Mit allen Mitteln…“ Berufungsverfahren und fachpolitische Auseinandersetzungen um die Orthopädie an Berliner Universität und Charité in der Zeit des Kaiserreichs, der Weimarer Republik und des Nationalsozialismus

In 1934 the NSDAP University-Commission forced the president of the German Society of Surgery and the chairman of the German Orthopaedic Society to sign a reconciliation agreement. First of all, orthopaedists and surgeons were ordered to refrain from attacking each other in public. In the future, in the event of any complaints, they were to address the ‚Reichsärzteführung‘ at the Ministry of the Interior. On the basis of papers and documents from the archives of the medical faculty, the East German Ministry for State Security and the former Berlin Document Centre, this article describes the history of the emerging medical specialty orthopaedics at the University of Berlin and the Charité hospital. It covers a period from 1890 through 1945 and focuses on the varying relations between political authorities, medical associations and the faculty. The main attention is given to ethical and economic disputes and to the way in which professors for orthopaedics were appointed. The two pioneers of orthopaedic surgery, Julius Wolff and Albert Hoffa had to overcome less resistance than their successors Georg Joachimsthal and Hermann Gocht. Gocht’s fate changed, when the NSDAP took Power. As a protégé of the regime he represented the medical faculty during the period of political cleansing. In 1937 the appointment of the orthopaedist Lothar Kreuz as a full member of the medical faculty was no longer a university matter anymore. His appointment was negotiated entirely within the organisations of the NSDAP. Politically approved, Kreuz served as dean of the medical faculty and later was to be the last rector of the University of Berlin. For the first time, this article documents the connections between Kreuz, the paramilitary squadron of the party SS, and key political figures.