Neurologie und Neurologen in der NS-Zeit: Voraussetzungen und Rahmenbedingungen vor und nach 1933

Abstract

This article focuses on the institutional development of neurology in Germany up to the rise to power of the National Socialists and the radical sociopolitical changes after 1933. A wide range of scattered secondary literature was assessed and evaluated. Additionally, some original sources are literally quoted and interpreted according to the context. Since the end of the nineteenth century a complicated process of separation from internal medicine and psychiatry led to the formation of a self-conscious discipline of neurology. The first generation of German neurologists succeeded in founding the German Journal for Neurology ("Deutsche Zeitschrift für Nervenheilkunde") in 1890 and their own neurological association, the Society of German Neurologists ("Gesellschaft Deutscher Nervenärzte", GDN) in 1907. On an international scale, however, the institutional implementation of neurology with only a small number of chairs and few neurology departments remained more than modest. The ambitions for autonomy ended 2 years after the change of power in 1933. Regulatory interventions by the government and psychiatric interests led to the fusion of the GDN with the psychiatric specialist society, the new association being called the Society of German Neurologists and Psychiatrists ("Gesellschaft Deutscher Neurologen und Psychiater", GDNP) in 1935. In this group psychiatrists dominated the discourse. The expulsion, imprisonment and murder of physicians declared as non-Aryan or Jewish along with the forced consolidation ("Gleichschaltung") at the universities prompted profound changes in medical and academic life. It remains an ongoing challenge of neurological historical research to measure the impact of this upheaval on the few neurology departments in hospitals and private practices.

Historical review: a short history of German neurology – from its origins to the 1940s

“…Some were deported to concentration camps or chose suicide. The long list of emigrants reads like a “Who’s who” of Central European neurology: Josef Gerstmann, Kurt Goldstein, Sir Ludwig Guttmann, Friedrich Heinrich Lewy, Adolf Wallenberg, Robert Wartenberg, and many others [ 13 , 14 , 18 ]. This particularly distressing chapter in the history of German neurology will be the subject of a further project inaugurated by the German Society of Neurology.…”

“…Two features characterize the evolution of German neurology. One is its long-lasting relation with internal medicine and psychiatry, the other its late autonomy [ 14 , 17 , 24 ]. In order to fully comprehend this development which is different from many other countries, two watershed moments are of special interest: the foundation of a professional society for neurology in 1907, and the emergence of separate neurological chairs, departments and hospitals from 1955 onwards.…”

Babinski, Bektherev, Cerletti, Head, and Hitzig: European Neurologists Nominated for the Nobel Prize 1901–1950

“…Such an alternative approach has proven fruitful in studies about Nobel Prize nominations of physicians in Eur Neurol 2020;83:542-549 DOI: 10.1159/000509078 different fields, for example, in surgery [6], cardiology [7], pharmacology [8], and psychiatry [9] to investigate mechanisms of reputation and credit in medicine. The article aims at pinpointing nominated neurologists for the Nobel Prize during the first half of the 20th century from (in alphabetical order) France, Germany, Italy, Russia, and the UK -5 of the leading European countries in this respect during the time period [10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. Which were "the favourite sons" [17] among the nominees in each country, and how were they portrayed in the nomination letters?…”

Neurologie und Neurologen in der NS-Zeit: Nachwort

“…erscheint als einzige Schlussfolgerung aus der Geschichte der Neurologie im Nationalsozialismus, die in den Aufsätzen des Sonderheftes von Der Nervenarzt [1][2][3][4] …”