi-access=free }}</ref> Lorenz, for instance, was shown to have made [[anti-Semitic]] jokes on 'Jewish characteristics' in letters to his mentor Heinroth.<ref>Klopfer 1994.</ref>  In 2015, the [[University of Salzburg]] posthumously rescinded an honorary doctorate awarded to Lorenz in 1983, citing his party membership and his assertions in his application that he was "always a National Socialist", and that his work "stands to serve National Socialist thought".  The university also accused him of using his work to spread "basic elements of the racist ideology of National Socialism".<ref>[https://www.usnews.com/news/science/news/articles/2015-12-17/austrian-university-strips-nobel-prize-winner-of-honors Anonymous, "Austrian university strips Nobel Prize winner Konrad Lorenz of doctorate due to Nazi past", Associated Press, 17 December 2015.]</ref><ref name="FAZ 2015">{{cite news |title=Uni Salzburg entzieht Konrad Lorenz die Ehrendoktorwürde |url=https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/titel-erschlichen-uni-salzburg-entzieht-konrad-lorenz-die-ehrendoktorwuerde-13973531.html |access-date=19 December 2015 |publisher=Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) |date=18 December 2015}}</ref>

=== Ecology ===
During the final years of his life, Lorenz supported the fledgling [[Austrian Green Party]] and in 1984 became the figurehead of the Konrad Lorenz [[Referendum|Volksbegehren]], a grass-roots movement that was formed to prevent the building of a [[power plant]] at the [[Danube]] near [[Hainburg an der Donau]] and thus the destruction of the surrounding woodland.