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Johann Heinrich Rille, also characterized as a renowned nestor of German-speaking dermatovenereology, was named as extraordinary professor for syphilis and skin diseases in Leipzig in 1902, the second oldest university in Germany. Although the chair of dermatology was promised this was postponed for many years, not only because of World War I but also due to an ongoing struggle for dermatology to be accepted as an independent specialty in Germany. Finally, in 1919, the long overdue promotion to full professor was granted. Rille commented on this as "successful partial coping with the ordeal of German dermatology in Leipzig".

Internationally, Helmut RENNERT (1920-1994) was one of the most renowned representatives of psychiatry in the GDR. From 1958 until 1984 he was the chair of the department of psychiatry and neurology at the Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg. He was also the chairman of the Association for Neurology and Psychiatry of the GDR for many years. The textbook on neurology and psychiatry which he prepared together with Rudolf LEMKE (1906-1957) turned into the standard textbook for training and education in the GDR. RENNERT became well known primarily with his model of the universal genesis of endogenous psychoses in which he propagated the idea of unitary psychosis. In 1965 he became a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and as vice- president he represented the medical section. RENNERT belonged to the so-called second generation of professors which established itself at the end of the 1950s at university clinics in the GDR. As the leading experts and academic lecturers they influenced the field with respect to education and research for the entire time the GDR existed. This generation of professors maintained a strong bond with their academic teachers and continued their tradition in the sense of a "school" for the most part independent of political circumstances and restrictions.

This paper examines the impact of the political system change after 1945 on the appointment of paediatric professorships in the Soviet Occupation Zone and the GDR up until the time the Wall was built in 1961. It can be demonstrated that the political purge in the post-war period had only minor impact on the appointment of professorships and the National Socialist past no longer mattered after the conclusion of denazification. In 1957, the proportion of former NSDAP members among East German university professors of paediatrics was 100 per cent. When it came to new appointments, both members of the "bourgeois" academic non-professorial teaching staff from the GDR as well as paediatricians from West Germany, who had largely gained their scientifically qualifications under National Socialism, were in the running. A politically-controlled elite exchange did not take place until the construction of the Wall. State and party organs generally followed the personnel proposals of the universities since an insufficient number of qualified candidates was available for the systematic appointment of ,,progressive" paediatricians. Given the lack of staff, the SED personnel policy was aimed at the integration of previous elites, as long as they behaved loyally towards the new state. Since the East German faculties continued to make the questioning of the professionally competent professors in West Germany and East Germany the basis for their appointment lists, West German university paediatricians were able to exert considerable influence on the appointment of East German paediatric professorship until 1960s.

After WWII a politically guided staffing policy foresaw an exchange program for professors from the Soviet Occupation Zone and the German Democratic Republic (GDR). In the field of medicine this initiative was not successful. With respect to university psychiatric/neurological hospitals this experiment failed as a result of a shortage of personnel due to the consequences of war, denazification and people migrating into western occupation zones. Criteria for politically selecting promising young talent which had been propagated by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, SED) were thus not relevant in academic medicine until 1961; however, the communist rulers had great interest in bringing professional and academic resources up to date. Politically implicated representatives in the field were also included in this process. At the forefront was the interest in functioning medical care and education in order to be able to train much needed health professionals. At the end of the 1950s a new generation of professors was established at the university hospitals. This generation rotation demonstrated the politically intended replacement of the "old" professor generation and the transition to a new GDR generation that had been trained after 1945. This second generation of professors inherited vacant professorships and defined and shaped research and academia until the end of the GDR much more than the previous generation had and also more than the one that followed. The generation of professors continued to feel a strong affiliation with their academic teachers and consequently continued their tradition in the sense of a school, for the most part independent of political circumstances.

This essay provides an overview of the scientific literature regarding the history of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Wittenberg, Germany. The University of Wittenberg was the domain, where Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchton worked; in the 16th century it was one of the greatest universities of the Holy Roman Empire. There has been a controversial discussion on the history of the Faculty of Medicine since the mid-19th century. Since the 1980s, it is an accepted and studied field of research on its own. The various publications on the topic can be subdivided into three specific areas: 1. Reformation and medicine, 2. biographic works on professors of medicine, and 3. historical works regarding social and librarian fields of research. The results of those works can be interpreted and merged in view of the Faculty of Medicine. However, for a revalidation of the faculty's role within an European scientific scene further scrutiny of sources is needed.

The statutes of the Faculties of Medicine of the Universities Rostock and Bützow are in the process of being edited and translated from Latin in to German. This article gives the first critical examination of the oldest statutes of the Faculty of Medicine of the Alma Mater Rostochiensis.

This is to remember Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland (1762-1836) who at his time was one of the most influential German physicians and whose ideas are living even nowadays. Three letters to Brockhaus that have been found recently document an ambivalent attitude towards this publisher., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

Paul Diepgen (1878-1966), professor emeritus in Berlin in 1945, remained a leading figure within the field of German medical historians from 1947 onwards in his capacity as "guest professor" in Mainz. The present article focuses on two areas in which Diepgen was particularly active within his academic field as documented in his extensive correspondence: firstly the resumption of contacts with émigrés and other foreign colleagues which was hampered by Diepgen's ambivalent relationship to the National Socialist regime and secondly the establishment of the history of medicine as a full academic discipline. Up until 1961, he continued to nominate his pupils who had been politically "incriminated" during the Nazi period for academic positions, but simultaneously encouraged younger colleagues and campaigned for the establishment of a comprehensive academic degree course in the history of medicine. An examination of the confrontation between Diepgen and Werner Leibbrand additionally reveals Diepgen's not always uncontroversial concept of the history of medicine.

This paper arises out of my research which I have been conducting in the context of my dissertation project. It explores the relationship between teaching, research and collecting practices in Viennese anatomy during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. In a time in which Viennese medicine tried to reinvent itself through both the creation of a new curriculum and several other institutional measures the practice of establishing comparative and human anatomical collections can be seen as a strategic key field of action. By concentrating on scientific journals, popular texts, catalogues, correspondences and specimens this paper aims at revealing specific social systems which must be understood as parts of the 'social history' of Viennese anatomy. By looking closely at these social aspects of anatomical teaching and research, this work tries to contribute to recent discussions addressed by historians of science and medicine.

In December 2012 we celebrated the reconstruction of the Department of Pathology at the Vienna Medical School. This short report presents the evolution of this institute by its directors and their main achievements. From Rokitansky to Kerjaschki we follow the path from the work at the morgue to the modern diagnostic methods für personalised medicine.

Professor Riehm was not only an excellent pediatric oncologist, but also an excellent hematologist. He was a mentor also for young scientists who were interested in hematological research as his/her main focus. In the 1970s he has promoted research in coagulation disorders, during 1980s he supported the investigation on hematopoetic growth factors. During the 1990 s he was one of the first in Europe who have used hematopoietic growth factors as a supportive therapy in the protocol ALL-BFM and has also helped to set up the International Registry for Severe Chronic Neutropenias [SCNIR] in his Department. The sense of the top research directions of the time distinguishes him not only as a pioneer of the leukaemia therapy studies, but also as a pioneer in hematology. He created the environment in which research could blossom., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)

This essay examines the workings of the so called Court Committee for the Revision of University Studies. The main duty of this institution was to evaluate the structure of the whole educational system of the Habsburg Empire. These records have not received much notice hitherto from historians of medicine. Nevertheless, they deserve attention, as they are quite full of information regarding the "how" of medical education and health care management around 1800. Johann Peter Frank, at that time professor at the Medical Faculty of Vienna was responsible for reform proposals. His deliberations shed fresh light not only on the structures of Viennese Medical Faculty itself but also on different educational policies in the medical sciences in Central Europe around 1800.

Nowadays, it seems evident that natural and complementary medicine is represented amongst medical faculties. This was not always the case. Especially in the German speaking countries, more than 100 years of history were necessary. A short history of those academic developments that explicitly led to present day activities in naturopathy and complementary medicine is given by descriptions of persons and institutions. At present, 8 professorships dedicated to either naturopathy or complementary medicine or both could be identified in German speaking countries, thus representing academic medicine at its highest levels. Naturopathy and complementary medicine had received a strong reception in academic medicine. However, the vast majority of present day activities is financed by non-profit organizations and thus depends on their economic development., (Copyright © 2013 S. Karger AG, Basel.)

Franz Schneider (13.09.1812-29.11.1897) in 1850 was appointed the first lecturer on "Chemistry for physicians" by the Viennese university. Two years later he accepted the professorship in the military medical schools in the "Josephinum" from where he shifted to the philosophical faculty as professor of "Common and medical chemistry". Soon after this start in 1870 he became unable to continue his work because of an explosion during experiments. Thus in 1876 the emperor called Schneider to the Austrian public health administration as director. In the following twelve years he achieved great successes in his duties. As a scientist he had worked on various topics of organic and inorganic chemistry. But beyond that Schneider succeeded in imparting to his assistants the modality of scientific work and the way of hygienic thinking. Thus his scholars Josef Nowak, Florian Kratschmer and Max Gruber were well prepared to become Austria's first university hygienists.

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.

Background: During the period of National Socialism, many politically motivated changes occurred in Germany in all areas of medicine and consequently in the field of dermatology as well. Most of the Jewish dermatologists were removed from their positions; many of the chair reshuffles were executed for political causes. These changes caused decline of dermatology in the time of National Socialism., Study: This report gives an overview of the developments and changes in the Dermatological University Hospital (DUH) at Greifswald between 1933 and 1945. 3000 medical records were evaluated and archival data and literature reviewed. With these data we were able to reconstruct historical, medical and political aspects., Results: We found a rapid increase in the number of patients suffering from venereal diseases during World War II and an increase in compulsory treatment as well as in forced sterilization. In six cases, the DUH was involved in the practice of compulsory sterilization. Research was performed with mustard gas in patients at the DUH.

The paper presents biographical data of a total of 84 medical students at the University of Marburg during the first two decades of the 17th century. Of these 73 studied between 1608 and 1620, however, when the faculty had a till now unnoticed flowering caused by a new beginning which centred on modern chymiatric medicine and made the Marburg University attractive especially for non-Hessian and foreign students of medicine. Apart from matricles and doctorates, the analysis focuses on sources of information relevant to the length of stay at the Marburg faculty. According to that the highest number of medical students in a single year, for instance, amounted to 27 and 28 in 1615 and 1616 respectively.

Hermann Oppenheim (1858-1919) had a financially modest upbringing and studied medicine in the German cities of Göttingen and Bonn. At the Berlin Charite Hospital, where he had become a lecturer, and as an established neurologist he eventually cofounded the Association of German Neurologists. It was his life's goal to establish neurology as a special field of medicine. At the height of his teaching career, he spent a decade (from 1891 to 1901) trying to attain full professorship. His efforts eventually fell prey to arrogant and delaying decisions at the administrative level, which he countered by resigning from the medicine faculty of Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin. Internal antisemitic tendencies could be seen in these difficulties. Oppenheim himself was a member of the Central Association for Citizens of the Jewish Faith, an association for strengthening Jewish identity and Jewish awareness. His possibilities were exhausted at the university level. There remains the question of how much he could have achieved, had the full range of opportunities been made available to him.

Atypical career of a chemist in Germany around 1800 consisted of being trained as an apothecary, followed by an occupation as a professor at a university or another institution of higher education. These conditions deeply influenced the concept and the practice of chemistry as a science. Johann Friedrich August Göttling is an intriguing example for merging education and daily duties of teaching with the self-image of a scientific chemist. He linked chemical teaching, work, and research by using different hybrid media, such as the Almanach oder Taschenbuch für Scheidekünstler und Apotheker, a stove specifically designed for the narrow student's room, portable laboratories, a pharmaceutical boarding school and textbooks. This allowed him to practice three different forms of chemistry as a science. A "socio-epistemological diagram" of German chemistry around 1800 shows that these forms neatly corresponded to the then predominant three-level epistemology. In particular, the concept of a chemical fact served to link pharmaceutical practice with teaching practice, while granting only the chemistry done by professors the status of a science.

The art nouveau painter Gustav Klimt (1862-1918), a cofounder of the Vienna Secession movement, was commissioned in 1894 to prepare three ceiling paintings for the Great Hall of the University of Vienna portraying the faculties of "Philosophy," "Medicine," and "Jurisprudence." After the first public presentations of these paintings starting in 1900 fierce protests erupted since the artist had not painted a historical allegory but rather had created a modern symbolic picture in the Secessionism style. The controversy over the so-called faculty paintings escalated to the point that in 1905 Klimt irrevocably distanced himself from the commission and bought back his pictures from the state. The paintings were later purchased by the Austrian Gallery and in 1943 placed in storage in Lower Austria at the Immendorf Castle where they were destroyed by a fire in May 1945 when the German troops withdrew. Besides Klimt's preliminary sketches, only black and white photographs of the three paintings now exist as well as a color reproduction of the section depicting Hygieia from the "Medicine" painting. Due to the public rejection of the faculty paintings, Gustav Klimt broke away from official government-commissioned art and focused on private clients from among Viennese society. One of these intensive associations was with the anatomist Emil Zuckerkandl and his wife Berta, who was very active in cultural affairs. During the dispute over the faculty paintings, Zuckerkandl was one of the few university professors who signed a petition in favor of retaining the paintings. His brother, the industrialist Victor Zuckerkandl, was one of the major collectors and patrons of Secessionist art. The third brother, the well-known urologist Otto Zuckerkandl (1861-1921), president of the Second and Third Congresses of the German Society of Urology in 1909 and 1911, was also in close contact with Klimt. A portrait of his wife Amalie was a work in progress between 1913 and 1917, but it remained unfinished.

In the course of its history the University of Giessen was threatened several times by closure, due to the University's geographical location, size, or a relative lack of reputation. This paper deals with the policy of the University's Medical Faculty during the Nazi period, when it faced specific demands and opportunities. While the University's restructuring had been initiated by some active National Socialists, this process was pragmatically supported by the Medical Faculty as a whole in order to gain advantages from its location. In particular, the Faculty (1.) institutionalized racial hygiene--a chair for one of the most radical representatives of this subject in Germany was requested--and (2.) established collaboration with the "Wehrmacht". The newly opened up perspectives for research were seen as an opportunity. In fact, from 1940 the University of Giessen was frequented again by many medical students; in 1943, the Berlin Academy for Military Medicine relocated some institutes and scientists to the University of Giessen, as the capital had become too unsafe for them because of increasing air raids.

Albert Döderlein and his son Gustav had as professors in Munich and Jena a formative influence on the German gynecology in the first half of the 20(th) century. Albert Döderlein discovered the lactobacillus named after him and its function, he was one of the first who employed radiotherapeutics in cancer therapy and introduced the rubber glove in obstetrics and gynecology. But he also wrote the gynecologic text to the "Bill for prevention of progeny suffering from an inherited disease dated 14(th) June 1933". After his time at the university hospital Charité, between 1936 and 1945 he was medical superintendent of the department of gynecology and obstetrics at the Police Hospital in Berlin. He can be regarded as the founder of antenatal care in Germany. Both scientific and historic aspects of the biographies of these two professors are critically looked right past.

The University of Breslau was one of the most important universities in Germany in the first half of the 20th century. Breslau was the capital of the state of Silesia which became Polish territory. The university was closed after World War II. There were attempts to transfer the entire Medical Faculty to an established German university in Heidelberg, Leipzig, and Mainz, but these efforts failed. All 18 full professors from Breslau tried to get a university position; 16 moved to the western zones while two were in the eastern zone of Germany. Only 11 professors were successful in obtaining a position. Factors determining who was successful were evaluated. The scientific or political background of the professors played much less of a role than informal networking. Detailed biographies of the 18 full professors complete this report.

On the occasion of the bicentenary of Carl Rokitanskys birth, I was kindly asked to review the relationship between the two great pathologists, Rokitansky and Virchow. As Virchow specialist and editor of the first complete edition of his work, I found the task of writing about their relationship particularly interesting. Although much has written on the subject, I tried to find new points to further illuminate their relationship.

On February 19th 2004 we celebrated the 200th anniversary of Carl Rokitansky's birth. Together with Morgagni and Virchow, Rokitansky paved the way for the development of modern pathology. In addition, he was the co-founder of the so-called Second Vienna Medical School. Rokitansky represents a personality on the threshold of the change in medicine from a phenomenological-dominated philosophy to an evidence-based science. This jubilee essay aims at outlining this development particularly with regard to the Vienna Medical School before and after Rokitansky.

Much research has been done on the work of the alleged "psychicist" Johann Christian August Heinroth (1773-1843). However, his academic career has not yet been investigated in depth. For the first time, original archive material and other sources are quoted to illuminate his history and that of the first European chair of psychiatry at Leipzig University in Germany. Heinroth was first appointed associate professor (without a specific subject), and on 21 October 1811 he became the first associate professor of "psychic therapy". Despite his efforts, this chair was not transformed into a fellow professorship in 1815. In 1819, Heinroth succeeded in being appointed fellow professor, but for medicine in general and not psychiatry in particular. Thus his position was upgraded but his subject was not. After Heinroth's death in 1843, Justus Radius (1797-1884) took over psychiatry as a third, "part-time" chair. After several shifts in responsibilities, he ceased being explicitly referred to as professor of psychiatry.

Letters were the central medium of communication in the medical scientific community of the 18th century. Professional as well as personal relationships were established among the various correspondents. These relationships constituted the smallest units of communication which contributed to the regional and international scientific network of the Republic of Letters. A correspondence that grew out of a trusted teacher-student relationship could gain an especially intense character both intellectually and personally. This contribution offers an analysis of an example of just such a correspondence. Lorenz Heister (1683--1758), medical professor at the universities of Altdorf and Helmstedt, and his disciple, Christoph Jacob Trew (1695--1769), who became a renowned physician and natural scientist in Nuremberg, communicated in letters to one another over a span of almost forty years. Their correspondence started as a rather asymmetrical dialogue. Over time, however, Heister and Trew came to meet as equals in almost every field of their competence. Their letters reveal a broad spectrum of scientific, organisational, professional, medical and personal issues which formed the basis of a stable and lasting learned correspondence in the age of Enlightenment.