Statens institut för rasbiologi

Statens Institut För Rasbiologi (SIFR was a Swedish institute founded in 1922 with the stated purpose of studying eugenics and human genetics. It was the world’s first of its kind. In 1958, it was replaced by the Institute for Medical Genetics (Institutionen för medicinisk genetic) and is today incorporated as a department of Uppsala University.

History

The official assignment of the Swedish institute was to study the inhabitants of the country from a racial perspective. They studied the life conditions and environmental developments of different families. They tried to explain the biological hereditary and the effect the environment has on people. They also studied mental illnesses, alcoholism and criminality. Svenska sällskapet för rashygien (Swedish Society for Eugenics) was founded in 1909 and paved the way for SIFR. Its mission statement was to study eugenics.Before and during the WWI, Svenska sällskapet för rashygien, and eugenics in general, didn’t gain ground until after the war. In 1918 the society travelled around Sweden with an exhibit called “folktyputställning” about different types of people. The same year Frithiof Lennemalm, the headmaster of Karolinska institutet proposed that the Nobel Foundation finances an institute for race biology. The Nobel committee for medicine voted unanimously in favour of the proposal. The staff of Karolinska institutet voted against it with a very thin margin (9 against 8). Instead it was proposed that the Swedish state founds and finances such an institute.