Despite this progressive shift in thought, the WCTS was still using genetic sterilization on certain “hopeless” cases up until at least 1934, as were all other similar institutions for the feebeleminded, to keep them from passing on their “defect” to subsequent generations. How these two conflicting aspects of the WCTS program were ever reconciled by its board or superintendent, especially in light of public outcry against the school’s practice of sterilization ⁵⁰  is something that presents a major question, but one that cannot be adequately addressed within the scope of this paper.

         

         Heinz Werner lived from 1890 to 1964, was born and educated in Vienna, and was at home amongst the intelligentsia of Germany. Dr. Werner had been a professor at the University of Hamburg, but fled to America as a refugee when he was “dismissed from his position” by the Nazis, ⁵¹  who accused him of being a “left-wing intellectual and…‘pro-Jewish.’” ⁵²  The Rockefeller Foundation and the Emergency Committee on Aid for Displaced German Scholars raised $8,000 for Werner’s salary for two years, and he was acquired by University of Michigan. ⁵³  According to Robert Hodnapp,

          This period, from 1933 until 1947, was characterized by change and uncertainty. As one among many German expatriates, Werner scrambled to secure an academic position in the United States. He was a visiting professor at the University of Michigan for three years, then spent a year at Harvard. Unable to return to the University of Michigan, Werner then took a position as research psychologist at the McGregor Laboratory of the Wayne County Training School outside Detroit. ⁵⁴

          The difficulty in finding a position in the U.S., and the reason he was unable to return to a permanent place at University of Michigan was mainly due to the hard economy during the Great Depression. The WCTS Administrative Board approved Dr. Werner’s appointment as a “guest worker” at their January 1936 meeting, indicating that he had been at University of Michigan for two years (meaning his term there was about to expire), and that his work in Germany “had been terminated because of his race.” It was decided at this meeting to give him and his wife maintenance at county expense. ⁵⁵  He started work at WCTS on September 20, 1937.

          Heinz Werner was considered to be the first major proponent of the “developmentalist” theory to consider children with mental retardation. He and Dr. Strauss collaborated on at least 30 studies while they were at Northville, ⁵⁶  and it is their work that is perhaps the greatest legacy of the WCTS.