Home / Birthday profiles / Alfred Ploetz
Portrait of Alfred Ploetz

Birthday profile

Alfred Ploetz

Alfred Ploetz, German physician, biologist, and eugenicist (died 1940)

Find birthday twinsOpen interactive profile
Born
August 22, 1860
Died
March 20, 1940
Zodiac sign
Leo
Birth year
1860

About Alfred Ploetz

Alfred Ploetz was a German physician, biologist, Social Darwinist, and eugenicist known for coining the term racial hygiene (Rassenhygiene), a form of eugenics, and for promoting the concept in Germany. In Gerhart Hauptmann's drama Vor Sonnenaufgang ("Before Sunrise"), which was first performed on 20 October 1889 in Berlin, the key figure of the journalist Loth was based on Ploetz. Ploetz first proposed the theory of racial hygiene (race-based eugenics) in his "Racial Hygiene Basics" (Grundlinien einer Rassenhygiene) in 1895. Alfred Ploetz (22 August 1860 – 20 March 1940) was a German physician, biologist, Social Darwinist, and eugenicist known for coining the term racial hygiene (Rassenhygiene), a form of eugenics, and for promoting the concept in Germany.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Alfred Ploetz timeline

  1. Alfred Ploetz (22 August 1860 – 20 March 1940) was a German physician, biologist, Social Darwinist, and eugenicist known for coining the term racial hygiene (Rassenhygiene), a form of eugenics, and for promoting the concept in Germany.
  2. In Gerhart Hauptmann's drama Vor Sonnenaufgang ("Before Sunrise"), which was first performed on 20 October 1889 in Berlin, the key figure of the journalist Loth was based on Ploetz.
  3. Ploetz first proposed the theory of racial hygiene (race-based eugenics) in his "Racial Hygiene Basics" (Grundlinien einer Rassenhygiene) in 1895.

The world when Alfred Ploetz was born

Alfred Ploetz was born in 1860. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Headlines and milestones

  • Top headlineAbraham Lincoln elected — South Carolina secedes
  • Technology milestonePony Express mail service begins
  • World population~1.4B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderJames Buchanan
  • U.S. population31.4M

1860 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Alfred Ploetz's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure18602026
Population31.4M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.