page_title: Robert Ritter
section_title: Methods of research
hierarchical_section_title: Robert Ritter / Career / Methods of research
context_page_description: Robert Ritter was a German "racial scientist" doctor of psychology and medicine, with a background in child psychiatry and the biology of criminality. In 1936, Ritter was appointed head of the Racial Hygiene and Demographic Biology Research Unit of Nazi Germany's Criminal Police, to establish the genealogical histories of the German "Gypsies", both Roma and Sinti, and became the "architect of the experiments Roma and Sinti were subjected to." His pseudo-scientific "research" in classifying these populations of Germany aided the Nazi government in their systematic persecution toward a goal of "racial purity".
context_section_description: The task of the Rassenhygienische und Bevolkerungsbiologische Forschungsstelle (English: Racial Hygiene and Demographic Biology Research Unit), a division of the Kriminalpolizei (Criminal Police), was to identify and categorize all Roma and Sinti people in Germany according to racial standards. Ritter, heading this organization, had a team of other racial scientists including Eva Justin, Adolf Wurth, Sophie Ehrhardt, and Ruth Kellermann.
  By 1937, the Research Unit was working with the Central Office of Reich Security, and the Reich Ministry of Interior, to travel across Germany in units to register "full-blooded" and "mixed-race" Roma or Sinti.  The units referenced church records to track individuals' genealogies.  As some of Ritter's assistants spoke Romani, they would interrogate Roma individuals who could not provide paper proof of their racial identity.  Anyone who balked was threatened with incarceration.
  Along with tracking genealogies, the units photographed their subjects, took blood samples, and made anthropometric measurements. Ritter wanted the data to prove that the Roma and Sinti populations were genetically pre-disposed to crime as a "lesser race".
caption: Ritter (right) taking blood from a woman, 1936
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