Persistent ideas: race, ethnicity and migration background in German epidemiological and pharmaceutical research

Latest since the end of the 1980s, the classification of people by race has become discredited in German public and life sciences, largely due to critical engagement with the legacy of fascism based on eugenics or so-called ‘racial hygiene’. Nevertheless, the knowledge production about descent-associated biological and genetic differences between human groups continues, sometimes implicitly, sometimes explicitly. Using two case studies from epidemiological and pharmaceutical research, the essay analyses how human differentiations are treated in the German context. Although other concepts like ‘migration background’ and ‘ethnic group’ dominate in Germany (compared to the US, for example), these studies show a simultaneous “absent presence” of race (M’charek et al. 2014): The international category of race is hidden within biotechnical devices like e.g. the spirometer and in seemingly more neutral terms, while belief in its biological significance persists. In addition, this research-produced knowledge is less reflected upon than in contexts like the US, where categorising people by race is common in both society and science and is a recurring subject in political debate. Finally, I speculate on the reasons for and the (bio-political) functions of this, especially in the specific post-Nazi situation in Germany.