Jena, May 27, 2026. In front of the building at Kahlaische Straße 1, a new commemorative plaque now recalls the historical co-responsibility of the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena for Nazi racial policy. The plaque highlights the fate of the Jewish former owners as well as the pseudo-scientific work carried out in the building’s rooms during National Socialism.
- Event: Inauguration of a commemorative plaque on Nazi racial ideology
- Location: Kahlaische Straße 1, 07745 Jena (View on Google Maps)
- Date: Wednesday, May 27, 2026
- Project partners: Students of the UniverSaale school, apl. Prof. Uwe Hoßfeld (FSU Jena)
Commemorating the Behrendt family and clarifying the university’s past
The building in Kahlaische Straße had been owned by the Jewish merchant family Behrendt since 1912. In the course of the National Socialist dictatorship and the associated systematic exclusion and expropriation of Jewish citizens, the family lost their property. Subsequently, several university institutes moved into the building, playing a central role in the racial research and racial policy of the Nazi regime. Under the guise of science, pseudo-scientific theories were developed here that contributed to the legitimation of the National Socialist policy of extermination.
Student engagement in “Klang der Stolpersteine”
The realization of this memorial sign is largely due to the initiative of students from the Jena school UniverSaale. As part of the city’s commemorative project “Klang der Stolpersteine”, the young people dealt intensively with the history of the house and developed the text for the plaque. The school project was scientifically supported and accompanied by apl. Prof. Uwe Hoßfeld from the Biology Didactics working group at the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena.
With the ceremonial unveiling on Wednesday, another building block was laid to firmly anchor historical educational work in the public space of the city of Jena. The plaque is intended to encourage passers-by in their daily lives to critically engage with the historical responsibility of science and the crimes of National Socialism.
🏛️ History & Building: Nazi racial research in Jena
The Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena took an inglorious pioneering role in establishing Nazi racial hygiene during the National Socialist era. As early as 1930, the world’s first institute for “Human Heredity and Racial Hygiene” was founded here under the direction of the later rector and convinced National Socialist Karl Astel. The “Klang der Stolpersteine” project, which has been supported by civic engagement in Jena for many years, links historical reappraisal with cultural remembrance. Every year in November and through permanent educational initiatives, it encourages people to make the traces of Jewish life in the city visible and to critically question the structures of the perpetrators.
Source:
Gedenktafel erinnert an NS-Rassenlehre
Transparency note: This article was created automatically, editorially reviewed, and expanded with AI support.