Jon Harden In Demaray 150 Thursday night, California State University's Richard Weikart examines the role of Darwinism in Germany during the rise of Hitler.

Adolf Hitler is one of the most notorious figures of the 20th century, remembered for not only for being the leader of the chaos that sparked World War II, but also for his ideologies about human life.

In an attempt to explain these ideas, author and Professor of History Dr. Richard Weikart spoke in front of a packed house in Demaray Hall 150 Thursday, discussing his book "From Darwin to Hitler: Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics and Racism in Germany," which connects the ideas of Darwinism with the ideals of the Nazi party in the 1930s and 1940s.

Weikart, who teaches at California State University in Stanislaus, stated that Darwin's basic, fundamental ideas such as natural selection and survival of the fittest influenced many areas of thought, especially those ethical thoughts in pre-WWII Germany and other areas of Western society.

"The historical impact of (Darwinist) ideas on Western culture has been immense," he said in the beginning of his address Thursday, and continued by commenting that one of the unintended consequences of these theories has been to devalue human life throughout history.

The historian, who is also the author of two other books, included a list of the implications to the statement that Darwinism devalued life, which has been controversial among many Darwinian scholars who deny that Darwinism has any moral implications, but instead say the theories only apply to the scientific arena.

One implication that was stressed was the idea of human struggle for existence, which Weikart believed promoted inequality in societies and among races. He explained that the idea that the strong will survive while the weaker individuals die out has not only let people discount the loss of life, but to devalue it all together.

He used the example of the Native Americans being wiped out in the United States region as support, saying that people had historically rationalized their death by saying that it was all a part of natural selection and that the stronger race prevailed. This theory in turn, Weikart argued, made deaths such as these a normal and ordinary part of human existence rather than the tragedies they should have been.

Such ideas played into Hitler's own theories about human life, Weikart argued. Hitler explicitly used Darwinian terminology in his manifesto "Mein Kampf" in reference to evolution and also used Darwinian ideals to "support his sterilization program instituted in 1934 and later racial extermination of the Jewish race."

According to the historians of the period, Weikart stated to the mixed audience of students and adults from the community, "It is completely uncontroversial to say that Hitler was influenced by the Darwinian movement."

Weikart stated that the initial idea for his study on Darwin and Hitler came from his own students at the university in a seminar to look at the relationship between Darwin, religion, and society. After the publication of "From Darwin to Hitler," Weikart plans to possibly write another book on the subject, this time delving more deeply into Hitler's ethics.

The speech, which prompted several audible responses from the audience in support of Weikart's views, was the second in a yearlong series of science and public policy presentations sponsored by SPU's department of political science and geography. Political Science Associate Professor John West announced the dates for the third installment in the series, which will feature author William Dempsky on May 24.