Weimar Medical Culture: Doctors, Healers, and the Crisis of Medicine in Interwar Germany, 1918-1933
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The University of Manchester Research Weimar Medical Culture: Doctors, Healers, and the Crisis of Medicine in Interwar Germany, 1918-1933 Link to publication record in Manchester Research Explorer Citation for published version (APA): Timmermann, C. (1999). Weimar Medical Culture: Doctors, Healers, and the Crisis of Medicine in Interwar Germany, 1918-1933. University of Manchester. Citing this paper Please note that where the full-text provided on Manchester Research Explorer is the Author Accepted Manuscript or Proof version this may differ from the final Published version. If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version. General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the Research Explorer are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. 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Oct. 2021 Carsten Timmermann *** Weimar Medical Culture Doctors, Healers, and the Crisis of Medicine in Interwar Germany, 1918-1933 *** Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine A dissertation submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of PhD in the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine 1999 Table of Contents List of Tables .........................................................................................................4 Abstract..................................................................................................................5 Declaration and Copyright Notes .........................................................................6 Acknowledgements................................................................................................7 List of Abbreviations .............................................................................................9 Introduction........................................................................................................10 Medicine in Crisis? .......................................................................................11 Weimar Culture .............................................................................................13 Weimar Medicine ..........................................................................................16 Chapter 1. Welfare State and Professional Politics ........................................21 Introduction.......................................................................................................21 Social Policy and Professional Politics.............................................................23 “Doctors in Germany, get Organised!”: the Hartmannbund .......................28 Revolution and Rationalisation: the Doctor’s Fear of Socialism .....................31 Doctors “on Strike” ......................................................................................32 Contract-free State ........................................................................................37 Hardship? The Economic Situation of Weimar Doctors...............................42 Models for a Rationalised Health System .....................................................51 The Socialisation Debate ..............................................................................55 Conclusion: Professional Crisis, Crisis of Trust...............................................61 Chapter 2. Hippocratic Heretics: the Insider as Outsider .............................65 Introduction.......................................................................................................65 ‘Heretic’ Careers...............................................................................................69 Erwin Liek .....................................................................................................69 August Bier....................................................................................................77 Hans Much ....................................................................................................83 Bernhard Aschner..........................................................................................90 Hippocrates and the Decline of the Western World .........................................94 Science and Specialisation............................................................................98 Escape from the Fragmented World: Hippocrates, Paracelsus, and other Myths ......................................................................................................100 Heresy? ...........................................................................................................104 Conclusion ......................................................................................................109 2 Chapter 3. Physicians by the Grace of God...................................................111 Introduction.....................................................................................................111 Liek and Zeileis ..............................................................................................115 The Freedom to Provide Cures .......................................................................120 “Quack’s Re-Awakening”...........................................................................123 Asthma Therapy and Fancy Titles...............................................................131 Class and Gender ........................................................................................140 Conclusion ......................................................................................................145 Chapter 4. “...fighting for truth and progress, against lies and backwardness”.............................................................................................147 The German League to Combat Quackery .....................................................147 The Rise of the DGBK.................................................................................147 Friends and Enemies...................................................................................153 Advertising .....................................................................................................156 The Exotic: Lukutate and the Rejuvenation Problem .................................158 Campaigns ......................................................................................................165 Involving the Lay Element...........................................................................171 The Corridors of Power ..................................................................................175 Conclusion ......................................................................................................177 Chapter 5. Rationalising the ‘Other’: Folk Medicine as an ‘Anti-Modern’ Tradition?.....................................................................................................180 Introduction.....................................................................................................180 Studying Self and Other..................................................................................181 Traditional and Modern Healers.....................................................................184 The Professionalisation of Lay Medicine....................................................187 Faith, Healing and Family Values: ‘Dr. Madaus & Co.’................................193 Magdalene Madaus .....................................................................................193 The Madaus Brothers in Business...............................................................196 Marketing Folk Medicine ............................................................................199 Madaus and the DGBK...............................................................................201 Making folk medicine scientific...................................................................207 Conclusion ......................................................................................................211 Conclusion.........................................................................................................213 The Meanings of Crisis ...............................................................................213 Revolution....................................................................................................218 Continuities .................................................................................................222 Bibliography .....................................................................................................225 3 List of Tables Table 1.1: The growth of the sickness insurance fund membership.................25 Table 1.2: Training or previous occupations of 224 chief executive officers of Ortskrankenkassen in 1928..........................................................................26 Table 1.3: The employment situation of German physicians in 1927..............44 Table 1.4: Doctors' estimated income from insurance payments. ....................46 Table 1.5: Incomes of Berlin medical professors in 1927. ...............................47 Table 1.6: The growth of the medical profession in Germany.