DOCSLIB.ORG

Swedish-German Contacts in the Field of Anatomy 1930-1950

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Swedish-German Contacts in the Field of Anatomy 1930-1950 Annals of Anatomy 1% (2014) 2597267 Annals of Mu. 1 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect ANATOMY Annals of Anatomy ELSEWER journal homepage: WWW.e|seVier.de/aanat Research article Swedish—German contacts in the field of anatomy 1930—1950: Gosta ® CtossMaIk Haggqvist and Hermann Stieve Nils l—lansson“, Sabine l-lildebrandtb 3 Department of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine, University Medical Center Gh'tzingen, Germany b Boston Children's Hospital, Haward Medical School, Boston, USA ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history: This study presents a first exploration of SwedishrGerman contacts in the field of anatomy between 1930 Received 20 February 2014 and 1950, a subject ofresearch that has only recently come into focus. Based on the background ofthe gen— Received in revised form 19 May 2014 eral cultural and scientific exchange between Sweden and Germany and the biographies of the Swedish Accepted 19 May 2014 anatomist Gfista Haggqvist (189171972) and his German colleague Hermann Stieve (188671952), this study identifies specific areas of collaboration between ahatornists of the two countries. These include Keywords: mutual professional career advancement, publication of research results, the exchange of technological History of anatomy Costa Haggqvist expertise and transfer of anatomical specimens. The investigation also examines the use of “material" Hermann Stieve from executed persons in Sweden and Germany as well as public postwar critiques of this practice. Open National Socialism research questions on SwedisheGerman interactions in anatomy during this time period are formulated. Research contacts Sweden»Germany The contacts between Haggqvist and Stieve give insight into the impact of scientific collaborations and Work with bodies of the executed controversial political liaisons in the relationship between Swedish and German science in recent histow. Victims of National Socialism The study is based on documents from German and Swedish archives, including Nobel Prize nominations and reports from the Nobel Archive for Physiology or Medicine in Stockholm. © 2014 Elsevier GmbH. All rights resen/ed. 1. Introduction Socialist ideology and his commitment to spreading National Socialist propaganda in Sweden. He also maintained close con— The history of anatomy in National Socialism has only become tacts to medical representatives of the “Third Reich" and his a focus of systematic research in the last decade (Hildebrandt German colleagues, particularly Hermann Stieve (Hansson, 2013). and Redies, 2012). One thus far neglected aspect relates to sci— This investigation takes a first look at the cooperation between entific contacts during the National Socialist period between anatomists in National Socialist (NS) Germany and their colleagues German anatomists and their colleagues in officially politically in officially politically neutral countries in the years from 1930 neutral countries like Sweden. During the 19305, academic con— to 1950. Based on the background of the general cultural and tacts between Sweden and Germany were supported by several scientific exchange between Sweden and Germany and the biogra— so—called German—friendly organizations. However, the German— phies of Haggqvist and Stieve, this study identifies specific areas Swedish interactions in medicine between 1933 and 1945 have not of collaboration between anatomists of the two countries These been thoroughly investigated, despite the fact that physicians made include mutual professional career advancement, publication of up a large part ofthe membership of National Socialist associations research results, the exchange oftechnological expertise and trans— in Sweden. fer of anatomical specimens. The investigation also examines the The Stockholm anatomist Costa l—lia'ggqvist was one of the most available evidence concerning the use of “material” from executed influential Swedish anatomists and histologists during the first persons in Sweden and Germany as well as public postwar critiques half of the 20th century. He has remained a subject of contro— of this practice Finally, open research questions are formulated on versy because of his outspokenly friendly attitude toward National Swedish—German interactions in the field of anatomy during this time period * Corresponding author at: University Medical Center. Department of Medical 2. Material Ethics and History of Medicine, Humboldtallee 36, 37073 Gottingen. Germany. Tel.: +49 055139 4185. E—mail addresses: Nils.l—[email protected]—goettingen.de, This study is based on sources from archives in Germany [email protected] (N. Hansson). and Sweden Documents relating to Haggqvist and Stieve have http:[/dx.(loi.org/10.1016/j.aanat.2014.05.037 0940-9602/© 2014 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. 260 N. Hanssan, S. Hildebrandt/Annals ofAnutnmy 196 (2014) 259467 been collected from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences llli Abti, Rep. 86A, Nri 217)i Nevertheless, Haggqvist was among Archive in Stockholm, the Greifswald University Archive, the those international anatomists who continued their contacts with Leopoldina German National Academy of Sciences in Halle/Saale, German colleagues after the war (Hildebrandt, 2013a) and was a t e lVlax—Plaan—Archive in Berlin—Dahlem, and the Bayerische member of the board of directors of the Anatomische Gesellschaft Hauptstaatsarchiv (Bavarian Central State Archive). In addition, from 1954 to 1958 (Watzka arid Voss,1957). information was gathered from memoirs of Haggqvist and Stieve‘s While only a few Swedish physicians openly criticized the Hitler colleagues, obituaries and Swedish and German daily press from regime or the actions of the National Socialist German Physi— t e 1 9405 and 1 95051Anotherinsightinto the relationship between cians’ Federation (NSDAB), there was also only a small number of German and Swedish scientists in the first half ofthe 20th century is them who unreservedly supported Adolf Hitler. The German lega— provided by documents from the Nobel archives in Stockholm. The tion in Stockholm kept a list of Swedes with a positive attitude Nobel archive for Physiology or Medicine (NA) holds correspon— toward National Socialism (Almgren, 2005) Among these were ence, reports and nominations of senior and junior physicians Gosta Haggqvist and the pathologist Folke Henschen (1881—1977), from around the world and therefore offers an exclusive view of who were both members of so—called Pro—German associations Nobel Prize nominators and candidates in the field of anatomy. His— before and during the Second World Wari l—liiggqvist was a member torians are given access to the yearbooks fifty years after the year of one of the main Swedish organizations that supported NS ideol— of nomination. This source has not previously been examined for ogy, the Riksfiireningen Sverige—Tyskland (RST, national association t e purpose of shedding light on the history of anatomy, although Sweden—Germany) and several other related Swedish—German in recent decades it has gained scholarly attention among med— societies ical historians (for example Luttenberger, 1996; Crawford, 2002; The RST was founded in 1937 with a proclamation that was Nori‘by, 2010) The Nobel Prize nominations are ofinterest as they signed by more than 400 persons, among them 40 physicians Its i lustrate personal connections in the scientific community among purpose was to evaluate and eventually support the ideology of NS leading anatomists. Germany and to promote National Socialist ideas within Sweden. During its most active period from 1938 to 1943, RST had about 5600 members, of whom nearly 200 were physicians (Hansson 3. General history of Swedish—German contacts in anatomy and Nilsson, 2007). The RST published a periodical paper with 1930—1950 articles ranging in topic from themes related to German culture and politics to commentaries on war eventsi Prominent members Earlier research has shown that officials in NS Germany actively of the RST, among them l—liiggqvist, protested in December 1939 worked to establish and uphold good contacts with prominent against NS Germany’s lack of support for Finland’s struggle against Swedes in the fields ofculture,journalism and education (Almgi‘en, the Soviet invasion during the so—called Finnish Winter War in 2005) This policy included physicians and anatomists, however, 1939/1940 and argued for a temporary break with Germany As a the specific interactions between anatomists of the two coun— result, some members chose to leave the association (Hansson and tries have not been explored For centuries, Swedish physicians Nilsson, 2007). Despite these incidents, the association grew sig— had been influenced by medical progress in Germany, thus, the nificantly between 1941 and 1943. In 1942, RST published a book fact that interest in German medicine and science continued to on German—Swedish relations, for which Héggqvist contributed be widespread in Sweden during the first decades of the 20th an article on the “productive" cooperation between German and century is not surprising. Many Swedish physicians traveled to Swedish anatomists by portraying anatomists like Robert Remak Germany for the purpose of studying there, and they wrote sci— (1815—1865) and Stieve (Haggqvist, 1942) Some of the RST— entific articles and dissertations in German Among those were physicians were also members of the lVlanhem Society (Samfundet the renowned Swedish anatomists Gustaf Retzius (1842—1919) Manhem) It was founded in 1934 to promote studies in Nordic and Carl Magnus F'Lirst (1854—1935), who both became honorary
Load more

Recommended publications
  • To Download the Entire Volume 29 Issue 2 As
    The Journal of Plastination The official publication of the International Society for Plastination ISSN 2311-7761 IN THIS ISSUE: S10 Plastination Technique for Preservation of Parasites – p5 Plastination Applied to The Conservation of Cultural Heritage – p11 The Challenges of Plastinating a Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus) Heart – p22 Rehabilitation of Plastinated Anatomical Prosections Using Silicone Adhesive and Pre-Cured S10/S3-Impregnated Fascia and Muscle – p30 Abstracts Presented at the 12th Interim Meeting of the ISP in Durban, South Africa – p37 Preview of ISP 2018, Dalian – p65 Volume 29 (2); December 2017 The Journal of Plastination ISSN 2311-7761 ISSN 2311-777X online The official publication of the International Society for Plastination Editorial Board: Rafael Latorre Philip J. Adds Murcia, Spain Editor-in-Chief Institute of Medical and Biomedical Education Scott Lozanoff (Anatomy) Honolulu, HI USA St. George’s, University of London London, UK Ameed Raoof. Ann Arbor, MI USA Robert W. Henry Associate Editor Mircea-Constantin Sora Department of Comparative Medicine Vienna, Austria College of Veterinary Medicine Hong Jin Sui Knoxville, Tennessee, USA Dalian, China Selcuk Tunali Carlos Baptista Assistant Editor Toledo, OH USA Department of Anatomy Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine Ankara, Turkey Executive Committee: Rafael Latorre, President Dmitry Starchik, Vice-President Selcuk Tunali, Secretary Carlos Baptista, Treasurer Instructions for Authors Manuscripts and figures intended for publication in The Journal of Plastination should be sent via e-mail attachment to: [email protected]. Manuscript preparation guidelines are on the last two pages of this issue. On the Cover: Royal Ontario Museum Exhibit: Dilated, dissected, cured, plastinated blue whale heart.
    [Show full text]
  • Lies, Incorporated
    Ari Rabin-Havt and Media Matters for America Lies, Incorporated Ari Rabin-Havt is host of The Agenda, a national radio show airing Monday through Friday on SiriusXM. His writing has been featured in USA Today, The New Republic, The Nation, The New York Observer, Salon, and The American Prospect, and he has appeared on MSNBC, CNBC, Al Jazeera, and HuffPost Live. Along with David Brock, he coauthored The Fox Effect: How Roger Ailes Turned a Network into a Propaganda Machine and The Benghazi Hoax. He previously served as executive vice president of Media Matters for America and as an adviser to Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and former vice president Al Gore. Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media. ALSO AVAILABLE FROM ANCHOR BOOKS Free Ride: John McCain and the Media by David Brock and Paul Waldman The Fox Effect: How Roger Ailes Turned a Network into a Propaganda Machine by David Brock, Ari Rabin-Havt, and Media Matters for America AN ANCHOR BOOKS ORIGINAL, APRIL 2016 Copyright © 2016 by Ari Rabin-Havt and Media Matters for America All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Anchor Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, and distributed in Canada by Random House of Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited, Toronto. Anchor Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC. Reinhart-Rogoff chart on this page created by Jared Bernstein for jaredbernsteinblog.com.
    [Show full text]
  • Protestantism, Nationalism, and the Contest for the Corpse During the Rise of American Medicine
    THE RESURRECTION AND THE KNIFE: PROTESTANTISM, NATIONALISM, AND THE CONTEST FOR THE CORPSE DURING THE RISE OF AMERICAN MEDICINE A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by Tiffany DeRewal May 2020 Examining Committee Members: Katherine Henry, Advisory Chair, English Michael Kaufmann, English James Salazar, English Michael Sappol, External Member, Uppsala University ii © Copyright 2019 by Tiffany DeRewal All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT This dissertation examines how advocates for anatomical medicine in the early American republic defended medical training through dissection by framing anatomy as a Protestant spiritual and civic initiative. The project draws attention to prominent anatomists and anatomy advocates from the 1760s to the 1830s who did not dismiss the religious values and rhetoric of the people who rioted against dissections and bodysnatching, but instead imaginatively remodeled the Christian principles that had been wielded against them. Utilizing the public forums that were afforded to them as wealthy white Protestant intellectuals, these figures drew upon the mythologies of the new nation as well as the New Testament to defend the practice of dissection and persuade a largely Protestant public of the virtues of the dissected corpse. As this project will emphasize, they also used evangelical Protestant ideology to justify the pillaging of African American cemeteries and almshouse burial grounds for dissection subjects. Reinforcing an evangelical Protestant and portrait of nativist American citizenship, their rhetoric would ultimately play a powerful role in shaping state intervention in the regulation of medical schools and their supply of anatomical subjects.
    [Show full text]
  • Anatomy Atlas Pernkopf Pdf
    Anatomy atlas pernkopf pdf Continue The Austrian anatomist who compiled a controversial textbook in the Nazi era by Eduard PernkopfEduard Pernkopf in academic regalia. Born (1888-11-24)24 November 1888Rappottenstein, Austria-Hungary17 April 1955 (1955-04-17) (age 66)Vienna, AustriaNationalityAustrianAlma materUniversity of ViennaKnown forTopographische Anatomie des Menschen, anatomical atlas, possibly derived from executed Nazi political prisonersAustrianAturismNical anatomy of Eduard Pernkopf (November 24, 1888 - April 17, 1955) - Austrian professor of anatomy, later served as rector of the University of Vienna. It is best known for its seven-volume anatomical atlas Topographische Anatomie des Menschen (translated as Atlas of topographical and applied human anatomy; often colloquially known as pernkopf atlas or simply Pernkopf), produced by Pernkopf and four artists over a 20-year period. Although it is considered a scientific and artistic masterpiece, many of its color plates have been reprinted in other publications and textbooks, in recent years it has been established that Pernkopf and the artists working for it, all of them ardent Nazis, used executed political prisoners as their subjects. The early life of Pernkopf was born in 1888 in the lower Austrian village of Rappottenstein, near the border with Bavaria. The youngest of three sons, he seemed to be considering a career in music after finishing high school in Horne. However, the death of his father, a village doctor, in 1903 forced him to take up medicine, as the death of his father led to considerable difficulties in the family, which are likely to collapse on the other side. He began his studies at the University of Vienna School in 1907.
    [Show full text]
  • Medical Ethics in the 70 Years After the Nuremberg Code, 1947 to the Present
    wiener klinische wochenschrift The Central European Journal of Medicine 130. Jahrgang 2018, Supplement 3 Wien Klin Wochenschr (2018) 130 :S159–S253 https://​doi.org/​10.1007/​s00508-​018-​1343-y Online publiziert: 8 June 2018 © The Author(s) 2018 Medical Ethics in the 70 Years after the Nuremberg Code, 1947 to the Present International Conference at the Medical University of Vienna, 2nd and 3rd March 2017 Editors: Herwig Czech, Christiane Druml, Paul Weindling With contributions from: Markus Müller, Paul Weindling, Herwig Czech, Aleksandra Loewenau, Miriam Offer, Arianne M. Lachapelle-Henry, Priyanka D. Jethwani, Michael Grodin, Volker Roelcke, Rakefet Zalashik, William E. Seidelman, Edith Raim, Gerrit Hohendorf, Christian Bonah, Florian Schmaltz, Kamila Uzarczyk, Etienne Lepicard, Elmar Doppelfeld, Stefano Semplici, Christiane Druml, Claire Whitaker, Michelle Singh, Nuraan Fakier, Michelle Nderu, Michael Makanga, Renzong Qiu, Sabine Hildebrandt, Andrew Weinstein, Rabbi Joseph A. Polak history of medicine Table of contents Editorial: Medical ethics in the 70 years after the Nuremberg Code, 1947 to the present S161 Markus Müller Post-war prosecutions of ‘medical war crimes’ S162 Paul Weindling: From the Nuremberg “Doctors Trial” to the “Nuremberg Code” S165 Herwig Czech: Post-war trials against perpetrators of Nazi medical crimes – the Austrian case S169 Aleksandra Loewenau: The failure of the West German judicial system in serving justice: the case of Dr. Horst Schumann Miriam Offer: Jewish medical ethics during the Holocaust: the unwritten ethical code From prosecutions to medical ethics S172 Arianne M. Lachapelle-Henry, Priyanka D. Jethwani, Michael Grodin: The complicated legacy of the Nuremberg Code in the United States S180 Volker Roelcke: Medical ethics in Post-War Germany: reconsidering some basic assumptions S183 Rakefet Zalashik: The shadow of the Holocaust and the emergence of bioethics in Israel S186 William E.
    [Show full text]
  • From the Danube to the Spree Over a Century Ago, Thousands Of
    WILLIAM E. SEIDELMAN FROM THE DANUBE TO THE SPREE: DECEPTION, TRUTH AND MORALITY IN MEDICINE Aus: Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen Widerstandes (Hrsg.), Jahrbuch 1999, Wien 1999. From the Danube to the Spree Over a century ago, thousands of physicians from English-speaking countries journeyed to Vienna and Berlin to study with the great leaders and pioneers of medical science. One of those visitors was a Canadian, Dr. William Osler, who was to become one of the most distinguished physicians of his time. In 1874 Osler wrote a letter to a Canadian journal from „Allgemeines Krankenhaus“ in which he gave an enthusiastic account of his attendance at lectures and clinics of the „Vienna School“ including the seventieth birthday celebration of Professor Carl Rokitansky. In Osler’s words, „Americans swarm here, there are fifty or sixty of them at least, and Great Britain is represented by five or six Edinburgh men and a couple of Londoners.“ Ten years later, Osler attended lectures and clinics in Berlin including those of Rudolf Virchow. While in Berlin he was present at a dinner honoring Robert Koch that celebrated the pride of the German people „at the fresh honours to German science which had resulted from Koch’s labours.“ Osler extolled the benefits of „the strong Semitic Element“ in the Berlin medical community, but at the same time commented on the burgeoning anti-Semitism and wrote with pre- scient foreboding of the potential impact of „a Semitic exodus from Germany.“ Returning to Vienna in 1908, Osler was struck by the wonderful
    [Show full text]
  • Dealing with Human Remains from Morphological Research in Nazi Germany – the Vienna Protocol
    Dealing with Human Remains from Morphological Research in Nazi Germany – The Vienna Protocol Webinar Series on Legacy Collections American Association for Anatomy, 7/29/21 Sabine Hildebrandt Div. General Pediatrics Dep. Pediatrics Boston Children’s Hospital Harvard Medical School © Hildebrandt AAA Webinar 2 Legacy Collections Facts of Anatomy in Nazi Germany 1933-1945 Anatomists and Politics - 30% of anatomists were dismissed as Jews or political dissidents - 82% of remaining anatomists joined the Nazi Party - Collaboration on racist theory and anatomical body procurement Bodies - Included increasing numbers of victims of the Nazi regime Anatomical Education & Science - Bodies of executed victims preferred for “freshness” in research - Publications with studies based on victims’ bodies increased - Teaching and research collections created using victims’ bodies Arrival of coffins with bodies of Stages of an Ethical Transgression executed persons Vienna Anatomy 1943 - Paradigm change from working with the dead to working with Leopold Metzenbauer Sammlung der Kulturabteilung der Stadt Wien the “future dead” – human experimentation – MUSA-ALT 7117/0, “Gesehen I” (Seen II) © Hildebrandt AAA Webinar 2 Legacy Collections Changes in traditional anatomical body procurement 1933-45 Legal sources, unclaimed bodies New: Nazi victims Deceased psychiatric patients - include “Euthanasia” patients Suicides - increasingly Jewish citizens Deceased prisoners - more political prisoners due to Nazi laws more violence especially GeStapo - camp prisoners: concentration
    [Show full text]
  • An Excerpt from the Anatomy of Murder 52
    An Excerpt from The Anatomy of Murder 52 An Excerpt from The Anatomy of Murder Excerpted from the Section: "The Pernkopf Controversy" (pages 278 - 281, 287, 288) Sabine Hildebrandt, M.D. Title Page and Publishers Page from "The Anatomy of Murder" by Sabine Hildebrandt, MD (2016). Approval for reuse required from original publisher The Pernkopf Controversy Further discussions on the role of ethics in anatomy color illustrations enhanced in quality by the beauty of came much later when Pernkopf's atlas became a focal the coloration, which was the product of an innovative point of international debate. The popular printing technique.[111] The origins of the bodies in these Topographische Anatomie des Menschen was first illustrations were not publicly discussed until 1980, published in 1937, with the first American edition when physician Gerald Weissmann inquired into the published in 1963.[110] Surgeons valued its intricacy, as political changes at the Vienna Medical School in 1938 it contained detailed and extensively annotated and its new dean, Pernkopf.[112] David J. Williams, a JBC Vol. 45, No. 1, 2021 Journal of Biocommunication www.jbiocmmunication.org An Excerpt from The Anatomy of Murder 53 professor of medical illustration, published the first victims of NS terror and an acknowledgment detailed investigation into the background of the documenting the history of Pernkopf in future editions creation of the atlas in 1988. During a sabbatical in of the atlas. This opinion was endorsed by Daniel Vienna, Williams studied the more than 800 original Cutler, a medical illustrator at the University of [117] paintings for the atlas and conducted interviews with Michigan.
    [Show full text]
  • Geburtshilfe Und Frauenheilkunde S 01 S 01 • 2016 • Seite S1–S158 • 76
    Geburtshilfe und Frauenheilkunde S 01 S 01 • 2016 • Seite S1–S158 • 76. Jahrgang www.thieme-connect.de/products S 01 • 2016 2016 • 76. Jahrgang 76. Jahrgang • Seite S1–S158 Seite „Ausführer und Vollstrecker des Gesetzeswillens“ – die Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gynäkologie im Nationalsozialismus Supplement Fritz Dross, Wolfgang Frobenius, Andreas Thum und Alexander Bastian, unter Mitarbeit von Ulrike Thoms Herausgegeben von: Thomas Dimpfl , Diethelm Wallwiener und Fritz Dross – im Auftrag der DGGG www.thieme-connect.de/products EDITORIAL BOARD Geburtshilfe und Frauenheilkunde DGGG-Ausgabe Executive Editors/Leitende Herausgeber Herausgeber Matthias W. Beckmann, Erlangen Diethelm Wallwiener, Tübingen Diethelm Wallwiener, Tübingen Birgit Seelbach-Göbel, Regensburg Thomas Dimpfl, Kassel Diethelm Wallwiener, Tübingen – Präsident DGGG Frank Louwen, Frankfurt a. M. Uwe Lang, Graz – OEGGG Gerlinde Debus, Dachau Sara Y. Brucker, Tübingen Harald Abele, Tübingen Co-Editors/Co-Herausgeber Ute Germer, Regensburg Christian R. Löhberg, Nürnberg Ekkehard Schleußner, Jena Heiko B. G. Franz, Braunschweig (Aktuell referiert) Ludwig Kiesel, Münster Michael Friedrich, Krefeld (Aktuell referiert) Ariane Germeyer, Heidelberg Burkhard Schauf, Bamberg (Aktuell diskutiert) Christl Reisenauer, Tübingen Christian Bayer, Erlangen (Assistenz) Stefan Rimbach, Hausham Paul Gaß, Erlangen (Assistenz) Andree Faridi, Berlin Tanja N. Fehm, Düsseldorf Sarah Schott, Heidelberg Begründet von Johannes Lermann, Erlangen Carl Kaufmann Ludwig Seitz Weitergeführt von Josef Zander Kurt
    [Show full text]
  • How the Anatomische Gesellschaft Excluded Unwanted Members After
    Annals of Anatomy 209 (2017) 25–36 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Annals of Anatomy jou rnal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/aanat SOURCES IN TIME How the Anatomische Gesellschaft excluded unwanted members after 1945—among them Eugen Fischer and Max Clara ∗ Andreas Winkelmann Institute of Anatomy, Brandenburg Medical School, Fehrbelliner Str. 38, D-16816 Neuruppin, Germany a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: The Anatomische Gesellschaft, an international Germany-based association of anatomists, was closed down Received 29 June 2015 in 1945, after the end of the “Third Reich”. It was eventually re-founded in 1949, continuing its tradi- Received in revised form 6 June 2016 tion from its foundation in 1886, based in large part on the membership prior to 1945. Newly available Accepted 17 August 2016 archival material reveals, however, that at least six members were explicitly prevented from re-joining the society. This includes Max Clara, who was accused of plagiarism and, at least implicitly, of basing Keywords: his career on Nazi party support. It also includes Eugen Fischer, a leading anthropologist of the Nazi Anatomische Gesellschaft period, who was seen to be indirectly responsible for Nazi crimes like forced sterilisation or extermina- Denazification Anthropology tion of “anthropologically defined” groups of people. Therefore, Fischer’s honorary membership, which had already been published in the membership directory, was revoked after a heated internal debate. Wolfgang Bargmann Eugen Fischer Nevertheless, these exclusions cannot be interpreted as a self-directed “denazification” of the Anatomis- Max Clara che Gesellschaft, as political activity in line with the Nazis was not the main criterion for these exclusions.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction
    INTRODUCTION The diffi culty is, you see, that our imagination cannot count […] And if I say one died - a man I have made you know and understand […] then perhaps I have told you something that you should know about the Nazis. Erich Maria Remarque, 19461 he connection between Erich Maria Remarque, author of the World TWar I novel All Quiet on the Western Front, and anatomy in National Socialism was a woman named Elfriede Scholz. She was a seamstress, born on 25 March 1903, and was executed in Berlin-Plötzensee at noon on 16 December 1943. Her execution had followed a verdict of “aiding and abetting the enemy”; she had criticized Hitler in conversations with her neighbors, who then denounced her to the authorities. Directly after the execution her body was taken to the anatomical department of the Fried- rich-Wilhelm University of Berlin and used by Hermann Stieve, chairman of anatomy, for his research. Her maiden name was Remark, and she was Erich Maria Remarque’s sister.2 I had never heard of fates like that of Elfriede Scholz, or of any in- volvement of anatomists with the National Socialist regime and its vic- tims, despite my interest in this period of German history. Born not that long after World War II in a small town in Western Germany, I always felt the silent presence of the aftermath of the Third Reich around me. I grew up without Jewish neighbors and knew synagogues only as empty spaces in urban landscapes. My fi rst school was called Geschwister-Scholl-Schule after Sophie and Hans Scholl, university students who had been executed because of their resistance against Hitler.
    [Show full text]
  • CLINICAL ANATOMY Volume 29, Number 1, 2016 Special Issue on Ethics in Anatomy
    The Official Journal of the American Association of Clinical Anatomists, the British Association of Clinical Anatomists, the Australian and New Zealand Association of Clinical Anatomists, & the Anatomical Society of Southern Africa CLINICAL ANATOMY Volume 29, Number 1, 2016 Special Issue on Ethics in Anatomy http://wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/ca ISSN 0897–3806 Clinical Anatomy 29:1 (2016) EDITORIAL Gentlemen, damn the sphenoid bone! R. SHANE TUBBS* Editor-in-Chief Seattle, WA Welcome to our first issue of 2016. This year, Clinical Anatomy will provide our readership with cutting edge publications that can be used for improved patient care as well as in the teaching of anatomy to future practi- tioners of medicine and the health related professions. Oliver Wendell Homes (1809-1894) (Fig. 1), a true Renaissance man, is known for his famous opening line (and the title of this editorial) for his anatomy course at Harvard Medical School. This whimsical comment not only applies to the complexity of this single bone but to the deeper aspects of anatomy as well. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. was a physician, dean of the Harvard Medi- cal School, one of the best regarded American poets of the 19th century, father of a future United States Supreme Court Justice, inventor and — unknown to many — an anatomist. His friends included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Louis Pasteur. He trained with some of the most influential Fig. 1. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894) anatomists/surgeons of his day including Lisfranc, Larrey, Velpeau, Bigelow, and Dupuytren. As a teacher of anatomy, he had strong feelings regarding medical Jones from the University of Otago has aptly put curricular reform and to some, was considered one of together an international group of authors who are the best lecturers in the discipline.
    [Show full text]