Agnes Bluhm

Agnes Bluhm (9 January 1862 – 12 November 1943) was a German physician, eugenicist, and winner of a Goethe medal. She believed that German women could improve the race using eugenics and forced sterilisation. She wrote that the "female psyche" made her gender predisposed towards working for "racial hygiene".

Life Bluhm was born in Constantinople in 1862. She was trained as a medical doctor and won prizes for her research. She believed that German women could improve the race using eugenics. While a student, she met Friedrich Nietzsche and became part of the students in his circle, which included Eva Corell, Meta von Salis, Resa von Schirnhofer and Clara Willdenow.

In 1886 she fell in love with Alfred Ploetz who was already involved with another scientist named Pauline Rüdin. They became involved whilst conducting dissection and they decided to get married early in 1887. Ploetz was also seeing an American named Mary Sherwood who was studying hypnotism. Ploetz returned to Rüdin in 1888 and married her. Bluhm however kept Ploetz as a close friend throughout her life and they both shared similar views on racial purity and the benefits of eugenics.

Bluhm became the third female doctor in Berlin and she joined two fellow Zurich trained doctors to staff a clinic for poor women there in 1890. She joined the Racial Hygiene Society in 1906.

Bluhm died in Beelitz, Germany, in 1943, aged 81.