Ludwig Ferdinand Clauß was a German psychologist and theorist. He came from Offenburg and researched the connection between ‘races’ and their ‘character traits’. He assumed that races had different souls. In 1941, he was appointed to the ‘Chair of Racial Studies and Racial Policy’ in Poznan. However, this was prevented due to accusations of violating the ‘Nuremberg Race Laws’ – Clauß had a love affair with his Jewish colleague Margarete Landé. During a research trip, he converted to Islam. After his dismissal as a civil servant in 1943, he hid his partner until the end of the war, thus saving her from death. At the same time, he made a career in the SS.
After the war, he undertook many research trips. He died in 1974, but in 1981 the State of Israel posthumously declared Clauß a ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ for saving Margarete Landé. He was stripped of this honour 15 years later, as his contributions to ‘racial hygiene’ had become known.
