# Max de Crinis

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{{Short description|German psychiatrist (1889–1945)}}{{Infobox person
| name               = Max de Crinis
| birth_name         = Maximinus Friedrich Alexander de Crinis
| birth_date         = 29 May 1889
| birth_place        = [Ehrenhausen](/source/Ehrenhausen), [Austria](/source/Austria)
| death_date         = 2 May 1945 (aged 55)
| death_place        = [Stahnsdorf](/source/Stahnsdorf), [Nazi Germany](/source/Nazi_Germany)
| death_cause        = [Suicide](/source/Suicide) by [cyanide poisoning](/source/cyanide_poisoning)
}}

Professor '''Maximinus Friedrich Alexander de Crinis''' (29 May 1889 – 2 May 1945) held a chair in [psychiatry](/source/psychiatry) in [Cologne](/source/Cologne) and at [Charité](/source/Charit%C3%A9) in [Berlin](/source/Berlin), and was a medical expert for the [Action T4](/source/Action_T4) Euthanasia Program who wrote the [Euthanasia Decree](/source/Euthanasia_Decree), signed by [Adolf Hitler](/source/Adolf_Hitler) on 20 September 1939.

Crinis was born in [Ehrenhausen](/source/Ehrenhausen) near [Graz](/source/Graz). As an Austrian, he joined the [Nazi Party](/source/Nazi_Party) in 1931. Not only was de Crinis a high-ranking [SS](/source/SS) member,<ref name="Woywoodt2010">{{cite journal |last1=Woywodt |first1=A |last2=Lefrak |first2=S |last3=Matteson |first3=E |title=Tainted eponyms in medicine: the "Clara" cell joins the list |journal=The European Respiratory Journal |date=October 2010 |volume=36 |issue=4 |pages=706–8 |doi=10.1183/09031936.00046110 |pmid=20889455|type=Review|doi-access=free }}</ref> he was the most outspoken and influential Nazi in [German](/source/Germans) psychiatry, a psychiatric consultant at the highest level of the regime. He was involved in the [Venlo Incident](/source/Venlo_Incident) in November 1939 under the alias Colonel Martini. De Crinis became medical director of the Ministry of Education in 1941. He was also a director of the European League for Mental Hygiene. Furthermore, he politically supported fellow Nazi [Max Clara](/source/Max_Clara)'s attempts to obtain professorship at the [University of Leipzig](/source/University_of_Leipzig).<ref name="Woywoodt2010"/>

According to [Heinz Guderian](/source/Heinz_Guderian), Dr De Crinis was the first doctor to correctly diagnose Hitler's malady as being [Parkinson's disease](/source/Parkinson's_disease).<ref>{{Cite book|last=Guderian|first=Heinz|title=Panzer Leader|publisher=Da Capo Press|year=1996|isbn=0-306-81101-4|pages=443}}</ref> The diagnosis made in early 1945 was kept secret. On 1 May 1945, after [killing his family](/source/Mass_suicides_in_Nazi_Germany) with [potassium cyanide](/source/potassium_cyanide), de Crinis took his own life in [Stahnsdorf](/source/Stahnsdorf) near [Berlin](/source/Berlin), by [taking a cyanide tablet himself](/source/Suicide_pill).

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* [http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=92789 Photograph at Axis History Forum]
* [Psychiatrists: The Men Behind Hitler](/source/Psychiatrists%3A_The_Men_Behind_Hitler) by Roeder, Kubillus and Burwell {{ISBN|0-9648909-1-7}}
* Geoffrey Cocks: ''Psychotherapy in the Third Reich: The Göring Institute'' (2nd ed), Oxford University Press, New York, 1985 ({{ISBN|0195034619}})
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crinis, Max de}}
Category:1889 births
Category:1945 suicides
Category:1945 deaths
Category:Burials at Stahnsdorf South-Western Cemetery
Category:Austrian psychiatrists
Category:Medical doctors of the Charité
Category:Austrian eugenicists
Category:Austrian mass murderers
Category:Austrian Nazis
Category:Austrian war criminals
Category:Psychiatrists in the Nazi Party
Category:SS-Standartenführer
Category:History of psychiatry
Category:Aktion T4 personnel
Category:Holocaust perpetrators in Germany
Category:Nazis who died by suicide in Nazi Germany
Category:Suicides by cyanide poisoning
Category:Joint suicides by Nazis
Category:20th-century Freikorps personnel
Category:Poisoners
Category:20th-century Austrian medical doctors

{{Nazi-stub}}

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Max de Crinis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_de_Crinis) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_de_Crinis?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.