Eugen Relgis

Eugen Relgis
Photograph of Eugen Relgis
Born	Eisig D. Sigler (Siegler, Siegler Watchel) (1895-03-22)22 March 1895 Iași or Piatra Neamț, Romania
Died	24 May 1987(1987-05-24) (aged 92) Montevideo, Uruguay
Other names	Eugenio Relgis, Eugène Relgis, Eugene Relgis
Academic background
Influences	Henri Bergson, Manuel Devaldès, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Remy de Gourmont, Jean-Marie Guyau, Georg Friedrich Nicolai, José Enrique Rodó, Romain Rolland, Moses Schwarzfeld, Rabindranath Tagore
Academic work
Era	20th century
School or tradition	Humanitarianist, Anarchist, Pacifist, Socialist, Neo-Malthusian
Main interests	self-help, Jewish studies, Latin American studies, eugenics, medical sociology, sexology
Notable works	Umanitarism și eugenism (1934–1935) Esseuri despre iudaism (1936) Eros în al treilea Reich (1946) Las aberraciones sexuales en la Alemania nazi (1950) Perspectivas culturales en Sudamérica (1958) Historia sexual de la Humanidad (1961)
Influenced	Gaspare Mancuso, Llorenç Vidal Vidal

Eugen D. Relgis (backward reading of Eisig D. Sigler; first name also Eugenio, Eugène or Eugene, last name also Siegler or Siegler Watchel;^[1] 22 March 1895 – 24 May 1987) was a Romanian writer, pacifist philosopher and anarchist militant, known as a theorist of humanitarianism. His internationalist dogma, with distinct echoes from Judaism and Jewish ethics, was first shaped during World War I, when Relgis was a conscientious objector. Infused with anarcho-pacifism and socialism, it provided Relgis with an international profile, and earned him the support of pacifists such as Romain Rolland, Stefan Zweig and Albert Einstein. Another, more controversial, aspect of Relgis' philosophy was his support for eugenics, which centered on the compulsory sterilization of "degenerates". The latter proposal was voiced by several of Relgis' essays and sociological tracts.

After an early debut with Romania's Symbolist movement, Relgis promoted modernist literature and the poetry of Tudor Arghezi, signing his name to a succession of literary and political magazines. His work in fiction and poetry alternates the extremes of Expressionism and didactic art, giving artistic representation to his activism, his pacifist vision, or his struggle with a hearing impairment. He was a member of several modernist circles, formed around Romanian magazines such as Sburătorul, Contimporanul or Șantier, but also close to the more mainstream journal Viața Românească. His political and literary choices made Relgis an enemy of both fascism and communism: persecuted during World War II, he eventually took refuge in Uruguay. From 1947 to the moment of his death, Relgis earned the respect of South American circles as an anarchist commentator and proponent of solutions to world peace, as well as a promoter of Latin American culture.