Table Of ContentKathrin Braun
Biopolitics and Historic Justice
Political Science | Volume 66
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Kathrin Braun, political scientist, born in 1960, has done extensive work on the
politics of bioethics and biomedicine, as well as the politics of coming to terms
with human rights violations related to biopolitics. She received her PhD and title
of extraordinary professor from the Leibniz University Hannover and has taught
at a range of universities in Germany, the US, the UK and elsewhere. Since 2018
she has been research coordinator at the Center for Interdisciplinary Risk and In-
novation Studies (ZIRIUS) at the University of Stuttgart, Germany.
Kathrin Braun
Biopolitics and Historic Justice
Coming to Terms with the Injuries of Normality
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Contents
1 Introduction:ComingtoTermswithBiopolitics,Temporality
and Historic Justice.......................................................... 9
1.1 FromTimesBelievedLongOvercome........................................... 9
1.2 ComingtoTermswiththePresenceofthePast ................................13
1.3 BiopoliticsandtheThresholdofModernity.....................................14
1.4 BiopoliticalTemporality .......................................................18
1.5 Biopolitics,HistoricJusticeandInjuriesofNormality...........................21
1.6 OutlineoftheBook...........................................................25
2 BiopoliticsandModernity:Revisiting the Eugenics Project................... 29
2.1 AModernProject.............................................................32
2.2 EugenicsandSocialReform ..................................................35
2.3 EugenicsandtheQuestionofRace............................................ 37
2.4 WelfareEugenics.............................................................43
2.5 EugenicsandFeminism.......................................................45
2.6 BiologistDeterminismandSocialEngineering.................................48
2.7 Eugenics,ProgressandProductivism..........................................51
2.8 Conclusion...................................................................53
3 NaziSterilizationPolicy,Second-OrderInjusticeandtheStruggle
for Reparations..............................................................55
3.1 TheHereditaryHealthActanditsBiopoliticalRationality ......................60
3.2 No‘ForgottenVictims’:Non-ReparationPolicyafter1945.......................62
3.3 The1980s:TheStruggleGainsMomentum.....................................68
3.4 ReparationsastheGreaterInjustice?.........................................69
3.5 OstracizationorAnnulment................................................... 72
3.6 ComprehensiveRehabilitation? ............................................... 74
4 JusticeatLast:ThePersecutionofHomosexualMen
and the Politics of Amends .................................................. 77
4.1 “ExterminatingtheDisease”:The Nazi Persecution of Homosexual Men......... 79
4.2 NormalPersecution:Paragraph175intheFederalRepublic ...................83
4.3 BannedfromReparations..................................................... 87
4.4 RegretandReluctance........................................................90
4.5 FromInjuriesofNormalitytoSexualExceptionalism .......................... 92
4.6 Conclusion...................................................................96
5 MarginalJustice:ComingtoTermswith the Persecutionof the ‘Asocials’.... 99
5.1 ModelGermany?............................................................. 102
5.2 DoingJustice—ornot.The Performative Politics of Historic Justice.......... 103
5.3 TheNaziPersecutionofthe‘Asocials’........................................ 105
5.4 MeaningfulWorkandOrderlyLife ............................................ 108
5.5 ExcludedVictims............................................................ 109
5.6 Forgotten‘ForgottenVictims’? ................................................ 111
5.7 CommemorationBeyondtheState............................................117
5.8 Conclusion...................................................................118
5.9 Addendum ...................................................................119
6 HannahArendtandMichelFoucaulton Biopolitics,Timeand Totalitarianism 121
6.1 LifeandLabor............................................................... 123
6.2 TotalManagement........................................................... 126
6.3 Politics,LifeandModernTemporality .........................................127
6.4 ImprovingLife ...............................................................131
6.5 LivingintheInterval......................................................... 134
6.6 BeyondBiopolitics:ZurWeltKommen......................................... 136
7 IncreasingtheForcesofLife:Biopolitics,CapitalismandTime
in Marx and Foucault.........................................................141
7.1 MissingtheLink:BiopoliticsandCapitalism...................................141
7.2 BiopoliticsasBiotechnology................................................. 142
7.3 BiopoliticsasSelf-Government............................................... 144
7.4 PowerandProductivity.......................................................147
7.5 EnhancingtheForcesofLife................................................. 153
7.6 TheTimeofCapitalandBiopolitics............................................157
7.7 Conclusion.................................................................. 160
Acknowledgments................................................................ 163
ListofAbbreviations............................................................. 165
References ...................................................................... 169
1 Introduction: Coming to Terms with Biopolitics,
Temporality and Historic Justice
1.1 FromTimesBelievedLongOvercome
InJune2020,ninecitizensfiledaconstitutionalcomplaintwiththeFederal
ConstitutionalCourtinGermany.Thecomplaintwasdirectedagainstguide-
linerecommendationsissuedbytheGermanSocietyofIntensiveCarePhysi-
cianstogetherwithfurthermedicalsocietiesonthequestionofhealthcare
rationingandtreatmentinsituationsofscarceresourcesduetotheCovid-19
pandemic(DIVI2020).Whenintensivecareunitsfaceanacuteshortageof
resources,thesocietiesargued,physiciansmustdecidewhoshouldreceivein-
tensivemedicaltreatmentandwhonot.Theguidelinessuggestedcriteriafor
makingthesedecisionsandthusprioritizingsomepatientsoverothers.The
medicalsocietiesstatedthatthesedecisionsshouldnotbebasedoncriteriaof
age,socialcharacteristics,disabilityorchronicillnessbutonlyonthechances
oftreatmentsuccess.Theclaimants,however,arguedthatthecriteriaspelled
outbytheguidelinesforestablishingthechancesoftreatmentsuccess,likeor-
gandysfunctionality,frailtyalongtheClinicalFrailtyScale,neuronaldiseases
and‘prognosticallylimitedlifeexpectancy’effectivelydiscriminatedagainst
manypeoplewithdisabilities.“Thecriteriapresented,”writesthedisability
rightsorganizationAbilityWatch,whichsupportstheconstitutionalclaim,
couldthusbecomethedeathsentenceofalargenumberofdisabledpeople.
ThefactthatthepresidentofDIVIpubliclyraisesthequestionof‘whetherit
reallymakessensetointubateandventilateinanintensivecareunitpeople
ofveryoldagewhohavebeenunabletoliveontheirownforalongtimeand
whohaveseverechronicconcomitantdiseases’awakenstheworstmemories
