Wikipedia: IQ of Nazi Leaders Talk

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Talk page for Nuremberg Trials/IQ of Nazi Leaders at the Nuremberg Trials

Sorry, but, who measured this? Were they all subjected to an IQ test, or are they some bogus numbers as the IQ of Newton, Gauss and others that the one of the creators of the IQ tests made up?

I'm struggling to see what useful purpose this information as it stands serves, to be honest - even without the reservations towards its accuracy. Did anybody ever think the Nazis were stupid? A beastly, cruel, racist, deluded, bunch of thugs who perpetuated one of the worst acts of mass murders in history? Sure. Stupid? Not really. --Robert Merkel

I'd say we should just remove this unless and until we get some kind of confirmation. Even then, it should be placed into historical context. Was it an issue at the trial, etc.

This reminds me of a file that circulates on the net, purporting to be a ranking of the IQs of recent presidents. It's a political jab, but it gets passed around as if based on a real study of some kind. All the Democrats rank high, all the Republicans rank low, with George W the lowest of all, at below-average. It's completely bogus, but that doesn't stop people from circulating it. Perhaps this is the same.

: I second the motion. --AN

A reference to this information can be found here:

[IQs of Nazi Leaders]

The information is supposed to come from this book, which looks more or less legit to me: [amazon]

[ISBN 0306806614 (amazon.com, search)]

It may be that this information is true and perhaps of some historical interest after all. But we need to research it more. --Jimbo

: Done. Content kept here for the moment . . .

Name	IQ
[Hjalmar Schacht]?	143
[Arthur Seyss-Inquar]?	141
Hermann Goering	138
Karl Doenitz	138
[Franz von Papen]?	134
[Eric Raeder]?	134
[Hans Frank]?	130
[Baldur von Schirach]?	130
[Joachim von Ribbentrop]?	129
[Wilhelm Keitel]?	129
Albert Speer	128
[Alfred Jodl]?	127
[Alfred Rosenberg]?	127
[Constantin von Neurath]?	125
[Walther Funk]?	124
[Wilhelm Frick]?	124
Rudolf Hess	120
[Fritz Sauckel]?	118
Ernst Kaltenbrunner	113
[Julius Streicher]?	106

I vaguely remember reading Albert Speer's memoirs about the defendants taking IQ tests during the Nuremberg trials. If my memory is correct, he mentioned that this became a source of competition among the defendants in order to pass the boredom. In any case, it should be an easy matter if anyone has a copy of Inside the Third Reich to read the section on Nuremberg to see if my memory is accurate. -- Chenyu