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https://doi.org/10.12759/hsr.suppl.33.2021.100-127
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The Influence of Epidemics on the Concept of the Bogeyman: Images, Ideological Origins, and Interdependencies of the Anti-Vaccination Movement; The Example of the Political Agitator Paul Arthur Förster (1844-1925)
Der Einfluss von Epidemien auf das Feindbild-Konzept: Bilder, ideologische Ursprünge und Interdependenzen der Anti-Impf-Bewegung am Beispiel des politischen Agitators Paul Arthur Förster
[journal article]
Abstract Epidemics have always deeply affected societies. They almost inevitably lead to negotiations of questions referring to identity, belonging, and foreignness. Furthermore, epidemics create bogeymen. The biographical study by Prof. Dr. Paul Arthur Förster, founder of the first German association of vac... view more
Epidemics have always deeply affected societies. They almost inevitably lead to negotiations of questions referring to identity, belonging, and foreignness. Furthermore, epidemics create bogeymen. The biographical study by Prof. Dr. Paul Arthur Förster, founder of the first German association of vaccination opponents and an enthusiastic "völkisch" and anti-Semitic agitator, stands here as a prototype for a multitude of vaccination opponents and should help us to understand what kind of influence epidemics have on the creation of bogeyman. In a second step, the question of bogeyman highlights the underlying aspects of the anti-vaccination movement. It directly leads to relating questions concerning ideological proximity of anti-vaccinism to the milieu critical of scientific medicine, with its numerous organizations of alternative medicine and its associations.... view less
Keywords
criticism; vaccination; political movement; epidemic; medicine; protest; German Reich; twentieth century; nineteenth century; ideology
Classification
Social History, Historical Social Research
Free Keywords
Anti-vaccination movement; life reform movement; anti-Semitism; Lebensreform; völkisch movement; Paul Förster
Document language
English
Publication Year
2021
Page/Pages
p. 100-127
Journal
Historical Social Research, Supplement (2021) 33
Issue topic
Epidemics and Pandemics - the Historical Perspective
ISSN
0936-6784
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed