{{Short description|American eugenicist, entrepreneur, land developer, philanthropist, conservationist}} {{Infobox person | name = Charles Goethe | image = File:Charles_Goethe.jpeg | imagesize = | known_for = founder of [[Eugenics Society of Northern California]] and the [[California State University, Sacramento]] | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1875|3|28|mf=y}} | birth_place = [[Sacramento, California]], U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1966|7|10|1875|3|28}} | death_place = [[Sacramento, California]], U.S. | resting_place = | spouse = Mary Glide | children = | alma_mater = | occupation = [[Eugenics in the United States|Eugenicist]] | signature = }}
'''Charles Matthias Goethe''' (March 28, 1875 – July 10, 1966)<ref name="cshpe">{{cite web|url=http://www.csus.edu/cshpe/eugenics/goethe.html|title=Eugenics in California: Charles Matthias Goethe|last=Burke|first=Chloe|publisher=Center for Science, History, Policy and Ethics, California State University, Sacramento|access-date=21 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151217175430/http://www.csus.edu/cshpe/eugenics/goethe.html|archive-date=2015-12-17|url-status=dead}}</ref> was an American [[Eugenics|eugenicist]], [[entrepreneur]], [[land developer]], [[philanthropist]], [[conservation movement|conservationist]], founder of the [[Eugenics Society of Northern California]], and a [[wiktionary:native|native]] and lifelong resident of [[Sacramento, California]].
==Early life== Charles M. Goethe was born on March 28, 1875, in Sacramento, California.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Eugenic Nation|last=Minna|first=Alexandra|publisher=University of California Press|year=2016|pages=69–165}}</ref> He pronounced his last name as GAY-tee.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Burke|first1=Chloe S.|last2=Castaneda|first2=Christopher J.|date=2007|title=The Public and Private History of Eugenics: An Introduction|journal=The Public Historian|volume=29|issue=3|pages=5–17|doi=10.1525/tph.2007.29.3.5|pmid=18175448 }}</ref> Goethe's grandparents had immigrated to California from Germany in the 1870s.<ref name=":0" /> Charles’ father was interested in agriculture and wild life. Both men also pursued careers in real estate as Charles made most of his money as a real estate broker.<ref name=":0" /> Charles had passed the bar exam but did not pursue a career in law.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|author1-link=Anthony Platt|last=Platt|first=Tony|date=2005|title=Engaging the Past: Charles M. Goethe, American Eugenics, and Sacramento State University|jstor=29768305|journal=Social Justice|volume=32|issue=2 (100) |pages=17–33}}</ref>
As a child, Charles was interested in agriculture, biology, and the human body. In his diary, he kept a record of his diet and exercise, specifically noting days in which his regimen was not sufficient.<ref name=":0" /> Goethe's additional childhood interest in various plants and animals evolved as he pressed and catalogued his findings.<ref name=":0" /> His ideas concerning nature tied into his later views on eugenics, as he connected the evolution of nature to heredity.<ref name=":0" /> Goethe explained in his memoir ''Seeking to Serve'' that his original interest in eugenics began as a child.<ref name=":0" />
==Nature guide movement==
Goethe (<small>German pronunciation: {{IPA|de|ˈɡøːtə|}} and occasionally incorrectly as "Gaytee" </small>) wrote admiringly of [[California]]’s [[California Gold Rush#Forty-niners|Forty-Niners]], the State’s [[Sequoiadendron giganteum|giant redwood trees]], and loved the outdoors. Goethe worked with organizations including the Sierra Club and the Audubon Society.<ref name=":0" /> He and his wife have been called "The father and mother of the Nature Guide Movement,' initiating interpretive programs with the U.S. [[National Park Service]].<ref>[http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/yosemite_nature_notes/37/37-7.pdf "The World's Largest Summer Camp," ''Yosemite Nature Notes'' 37(7):89-94 (July 1958) by Charles M. Goethe]. Traces the origin of nature guiding in National Parks; reprinted from ''Nature Magazine''</ref> The National Park Service made Goethe the “Honorary Chief Naturalist” for his work in this field.<ref name=":0" /> This was motivated by their experience with nature programs in Europe and desire to educate visitors in the U.S. National Parks.<ref>[http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/yosemite_nature_notes/39/39-7.pdf "Nature Study in National Parks Interpretive Movement," ''Yosemite Nature Notes'' 39(7):156-158 (July 1960) by Charles M. Goethe]</ref> His motto was "Learn to Read the Trail-side as a Book." Goethe encouraged the general public to educate themselves about the evolution of nature as well, personally spending time dedicated to learning about different plants and animals.<ref name=":0" /> He later introduced the Boy Scouts to Sacramento, due to his interest in furthering biological education for children.<ref name=":0" /> As an adult, Goethe was a conservationist who worked to implement park rangers into national parks.<ref name=":0" />
==Founder of Sacramento State College==
Goethe founded [[California State University, Sacramento]] (Sacramento State College at the time), which in turn treated Goethe with the reverence of a [[founding father]], appointed him chairman of the university's advisory board, dedicated the [[Goethe Arboretum]] to him in 1961, and organized an elaborate gala and 'national recognition day' to mark his 90th birthday in 1965, when he received letters of appreciation – solicited by his friends at CSUS – from the president of the [[Nature Conservancy]], then-Governor [[Pat Brown|Edmund G. Brown]], and then-President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]. As a result, in 1963, Goethe changed his will to make CSUS his primary [[beneficiary]], bequeathing his residence, eugenics library, papers, and $640,000 to the university.<ref name="SacBee.com">{{cite news|url=http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/v-print/story/8363132p-9292886c.html|publisher=The Sacramento Bee|title=Curious historical bedfellows: Sac State and its racist benefactor: After receiving honors aplenty from university, C. M. Goethe left most of his big estate to it|last=Platt|first=Tony|date=February 29, 2004|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040701184957/http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/v-print/story/8363132p-9292886c.html|archive-date=1 July 2004|access-date=21 April 2016}}</ref>
When Goethe died, CSUS received the largest share of his $24 million estate.
==Eugenics controversy== {{Eugenics sidebar}} Charles Goethe worked near Arizona, focusing on health conditions in the 1920s.<ref name=":0" /> Following his work in Arizona, Goethe desired to understand “the extent of the mestizo peril to the American ‘seed stock.'"<ref name=":0" /> Essentially, Goethe was determined to establish the threat of [[Mexicans]] to the American population, in a eugenic sense. As a result, Goethe created the Immigration Study Commission.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> With the efforts of his organization, Goethe aimed to ban Mexican entry into the United States of America. In addition, Goethe portrayed Mexicans as carriers of different diseases and germs. While he believed that certain Mexicans could appear as free of disease, they could in fact be silent carriers due to their health practices.<ref name=":0" /> His ideas contributed to 1920s perceptions that the [[melting pot|American melting pot]] had begun to integrate germs from certain races, specifically the Mexican race.<ref name=":0" />
Goethe was a strong proponent of positive eugenics.<ref name=":1" /> His mentor was eugenicist [[Madison Grant]], with whom he shared strong anti-immigrant beliefs. Like Grant, Goethe promoted his anti-immigrant and racist ideas through pamphlets and other tracts, and he lobbied with politicians and other bureaucrats.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Allen|first=Garland E.|date=2013|title='Culling the Herd': Eugenics and the Conservation Movement in the United States, 1900-1940|journal=Journal of the History of Biology|volume=46|issue=1 |pages=31–72|doi=10.1007/s10739-011-9317-1 |pmid=22411125 |s2cid=24954308 |url=https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=bio_facpubs |url-access=subscription}}</ref> Goethe created tiny pamphlets that he distributed to explain his beliefs concerning specific ethnic groups.<ref name=":0" /> In these booklets, he explained the importance of family planning and eugenic practices to ensure the superiority of certain races. He invested nearly 1 million dollars to produce and distribute these pamphlets to influence public perceptions.<ref name=":0" /> In addition to investing in these booklets, Goethe also invested in research for plant and biological genetics.<ref name=":0" />
Goethe also recommended [[compulsory sterilization]] of the 'socially unfit', opposed [[immigration]], and praised [[Germany|German]] scientists who used a comprehensive sterilization program to 'purify' the [[Aryan race]] before the outbreak of [[World War II]]. Goethe also funded anti-[[Asian people|Asian]] campaigns, praised the [[Nazis]] before and after World War II, and practiced [[discrimination]] in his business dealings, refusing to sell real estate to Mexicans and Asians.
Goethe believed a variety of social successes (wealth, [[leadership]], intellectual discoveries) and social problems ([[poverty]], [[illegitimacy]], [[crime]] and [[mental illness]]) could be traced to inherited biological attributes associated with '[[Race (classification of human beings)|racial]] [[temperament]]'.
Working with the [[Human Betterment Foundation]] in [[Pasadena, California]], Goethe lobbied the State to restrict immigration from [[Mexico]] and carry out [[Compulsory sterilization|involuntary sterilizations]] of mostly poor women, defined as '[[feeble-minded]]' or 'socially inadequate' by medical authorities between 1909 and the 1960s.<ref name="SacBee.com" /><ref name="NewsReview.com">{{cite news |url=http://www.newsreview.com/issues/sacto/2004-02-19/news.asp |title=Darkness on the edge of campus |first=Chrisanne |last=Beckner |work=[[Sacramento News and Review]] |date=February 19, 2004 |access-date=2005-06-07 |archive-date=2005-04-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050408195517/http://www.newsreview.com/issues/sacto/2004-02-19/news.asp |url-status=dead }}</ref>
Goethe was also involved in the publication of multiple journals in which he expressed his views on eugenics. Goethe was involved with the journal ''Survey Graphic'', serving as a member of the council. The journal had published information about typhus quarantines in Mexico in both 1916 and 1917.<ref name=":0" /> In addition to ''Survey Graphic'', Goethe was also featured in the journal ''Eugenics'' and explained his beliefs that Mexicans were the 'dirt of society'.<ref name=":0" /> In the journal from the American Eugenics Society, he explained that Mexicans were as low as Negros, and did not understand basic health rules, but also resisted healthy practices.<ref name=":0" /> In his articles, Goethe also explained that Mexicans and [[Southern Europe|South Europeans]] were responsible for stealing jobs from Americans and introducing germs to the people.<ref name=":0" />
Upon return from a trip to Germany 1934, which at the time was sterilizing over 5,000 citizens per month, Goethe reportedly told a fellow eugenicist, "You will be interested to know that your work has played a powerful part in shaping the opinions of the group of intellectuals who are behind [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] in this epoch-making program. Everywhere I sensed that their opinions have been tremendously stimulated by American thought...I want you, my dear friend, to carry this thought with you for the rest of your life, that you have really jolted into action a great government of 60 million people."<ref name="NewsReview.com"/> The [[Nazi eugenics]] movement eventually escalated to become [[The Holocaust]], which claimed the lives of well over 10 million 'undesirables', including 6 million Jews.
In Sacramento, during Goethe's life, the advocacy of [[eugenics]], the social [[philosophy]] of attempting to 'improve' the human population by [[artificial selection]], was considered a [[progressivism|progressive]] issue. Though it was opposed by many scientists who thought the understanding of human heredity was too shallow to create solid policy, and by religious leaders who opposed birth control of any form, in the years after the Holocaust it was not considered to be as radical as it is today.<ref name="NewsReview.com"/> Around 20,000 patients in California State [[psychiatric hospital]] system were sterilized with minimal or non-existent [[consent]] given between 1909 and 1950, when the law went into general disuse before its repeal in the 1960s. A favorable report by [[Human Betterment Foundation]] workers [[E.S. Gosney]] and [[Paul B. Popenoe]], touting the results of the sterilizations in California, was published in the late 1920s, which in turn was often cited by the Nazi government as evidence wide-reaching sterilization programs were feasible and humane.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20031202033357/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/11/09/ING9C2QSKB1.DTL SFGate.com] - 'Eugenics and the Nazis -- the California connection', Edwin Black, [[San Francisco Chronicle]] (November 9, 2003)</ref> When Nazi administrators went on trial for [[war crime]]s in [[Nuremberg]] after World War II, they justified their mass sterilizations by pointing at the [[United States]] as their inspiration.
CSUS attempted to name a new [[science]] building after him in 1965, but that effort was rebuffed by students and teachers.<ref name="SacBee.com" /> In 2005, the university changed the name of its arboretum and botanic garden from the Charles M. Goethe Arboretum to the University Arboretum without fanfare because of renewed attention to Goethe's virulently racist views, praise of Nazi Germany, and advocacy for eugenics.
On June 21, 2007, the school board of the [[Sacramento City Unified School District]] voted to rename the "Charles M. Goethe Middle School" to the "Rosa Parks Middle School".<ref>[http://www.news10.net/display_story.aspx?storyid=29411 News10.net - Search Results<!-- Bot generated title -->]{{Dead link|date=September 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
On January 29, 2008, the [[Sacramento County Board of Supervisors]] stripped his name from one of Sacramento County's busiest parks.<ref>[http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/672624.html News - Goethe name is gone from park - sacbee.com<!-- Bot generated title -->]{{dead link|date=October 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> On April 25, 2008, the Sacramento Bee reported that, with a nod from Internet voters and the county parks commission, the park will be renamed River Bend Park.<ref>[http://www.sacbee.com/749/story/890474.html - River Bend favored as new name for Goethe Park - sacbee.com<!-- Bot generated title -->]{{dead link|date=October 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>
==Personal life== Charles Goethe married Mary Glide in 1903.<ref name=":0" /> Glide came from a wealthy family and Goethe attempted to court Mary nine times before she accepted his offer.<ref name=":0" /> According to Goethe, his wife Mary had refused his proposals since she feared that he was solely interested in her wealth. In addition, she rejected his attempts due to the fact that she was struggling with infertility.<ref name=":0" /> The Goethes owned multiple ranches and invested money in the stock market, becoming a wealthy family.<ref name=":0" /> At the time of her death in 1946, Mary's estate was worth $1.5 million.<ref name=":0" /> Her husband, Charles Goethe, had an estate worth $24 million when he died on July 10, 1966.<ref name=":0" /> Charles Goethe did not have any children, presumably due to Mary's infertility.{{citation needed|date=August 2017}}
==Books== *[https://archive.org/stream/jstor-6310/6310#page/n1/mode/2up ''Manuelito of the Red Zerape''] by C. M. Goethe
==See also== * [[Julia Morgan House|Goethe House]] * [[Eugenics in the United States]]
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [http://www.statehornet.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/02/04/420428f1f08c3?in_archive=1 StateHornet.com]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} - 'Online petition seeks to change name of arboretum', David Martin Olson, ''[[State Hornet]]'' (February 4, 2005) * [https://archive.today/20070217200455/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-741737,00.html TimesOnline.co.uk] - 'Liberal California confronts years of forced sterilisation', Chris Ayres, ''[[The Sunday Times (UK)|Sunday Times]]'' (July 11, 2003) * '[https://web.archive.org/web/20070217034528/http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/123963.html School to erase Goethe name? Staffers say honoring man with racist views insults the students.]', Dorothy Korber, "[[The Sacramento Bee]]" (February 15, 2007) * '[https://web.archive.org/web/20070303094259/http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/130884.html Ugly side of philanthropist divides (California State University, Sacramento)]', Eric Stern, Bee Staff Writer, "[[The Sacramento Bee]]" (March 1, 2007) * '[https://web.archive.org/web/20070305051445/http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/131490.html Goethe recalled fondly by some]', Eric Stern, Bee Staff Writer, "[[The Sacramento Bee]]" (March 2, 2007)
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goethe, Charles}} [[Category:1875 births]] [[Category:1966 deaths]] [[Category:American Nazis]] [[Category:American neo-Nazis]] [[Category:American philanthropists]] [[Category:American eugenicists]] [[Category:American white nationalists]] [[Category:Businesspeople from Sacramento, California]] [[Category:Activists from Sacramento, California]]