Editing Hans Asperger - Grokipedia (section)

=== Professional Adaptations Post-Anschluss (1938) ===

Following Austria's annexation by Nazi Germany on March 12, 1938, Hans Asperger swiftly aligned his professional activities with the new regime to secure his position at the Vienna University Children's Clinic, where he had led the Heilpädagogik ward since 1935. In April 1938, he joined the Deutsche Arbeitsfront (DAF), the Nazi-controlled labor front, and in May 1938, became a member of the Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt (NSV), the regime's welfare organization. By June 1938, he applied for candidacy in the Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Ärztebund (NSDÄB), the Nazi physicians' league, though he never joined the NSDAP itself. These affiliations, typical for professionals aiming to retain academic and clinical roles amid purges of non-conformists, enabled continuity in his pediatric work.<ref name="Czech2018" />

Asperger's publications and official correspondence reflected this adaptation, incorporating endorsements of Nazi racial hygiene and public health policies. His October 1938 lecture, "Das psychisch abnorme Kind" ("The Mentally Abnormal Child"), published in the Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift, praised the regime's emphasis on preventive medicine and hereditary health, while introducing the term "autistic psychopathy" for children exhibiting social and behavioral deviations. He began signing diagnostic reports and letters with "Heil Hitler" from 1938 onward and committed to supporting Hitler Youth initiatives. In May 1938, he was appointed an expert witness for the Vienna Juvenile Court, enhancing his influence in child welfare assessments under Nazi legal frameworks.<ref name="Czech2018" />

These changes facilitated further professional advancement; by October 1940, Asperger assumed a part-time role at Vienna's Main Health Office as a consultant for "abnormal children," integrating into the regime's administrative apparatus for youth evaluation.<ref name="Czech2018" /> While some analyses portray these steps as pragmatic survival tactics amid ideological conformity pressures, archival records indicate deliberate alignment with eugenic principles to protect his research agenda on child psychology. This positioning allowed him to maintain clinic leadership and achieve habilitation as a university lecturer in 1943.<ref name="Czech2018" /><ref name="Falk2019" />