Statens institut för rasbiologi (SIFR, Swedish:
The State Institute for Racial Biology) was
a Swedish governmental research institute
founded in 1922 with the stated purpose of
studying eugenics and human genetics.
It was located in Uppsala.
In 1958, it was renamed to the State Institute
for Human Genetics (Institutionen för medicinisk
genetik) and is today incorporated as a department
of Uppsala University.
Its first head was Herman Lundborg.
== History ==
After its founding in 1922, it continued under
the leadership of Herman Lundborg.
In 1926, studies conducted by the institute
provided a basis for Lundborg's upper secondary
school textbook Swedish Racial Studies.
However, Lundborg became increasingly anti-semitic
which put him at odds with the Swedish Government
during a time when tensions were growing between
Sweden and Germany.
In 1936, he was replaced by Gunnar Dahlberg.
In 1959 it was integrated into Uppsala University,
and is today the university's genetic center.
The official assignment of the Swedish institute
was to study the inhabitants of the country
from a racial perspective.
They studied the life conditions and environmental
developments of different families.
They tried to explain the effect biological
heritage and the environment has on people.
They also studied mental illnesses, alcoholism
and criminality.
Svenska sällskapet för rashygien (Swedish
Society for Eugenics) was founded in 1909
and paved the way for SIFR.
Its mission statement was to study eugenics.
Svenska sällskapet för rashygien, and eugenics
in general, didn’t gain ground until after
World War I.
In 1918 the society travelled around Sweden
with an exhibit called “Folktyputställning”
("Exhibition about types of people").
The same year Frithiof Lennmalm, the headmaster
of Karolinska Institutet proposed that the
Nobel Foundation finance an institute for
race biology.
The Nobel committee for medicine voted unanimously
in favour of the proposal.
The staff of Karolinska Institutet voted against
it with a very thin margin (9 against 8).
Instead it was proposed that the Swedish state
found and finance such an institute
