Psychiatric genetics in Munich and Basel between 1925 and 1945: programs-practices-cooperative arrangements.

The first research institution worldwide to exclusively devote its research to psychiatric genetics was the Department of Genealogy and Demography at the German Institute for Psychiatric Research (Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Psychiatrie) in Munich, founded in 1917. In 1924, it was integrated into the Kaiser Wilhelm Society. From its foundation until the end of World War II in 1945, the department was directed by the Swiss citizen Ernst Rüdin, one of the protagonists of the racial hygiene movement in Germany.