http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Sauerbruch
Ernst Ferdinand Sauerbruch (3 July 1875 – 2 July 1951) was a German surgeon.
Sauerbruch was born in Barmen (now a district of Wuppertal), Germany. He studied medicine at the Philipps University of Marburg, the University of Greifswald, the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, and the University of Leipzig, from the last of which he graduated in 1902. He went to Breslau in 1903, where he developed the Sauerbruch chamber, a pressure chamber for operating on the open thorax, which he demonstrated in 1904. As a battlefield surgeon during World War I, he developed several new types of limb prostheses, which enabled simple movements.
Sauerbruch worked at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich from 1918 to 1927 on surgical techniques and diets for treating tuberculosis. From 1928 to 1949, he worked at the Charité in Berlin, attaining international fame for his risky (but mostly successful) operations. Before World War II, Adolf Hitler awarded him the German National Prize for Art and Science. Sauerbruch supported many political objectives of Nazis such as its anti-western views and anti-semitism(although he was against the radical methods of elimination of Jews)[1]
In 1937, he became Reichsforschungsrat (Reich Research Council) that supported "research projects" of the SS, including experiments on prisoners in the concentration camps. In 1942, he became Surgeon General to the army – in this position he accepted experiments with mustard gas on prisoners in the concentration camp Natzweiler. On 12 October 1945, he was charged by allies with having contributed to the Nazi dictatorship. He was dismissed from his office at the Berliner Gesundheitsrat. He received no conviction.[2]
Sauerbruch's name may appear in histories of iatrogenesis, or adverse effects resulting from medical treatment. Late in life, he became demented and continued to perform absurd operations on many patients, with fatal results. His colleagues detected the errors but were unable to stop him because of his fame and power (for an account, see Youngson, 1997[3]).
Sauerbruch died in Berlin at the age of seventy-five. His life was portrayed in the German 1954 film Sauerbruch – Das war mein Leben, which is based on his memoirs Das war mein Leben.
A high school in Grossröhrsdorf in Saxony in modern Germany bears his name[4]
His son Peter Sauerbruch (5 June 1913 – 29 September 2010) was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 4 January 1943 as a Hauptmann in the general staff of the 14. Panzer-Division and leader of a Kampfgruppe "Sauerbruch".
[edit] References1.^ Doctors Under Hitler Michael H. Kater page 138-139 The University of North Carolina Press 2000
2.^ http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/3214.html
3.^ Youngson RM (1997). "The demented surgeon is operating". Medical Curiosities. New York: Carroll & Graf.
4.^ Dubious Role Models:Study Reveals Many German Schools Still Named After Nazis Jan Friedmann 02/04/2009 Spiegel Online
[edit] BibliographyFerdinand Sauerbruch: Das war mein Leben, Autobiography, 639 pages, Kindler u. Schiermeyer 1951
Interesting to note his son
His son Peter Sauerbruch (5 June 1913 – 29 September 2010) was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 4 January 1943 as a Hauptmann in the general staff of the 14. Panzer-Division and leader of a Kampfgruppe "Sauerbruch".
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