Abstract
51 years after its founding in 1882, the "Congress for Internal Medicine", 1920 renamed "German Society for Internal Medicine (DGIM)", fell into heavy water. While during the Kaiserreich and the Weimar Republic the medical care for the individual patient had never been seriously questioned, the proclaimed “Third Reich” brought fundamental changes. The 1164 male and 13 female physicians, who had been organized in the DGIM 1933, had to position themselves in the Nazi dictatorship. The same applied for the society as a whole.
The behavior of the German Society of Internal Medicine during the Nazi period is disenchanting. The society completely subordinated to the Nazi regime. The scientific program of the meetings was oriented to the ideological interests of the regime. Solidarity with nazi-persecuted people is only apparent in rare cases. On the contrary, even DGIM chairmen were involved in expulsions and NS-medical crimes. Cautious criticism was limited to a few areas, such as the “Neue Deutsche Heilkunde” (“New German Healing”) and the study conditions at the universities. Only individual DGIM members developed oppositional behavior on the basis of personal conviction.
In accordance with the more recent research on the Nazi era, these results both clarify and broaden the picture of scientific organizations in general and medical societies in particular.
In einer dreiteiligen Reihe widmet sich die DMW der Geschichte der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Innere Medizin (DGIM), einer der traditionsreichsten und größten Fachgesellschaften. Zunächst steht die Zeit des Nationalsozialismus im Vordergrund. Spätere Beitrage befassen sich mit den (Dis-) Kontinuitäten der Nachkriegszeit sowie den Reform- und Beharrungstendenzen um 1968.
Schlüsselwörter
Medizingeschichte - Deutsche Gesellschaft für Innere Medizin - NS-Zeit - Alfred Schittenhelm - Leopold Lichtwitz
Key words
history of medicine - german society for internal medicine - nazi era - Alfred Schittenhelm - Leopold Lichtwitz
