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The persecution and expulsion of German-speaking neurologists were not limited to research centers, such as Berlin, Vienna, Frankfurt am Main and Hamburg. The exclusion from science, teaching and clinical care also occurred at other (university) sites. The different aspects and implementation of the exclusion are presented here exemplified by 10 physicians involved in neuroscience. These ranged from forced internal emigration (Georg Stertz/Kiel), racially motivated removal from office (Max Isserlin and Karl Neubürger/both Munich, Ernst Grünthal/Würzburg, Gabriel Steiner/Heidelberg, Rudolf Altschul and Francis Schiller/both Prague) to publicly staged denunciation and humiliation (Otto Löwenstein/Bonn). Furthermore, without being directly persecuted themselves, individual physicians reacted to the poisoned political and academic climate in that they either sooner or later left their homeland (Eduard Heinrich Krapf/Cologne, Hartwig Kuhlenbeck/Jena). The results and conclusions summarized in this article for university clinics and institutes represent only a narrow section of the neurological scene in 1933-1939; however, they emphasize how necessary an expansion of the historical research perspective is on the fate of neurologists at communal hospitals, in field practices and other professional areas.Verfolgung und Vertreibung deutschsprachiger Neurologinnen und Neurologen waren nicht auf Forschungszentren wie Berlin, Wien, Frankfurt am Main und Hamburg beschränkt. Der Ausschluss von Wissenschaft, Lehre und klinischer Versorgung erfolgte auch an anderen (Hochschul‑)Orten. Am Beispiel von zehn neurowissenschaftlich tätigen Ärzten sollen hier unterschiedliche Aspekte und Ausformungen der Ausgrenzung dargestellt werden. Diese reichten vom Erzwingen einer inneren Emigration (Georg Stertz/Kiel) über rassistisch motivierte Amtsenthebungen (Max Isserlin und Karl Neubürger/beide München, Ernst Grünthal/Würzburg, Gabriel Steiner/Heidelberg, Rudolf Altschul und Francis Schiller/beide Prag) bis hin zu öffentlich inszenierten Denunziationen und Demütigungen (Otto Löwenstein/Bonn). Ferner reagierten einzelne Ärzte – ohne selbst direkt verfolgt zu sein – auf das vergiftete politische und akademische Klima, indem sie früher oder später ihr Heimatland verließen (Eduard Heinrich Krapf/Köln, Hartwig Kuhlenbeck/Jena). Die hier für Universitätskliniken und -institute zusammengestellten Ergebnisse und Schlussfolgerungen betreffen nur einen schmalen Ausschnitt der neurologischen Szene in den Jahren 1933 bis 1939. Sie verdeutlichen allerdings, wie dringlich eine Erweiterung der historischen Forschungsperspektive auf das Schicksal von Nervenärztinnen und -ärzten an kommunalen Krankenhäusern, in Praxen und anderen Berufsfeldern ist.

This paper commemorates the careers and the scientific influence of the clinical neurologists Kurt Goldstein and Friedrich Heinrich Lewy including their forced migration in the mid-1930s. Goldstein (1878-1965) set up independent neurological departments in Frankfurt/Main and Berlin, adopting a decidedly holistic approach in medical care, research and teaching. He is therefore considered a co-founder of modern neuropsychology and neurorehabilitation. Goldstein came into the focus of the National Socialists as a Jew, socialist and adherent of psychotherapeutic methods. After a short incarceration he fled via Switzerland and Holland to the USA. Lewy (1885-1970) for his part specialized in neuropathological examinations and in 1912 quickly discovered the inclusion bodies in the cytoplasm of nerve cells named after him. As head of a neurological institute in Berlin with inpatient beds, he decided to leave Germany as early as 1933 and arrived after a stopover in England in the United States one year later. The biographies of the two highly innovative neurologists illustrate that career opportunities for doctors of Jewish descent were already clearly limited during the Weimar Republic and that they had to face anti-Semitic tendencies even after their arrival in the USA.Der Beitrag erinnert an die Karriere und das wissenschaftliche Wirken der klinischen Neurologen Kurt Goldstein und Friedrich Heinrich Lewy einschließlich ihrer erzwungenen Emigration Mitte der 1930er-Jahre. Goldstein (1878–1965) baute in Frankfurt am Main und Berlin jeweils unabhängige neurologische Abteilungen auf und vertrat in Krankenversorgung, Forschung und Lehre einen dezidiert ganzheitlichen Ansatz der Neurologie, der psychologische, philosophische und soziale Aspekte einschloss. Er gilt deshalb als Mitbegründer der modernen Neuropsychologie und Neurorehabilitation. Unmittelbar nach der Machtübergabe geriet er als Jude, Sozialist und Anhänger psychotherapeutischer Verfahren in den Fokus der Nationalsozialisten und floh nach kurzer Haft über die Schweiz und Holland in die USA. Lewy (1885–1970) wiederum spezialisierte sich auf neuropathologische Untersuchungen und entdeckte früh die nach ihm benannten Einschlusskörperchen im Zytoplasma von Nervenzellen. Als Leiter eines bettenführenden neurologischen Instituts in Berlin entschloss er sich bereits 1933 zum Weggang aus Deutschland und gelangte nach einer Zwischenstation in England ein Jahr später ebenfalls in die Vereinigten Staaten. Die Lebenswege der beiden höchst innovativen Neurologen verdeutlichen, dass Ärzte jüdischer Abstammung bereits in der Weimarer Republik in ihren Karrieremöglichkeiten deutlich eingeschränkt waren und auch nach ihrer Ankunft in den USA mit antisemitischen Tendenzen konfrontiert blieben.

The German Neurological Society (DGN) has commissioned historical research related to the expulsion and murder of German-speaking neurologists during the National Socialism era (NS). Intended as an introduction to the following background essays and biographies in this special issue of Der Nervenarzt, this article summarizes the results and perspectives of medical historical research addressing the persecution of German physicians. Additionally, it shows how the current project of the DGN fits into the context of an interdisciplinary culture of commemoration by a confrontation with National Socialism. Of particular importance for the DGN is that it was founded as the successor to the Society of German Neurologists (GDN), which was dissolved in 1935. In the early stages of the NS era, the GDN was the professional home of numerous Jewish specialists and those labeled "Jewish" by NS law, who were expelled from Germany and (after the "Anschluss" of 1938) from Austria, deported to concentration camps or driven to suicide. With this in mind, "persecution", "expulsion", and "extermination" raise not only questions of collegiality, decency, and morality. Investigating and remembering this era also affects today's public image of the neurological specialist society and constitutes an important part of its culture of remembrance and its history politics.Die Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurologie (DGN) hat die Vertreibung und Ermordung deutschsprachiger Neurologinnen und Neurologen während der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus (NS) untersuchen lassen. Als Einführung zu den nachfolgenden Hintergrundaufsätzen und Biografien in dieser Ausgabe von Der Nervenarzt fasst der vorliegende Aufsatz zum einen Ergebnisse und Perspektiven der medizinhistorischen Forschung zum Thema „Verfolgung“ zusammen. Zum anderen zeigt er, wie sich das aktuelle Erinnerungsprojekt der DGN in den Kontext einer fächerübergreifenden Auseinandersetzung mit dem Nationalsozialismus einfügt. Für die DGN ist dabei von besonderer Bedeutung, dass sie als Nachfolgerin der 1935 aufgelösten Gesellschaft Deutscher Nervenärzte (GDN) gegründet wurde. Insbesondere die GDN war zu Beginn der NS-Zeit die fachpolitische Heimat zahlreicher jüdischer und von den Machthabern als „jüdisch“ etikettierter Fachärztinnen und Fachärzte, die aus Deutschland und (nach dem „Anschluss“ 1938) aus Österreich vertrieben, in Konzentrationslager verschleppt oder in den Suizid getrieben wurden. Vor diesem Hintergrund werfen „Verfolgung“, „Vertreibung“ und „Vernichtung“ nicht nur Fragen der Kollegialität, des Anstands und der Moral auf. Der Umgang mit dieser Ära betrifft auch die aktuelle Außendarstellung der neurologischen Fachgesellschaft und konstituiert einen wichtigen Teil ihrer Erinnerungskultur sowie Geschichtspolitik.

Some 90 years after the beginning of the Nazi regime, the German Neurological Society (DGN) commissioned an investigation into the extent to which persecution, expulsion and extermination during the "Third Reich" also affected neurologists. In total, the biographies of 61 mostly Jewish physicians and scientists, of whom more than 70% were members of the neurological association of the time, could be analyzed. Most of them emigrated, a few remained in Germany or Austria despite persecution, and nine died in the Holocaust or by suicide. The racistically motivated expulsion affected all age groups, especially those who were 30-60 years old in "middle" positions. In close connection with Nazi legislation, three waves of emigration can be distinguished (1933-1934, 1935-1937, 1938-1939) and the clearly preferred destination country was the USA (64.7%). Younger age, knowledge of a universal language, reliable family and academic connections as well as internationally recognized publications, could make it easier to start a career in the country of exile. It was not uncommon for those who were involved in neurological fields before emigration to turn to basic science or psychiatry afterwards. The general "brain-drain"/"brain gain" hypothesis must be expanded by analyses on the biographical microlevel in order to illustrate the difficulties emigrants encountered when trying to start a new career and to publicize a sometimes unsuccessful acculturation. Not a single neurologist returned to Germany and, as far as can be assessed, any compensation, if at all was low. The critical assessment of the racistically motivated persecution between 1933 and 1945 can today be an occasion for the DGN and its members to reflect on collegiality as a value as well as to become more aware of structurally related discrimination and injustice and to counteract it in a timely manner.Im Auftrag der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurologie (DGN) sollte 90 Jahre nach Beginn der Herrschaft des Nationalsozialismus (NS) ermittelt werden, in welchem Ausmaß Verfolgung, Vertreibung und Vernichtung während des „Dritten Reichs“ auch Neurologinnen und Neurologen betroffen haben. Insgesamt konnten die Lebensläufe von 61 meist jüdischen Ärzten und Wissenschaftlern analysiert werden, von denen mehr als 70 % Mitglieder der damaligen Neurologenvereinigung waren: Die meisten emigrierten, wenige blieben trotz Verfolgung in Deutschland oder Österreich, 9 starben im Holocaust oder durch Suizid. Die rassistisch motivierte Vertreibung erfasste alle Altersgruppen, vorzugsweise die 30- bis 60-Jährigen in „mittlerer“ Stellung. In engem Zusammenhang mit der NS-Gesetzgebung lassen sich drei Auswanderungswellen unterscheiden (1933–34, 1935–37, 1938–39), eindeutig bevorzugtes Zielland stellten die USA (64,7 %) dar. Jüngeres Lebensalter, die Kenntnis einer Weltsprache, belastbare familiäre und wissenschaftliche Beziehungen sowie international wahrnehmbare Publikationsleistungen konnten den Karriereneustart im Exilland erleichtern. Nicht selten wandten sich vor der Emigration neurologisch Tätige danach den Grundlagenwissenschaften oder der Psychiatrie zu. Die pauschale „Brain-drain“/„Brain-gain“-Hypothese ist durch Analysen auf der biografischen Mikroebene zu erweitern, die einen oft schwierigen Wiedereinstieg in den Beruf und manchmal ein Misslingen der Akkulturation offenbaren. Kein einziger Neurologe kehrte nach Deutschland zurück, Entschädigungsleistungen fielen soweit beurteilbar eher schmal aus. Die kritische Reflexion der rassistisch begründeten Verfolgung zwischen 1933 und 1945 kann heute für die DGN und ihre Mitglieder Anlass sein, über Kollegialität als Wert zu reflektieren sowie strukturell bedingte Diskriminierungen und Ungerechtigkeiten verstärkt wahrzunehmen und ihnen frühzeitig entgegenzuwirken.

This article focuses on the historical context of the emigration of "Jewish" doctors during the "Third Reich". The approximately 9000 Jewish physicians, who were still able to emigrate, represented 17% of the German medical profession in 1933. Around three quarters of them left the German Reich by 1939, mainly for the USA, Palestine and Great Britain. Initially, Jewish organizations fueled hopes of a temporary exile; however, in the wake of the events of 1938 ("Anschluss" of Austria, failure of the Evian Conference, establishment of the Central Office for Jewish Emigration headed by Adolf Eichmann in Vienna, maximization of economic plundering etc.) emigration via the intermediate step of forced emigration had turned into a life-saving flight. Scientists could appeal to special aid organizations for support. Among the best known are the Emergency Community of German Scientists Abroad initiated in Zurich, the Academic Assistance Council founded in England, from which originated the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning as well as the Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced German Scholars created in New York. Their help was often subject to criteria, such as publication performance, scientific reputation and age. Promising researchers who were awarded a scholarship before 1933 could rely on a commitment from the Rockefeller Foundation. The historical analysis of options and motivations but also of restrictions and impediments affecting the decision-making process to emigrate, provides the basis for a retrospective approach to individual hardships and fates.Der Aufsatz fokussiert auf den historischen Kontext der Emigration „jüdischer“ Ärztinnen und Ärzte während des „Dritten Reichs“. Die etwa 9000 jüdischen Mediziner/-innen, die noch emigrieren konnten, repräsentierten 1933 rund 17 % der deutschen Ärzteschaft. Rund drei Viertel von ihnen verließen das Deutsche Reich bis 1939, vorwiegend in Richtung USA, Palästina und Großbritannien. Zunächst schürten auch jüdische Organisationen die Hoffnung auf ein temporäres Exil. Spätestens mit den Ereignissen des Jahres 1938 („Anschluss“ Österreichs, Scheitern der Konferenz von Evian, Gründung der „Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung“ in Wien unter Leitung von Adolf Eichmann, Maximierung der wirtschaftlichen Ausplünderung u. v. a. m.) hatte sich die „Auswanderung“ über die Zwischenstufe der „forcierten Emigration“ jedoch zur lebensrettenden „Flucht“ gewandelt. Dabei konnten Wissenschaftler die Unterstützung spezieller Hilfsorganisationen in Anspruch nehmen. Zu den bekanntesten gehören die in Zürich initiierte „Notgemeinschaft deutscher Wissenschaftler im Ausland“, das in England gegründete „Academic Assistance Council“, aus der die „Society for the Protection of Science and Learning“ hervorging, sowie das in New York entstandene „Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced German Scholars“. Oft war deren Hilfe von Kriterien wie Publikationsleistung, wissenschaftlichem Rang und Alter abhängig. Bereits vor 1933 geförderte vielversprechende Forscher durften auf ein gewisses Engagement der Rockefeller Foundation rechnen. Die historische Analyse von Optionen und fördernden Faktoren, aber auch von Restriktionen und hemmenden Einflüssen bei der Entscheidung zur Emigration bildet die Basis für retrospektive Annäherungen an individuelle Ausnahmesituationen und Einzelschicksale.

There were three Austrian neurologists with connections to neurology in National Socialism who have been honored by the German Neurological Society (DGN) or its predecessor organizations with honorary membership. From 1928 to 1934 Julius Wagner-Jauregg (1857-1940) was head of the Austrian Alliance for National Regeneration and the Study of Heredity; in at least two publications he advocated eugenic measures and racial hygienic positions as defined by Nazi ideology. As a former member of the Greater German People's Party (Großdeutsche Volkspartei), he applied for membership of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) a few months before his death. Walther Birkmayer (1910-1996) was an early member of the NSDAP, SA, SS and other Nazi organizations. As a staunch supporter of the "movement" he worked from 1938 in the Office of Racial Policy of the Gauleitung of Vienna. In lectures and publications he demanded or recommended forced sterilization for a number of neurological diseases. Due to the classification of his grandmother as "non-Aryan", he had to give up his party and university posts and served as a Wehrmacht physician. After some hard years immediately after the war, he was allowed to continue his career. As a co-discoverer of the effect of L‑DOPA on parkinsonism, he was awarded numerous honorary doctorates and honorary memberships. Franz Seitelberger (1916-2007), a member of an SS unit during the Nazi era, benefited in his research work from the 1950s onwards from specimens obtained in the course of neuropathological "concomitant research" to Nazi "euthanasia". It is to be welcomed that the Austrian Society of Neurology (ÖGN) will soon start a historical project investigating open questions related to the Nazi era.

On behalf of the German Neurological Society (DGN) former presidents, honorary presidents and honorary members were checked for possible formal or ideological affiliations with National Socialism (NS) 75 years after the NS dictatorship. When the DGN was reformed in 1950, 6 of the 7 "founding fathers" were former members of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP), which is in strong contrast with the traditional narrative of a "new beginning". The first four (Pette, Schaltenbrand, Vogel and Döring) and in total 10 out of 13 incumbent presidents until 1976 (Zülch, Bay, Hirschmann, Jung, Bauer, Behrend) as well as honorary president Bodechtel had belonged to the NSDAP, Storm Troopers (SA), or "Schutzsstaffel" (SS). Approximately two thirds of the German and Austrian honorary members appointed until 1985 had been associated with the NS system or the NS ideology (e.g. Becker, Birkmayer, Jacob, Reichardt, Seitelberger, Tönnis and von Weizsäcker). The individual attitude of neuroscientists towards eugenics ranged from approval to refusal and a few had been involved with (Appellate) Hereditary Health Courts. None of the physicians considered here were directly involved in killing patients but several of them knew of the "concomitant research" in the context of "euthanasia". Others used research resources generated during the "euthanasia"-programme and after 1945. The only professor of neurology who conducted ethically inacceptable human experiments was Georg Schaltenbrand. Almost all neurologists could pursue their career after the war, sometimes after having undergone lengthy denazification trials but very few of them were willing to face up to their past. Categorizations, such as "collaborators", "beneficiaries" and "physicians with ambivalent roles" should be replaced by a more differentiated assessment. When dealing with the past of German neurology it would be advisable to resort to a categorization of remembrance instead of naming awards after incriminated persons.

The German Neurological Society (DGN) instigated an investigation into potential incrimination of some of the previous leading members regarding their Nazi involvement. The persons in question include former (honorary) presidents and honorary members of the DGN (or the predecessor organizations) and the name givers of prizes awarded by the DGN. This introduction to the following biographies explains the difficulties and the broad discretionary leeway needed to establish an involvement in Nazi activities going beyond justiciable crimes against humanity on the basis of formal criteria (e.g. membership in the NSDAP and/or other NS organizations, involvement in Nazi crimes) and/or substantive indications (e.g. statements advocating the NS ideology, personal contacts to Nazi functionaries, active support of the system). A longitudinal analysis from 1945 until the present day reveals time-related variations in assessing who and why someone was considered to be a Nazi. A current overview of historical projects initiated by medical societies in Germany demonstrates that the endeavor of the DGN to deal with its Nazi involvement will be an integral part of the interdisciplinary "culture to cope with the past" of medical associations. Finally, it should be borne in mind that the fabric of history consists of a different material than clinical medicine or its natural scientific foundations. Checklists or scores for measuring NS involvement thus cannot and will not exist. Instead, balanced historical interpretations are needed as attempted by the biographical reconstructions presented in this volume.

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.

The article discusses the consequences for neurology as a discipline which resulted from neurologists' participation in the crimes committed under National Socialism (NS). Chronologically, the current literature distinguishes mainly four overlapping stages: (1) a first phase was characterized by legal persecution and "denazification", which was also the time of the Nuremberg doctors' trial in which no neurologists were on trial. A detailed documentation of the trial for the German medical profession was published by Alexander Mitscherlich. (2) In the subsequent practice of wide amnestying and reintegration of former Nazi followers during the 1950s, neurologists were no exception as its elite continued in their positions. The year 1953 was the year of the Lisbon scandal, when chiefly Dutch representatives protested against the participation of Julius Hallervorden in the International Congress of Neurology. The newly founded societies, the German Society for Neurology (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurologie, DGN) and the German Society for Psychiatry and Neurology (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Psychiatrie und Neurologie, DGPN), unanimously supported their member. (3) The next period was characterized by a nascent criticism of the prevailing attitude of covering up the crimes committed by physicians during the Nazi period. The discovery of incriminating brain sections at various Max Planck Institutes brought neurology to the focus of the debate. (4) Since the 1980s and 1990s historians (of medicine) have been systematically examining medicine's Nazi past in a professional way, which resulted in a noticeable increase of knowledge. Additionally, a new generation of scholars provoked a change of mind insofar as they recognized medicine's responsibility for the crimes committed between 1933 and 1945. We expect that future historical research will further elucidate the history of neurology during the NS regime and have consequences for our current understanding of research ethics.

The connection between systematic killing of the mentally ill and disabled, euphemistically called "euthanasia" in the National Socialism ideology, and German brain research has been thoroughly investigated and in detail; however, the impact of this criminal nexus on the image and self-perception of German neurologists as well as the status of neurology as a medical discipline is still the subject of controversial debates.Between 1939 and 1945 the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute (KWI) in Berlin along with other research centres were insofar enmeshed in the "euthanasia" program as brains of killed patients were dissected in the guise of "concomitant research" in order to generate medical knowledge. Affected were mainly individuals suffering from oligophrenia, early childhood brain atrophy, cerebral palsy and epilepsy. According to current historical research, collegial networks were instrumental in receiving brains of killed patients. Furthermore, civil research units were supplemented by military ones at the KWI. These, too, were concerned with the collection of medical knowledge, for instance on injuries of the brain and spinal cord. The historical approach to consider the Nazi organizations and medicine as "resources for each other" seems, therefore, at least in part applicable to neurology.

There are only a small number of studies dealing with the impact of eugenic theories and practices on the research of particular neurological diseases during the Third Reich. Thus, this contribution to the special issue on neurology in Germany between 1933 and 1945 focuses exemplarily on epilepsy research. By drawing on primary sources and secondary literature the article tries to reconstruct the scientific discourse of the time and consider the implications for patients. National socialistic ideology was based on eugenic thinking and the implementation of eugenic policies was a major political objective. An immediate effect of this policy was the passing of the Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring (Gesetz zur Verhütung erbkranken Nachwuchses) in 1933. According to this law "hereditary epilepsy" along with various other neurological and psychiatric disorders was regarded as a mandatory indication for forced sterilization. Subsequently, funding of epileptological research was generously increased and extended, e. g. at the German Research Institute (Deutsche Forschungsanstalt) in Munich and the Rheinische Provinzial-Institut in Bonn. The main focus was placed on idiopathic forms of the disease, which were a priori considered as hereditary. At the annual meetings of the Society of German Neurologists and Psychiatrists (Gesellschaft deutscher Neurologen und Psychiater), lectures and debates on epilepsy repeatedly constituted a key topic. Some participants opted for a broad interpretation of "endogeneity" and thus favored an extension of the practice of sterilization but others advocated a more differentiated and restricted attitude. Several neurology researchers showed a penchant for self-mobilization in line with the doctrine of the new government.

The history of the German Association for Psychiatry and--after its merger with the Society of German Neurologists in 1935--the Society of German Neurologists and Psychiatrists (Gesellschaft deutscher Neurologen und Psychiater, GDNP) during the period of National Socialism has been subjected to only rudimentary research. The conventionally accepted idea that two independent professional associations were "coordinated" from above and turned into the extended arm of Nazi genetic health policy (Erbgesundheitspolitik) against their will must be reconsidered. This paper asks how the relationship between the GDNP and the Nazi state can be described adequately. Psychiatry and neurology as practice and science, and the biopolicy development dictatorship of National Socialism functioned, so the basic thesis, as "resources for each other" (Mitchell Ash).

In Hamburg, the National Socialists' racially motivated exclusion principally hit neurologists from two institutions: the Eppendorf Neurological Clinic (director until 1934 Max Nonne) and the Psychiatric and Neurological Clinic of Friedrichsberg State Hospital (director Wilhelm Weygandt). The chief physician of the neurological department of Barmbek Hospital, Heinrich Embden (1871-1941), who had been trained by Nonne, emigrated to Brazil, whereas Friedrich Wohlwill (1881-1958), another Nonne pupil who had been a pathologist at St Georg since 1924, lived for many years in Lisbon, before he found a new scientific home at the Harvard Medical School. The cerebrospinal fluid researcher Victor Kafka (1881-1955), a Freemason and intermittent member of the Communist Party, was briefly in so-called protective custody (Schutzhaft) in Fuhlsbüttel then fled via Norway to Sweden. Hermann Josephy (1887-1960) and Walter R. Kirschbaum (1894-1982), both imprisoned in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp after the November pogroms in 1938, could successfully continue their professional careers in Chicago. Richard Loewenberg (1898-1954) first opted to continue his career in China, then changed his mind and also went to the USA after the Japanese invasion. With the exception of the latter all were full members of the Society of German Neurologists. The broad scope of their research work clearly illustrates that in addition to clinical core competence, former neurologists could intensively follow scientific interests in the neighboring disciplines of pathology, serology, and psychiatry.In der hanseatischen Metropole betrafen die rassistisch begründeten Ausgrenzungsmaßnahmen der Nationalsozialisten vor allem Nervenärzte aus zwei Institutionen: aus der Neurologischen Universitätsklinik Eppendorf, die bis 1934 Max Nonne führte, und der Psychiatrischen und Nervenklinik der Staatskrankenanstalt Friedrichsberg, die unter der Leitung von Wilhelm Weygandt stand. Der Chefarzt der Neurologischen Abteilung des Krankenhauses Barmbek Heinrich Embden (1871–1941), der bei Nonne ausgebildet worden war, emigrierte nach Brasilien, wohingegen der seit 1924 in St. Georg als Pathologe tätige Friedrich Wohlwill (1881–1958), ebenfalls ein Nonne-Schüler, nach einem längeren Aufenthalt in Lissabon eine neue wissenschaftliche Heimstatt an der Harvard Medical School fand. Der Liquorforscher Victor Kafka (1881–1955), Freimaurer und zeitweise Mitglied der Kommunistischen Partei Deutschlands (KPD), flüchtete nach kurzer „Schutzhaft“ in Fuhlsbüttel über Norwegen nach Schweden. Hermann Josephy (1887–1960) und Walter R. Kirschbaum (1894–1982), die beide nach den Novemberpogromen 1938 im Konzentrationslager Sachsenhausen inhaftiert waren, gelang eine erfolgreiche Fortsetzung ihrer beruflichen Laufbahn in Chicago. Richard Loewenberg (1898–1954) wollte seine Karriere in China weiterführen, entschied sich aufgrund der japanischen Invasion aber ebenfalls für die USA. Mit Ausnahme des Letzteren waren alle bis 1933 ordentliche Mitglieder der Gesellschaft Deutscher Nervenärzte. Das breite Spektrum ihrer Forschungen verdeutlicht, dass frühe Neurologen neben klinischer Kernkompetenz auch intensiv wissenschaftliche Interessen in den Nachbarfächern Pathologie, Serologie und Psychiatrie verfolgten.

Archival documents and further biographical testimonies reveal that dismissal and expulsion on racist grounds also affected neurologists in leading clinical positions and at an advanced age. Alfred Hauptmann (1881-1948), full professor for neurology and psychiatry in Halle/Saale, member of the Leopoldina and discoverer of phenobarbitone treatment for epilepsy, emigrated first to Switzerland and then to the USA after the anti-Jewish pogroms in November 1938 and a subsequent "protective custody" imposed on him at the age of 58 years. Adolf Wallenberg (1862-1949), a self-made neurologist, described the syndrome later named after him in 1895. As a clinician he carried out research in the field of neuroanatomy until the National Socialists ousted him from his workplace in Danzig. At the age of 77 years, he emigrated to the USA via Great Britain, but did not manage to settle down again in his profession. For both physicians, neurology was their purpose in life, they felt patriotically attached to their home country and saw no future for themselves after their late forced emigration. Hauptmann is today commemorated by an award for experimental and clinical research on epilepsy, Wallenberg by the German Neurological Society award for outstanding achievements in the fields of cerebrovascular diseases, brain circulation and brain metabolism.Wie Archivdokumente und weitere biografische Schlüsselzeugnisse zeigen, konnten Entlassung und Vertreibung aus rassistischer Motivation auch Neurologen in leitender klinischer Stellung und in fortgeschrittenem Lebensalter betreffen. Alfred Hauptmann (1881–1948), Entdecker der Phenobarbital-Behandlung der Epilepsie, Ordinarius für Neurologie/Psychiatrie in Halle/Saale und Mitglied der Leopoldina, entschloss sich erst nach der sog. Reichspogromnacht im November 1938 und einer anschließend gegen ihn verhängten „Schutzhaft“ im Alter von 58 Jahren zur Ausreise in die Schweiz und kurz darauf in die Vereinigten Staaten. Adolf Wallenberg (1862–1949) hatte als „Self-made-Neurologe“ 1895 das später nach ihm benannte Syndrom beschrieben. Als in Praxis und Klinik tätiger Arzt forschte er auf neuroanatomisch-neurohistologischem Gebiet, bis die braunen Machthaber ihn aus seiner Wirkungsstätte in Danzig vertrieben. Über Großbritannien emigrierte er im Alter von 77 Jahren in die USA, ohne dort beruflich nochmals Fuß fassen zu können. Beide hier vorgestellten Ärzte eint, dass die Neurologie ihr Lebensinhalt war, sie sich ihrem Heimatland Deutschland patriotisch verbunden fühlten und nach der späten Emigration aber keine Perspektive mehr für sich sahen. An Hauptmann erinnert heute ein Preis für experimentelle und klinische Forschungen zur Epilepsie, an Wallenberg die gleichnamige Auszeichnung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurologie (DGN) für hervorragende Forschungsleistungen auf den Gebieten zerebrovaskuläre Erkrankungen, Hirndurchblutung und Hirnstoffwechsel.

The neurologists Sir Ludwig Guttmann and Robert Wartenberg had a number of things in common, e.g., both enjoyed high international recognition for the clinical care they provided to paraplegics and for their contributions to the development of neurological diagnostics. Both were born before 1900. Both were classified as "Jewish" by the National Socialist regime because of their origins. Both had to flee from Germany in the 1930s but nevertheless did not appear to harbor any grudges after 1945; however, both also show differences even more than similarities. Guttmann (1899-1980) stood up for those persecuted, for instance during the November pogroms in 1938. After his late emigration, he soon found a new home in England. His skills in neurosurgery enabled him to convert a military hospital into the world's leading treatment center for spinal cord injuries. He was the founder of the Paralympic Games and received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II. In 1971 the German Neurological Society (DGN) awarded him with a late honorary membership during the presidency of the former SS captain Helmut Bauer. In contrast, Robert Wartenberg (1886-1956) found a new neurological home at the University of California in San Francisco and published numerous books, some of which also attracted attention in the German translation. On various occasions, he opposed the remembrance of National Socialist injustice and even justified the "concurrent research" in conjunction with "euthanasia".Sir Ludwig Guttmann und Robert Wartenberg verbinden einige Gemeinsamkeiten, z. B. ihre hohe internationale Anerkennung – zum einen für die klinische Versorgung von Querschnittsgelähmten, zum anderen für Beiträge zur neurologischen Diagnostik. Beide waren vor 1900 geboren, beide wurden aufgrund ihrer Herkunft als „jüdisch“ kategorisiert, mussten Deutschland in den 1930er-Jahren verlassen und hegten dennoch scheinbar nach 1945 kaum Groll. Noch mehr als Gemeinsamkeiten weisen beide allerdings Unterschiede auf. Guttmann (1899–1980) setzte sich mutig für Verfolgte ein, etwa in der sog. Reichskristallnacht. Nach seiner späten Emigration fasste er bald Fuß in England. Auch neurochirurgisch versiert, machte er aus einem Kriegslazarett die weltweit führende Behandlungsstätte für Rückenmarkverletzte, begründete die Paralympischen Spiele und wurde in den Adelsstand erhoben. 1971 würdigte ihn während der Präsidentschaft des ehemaligen Schutzstaffel(SS)-Hauptsturmführers Helmut Bauer auch die Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurologie (DGN) mit einer späten Ehrenmitgliedschaft. Robert Wartenberg (1886–1956) dagegen fand an der University of California in San Francisco eine neue neurologische Heimstatt und publizierte Bücher, die teilweise auch in deutscher Übersetzung Beachtung fanden. Bei verschiedenen Gelegenheiten stellte er sich gegen ein Erinnern an das nationalsozialistische Unrecht und rechtfertigte sogar die „Begleitforschung“ zur „Euthanasie“.

With the implementation of the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service (1933), including the Third Implementation Decree (1934), the Regulation for Obtaining a Teaching License (1934) and the Law for the Dismissal and Transfer of University Teachers (1935), the National Socialist (NS) government created legislative instruments to ban university staff (from lecturers to full professors) labelled as Jewish or considered politically unwanted from teaching and research. Whereas around 20% of the staff at the universities were affected by these measures after 1933, at various medical faculties the figures reached 30-40% and at neurological departments and institutes sometimes up to 90%. Student Nazi activists played a significant role in expelling faculty members from office. As beneficiaries of the expulsions, young doctors often improved their career prospects and established professors remained silent out of political conviction, opportunism or fear. A (self) coordination (Gleichschaltung) with immediate or gradual exclusion of "non-Aryan" members and boards is documented for numerous medical organizations and associations (e.g. Deutscher Ärztevereinsbund, Hartmannbund, German Medical Women's Association, Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians) as well as for scientific academies (e.g. Leopoldina) and research societies (Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes, German Research Foundation). The NS-loyal Society of German Neurologists and Psychiatrists, which had been founded in 1935, tolerated "Jewish" members until 1938. As a whole, the picture that emerged from everyday medical (and neurological) practice is one of drastic changes that massively affected not only the lives of many doctors but also the moral standards in terms of patient care, teaching, research and collegiality.Durch das Berufsbeamtengesetz samt Dritter Durchführungsverordnung (1933), die Reichshabilitationsordnung (1934) und das Gesetz über die Entpflichtung und Versetzung von Hochschullehrern (1935) hatten die nationalsozialistischen (NS) Machthaber legislative Instrumente geschaffen, um als jüdisch etikettierte oder politisch missliebige Hochschulangehörige vom Lehrbeauftragten bis zum Ordinarius von Lehre und Forschung auszuschließen. Während an den Universitäten zwischen 1933 und 1945 um die 20 % des Personals von diesen Maßnahmen betroffen waren, erreichten die Zahlen an einzelnen Medizinischen Fakultäten 30–40 % und in neurologischen Kliniken und Instituten teilweise bis zu 90 %. Studentische NS-Aktivisten und -Aktivistinnen spielten bei Vertreibungen aus Amt und Anstellung eine bedeutende Rolle, Jung-Ärztinnen und -Ärzte sowie Assistentinnen und Assistenten verbesserten als „Vertreibungsgewinnler“ oft ihre Karriereperspektiven, etablierte Professorinnen und Professoren schwiegen aus politischer Überzeugung, Opportunismus oder Angst. Eine (Selbst‑)Gleichschaltung mit unverzüglicher oder allmählicher Ausgrenzung „nichtarischer“ Mitglieder und Vorstände ist für zahlreiche ärztliche Standesorganisationen und Verbände (Deutscher Ärztevereinsbund, Hartmannbund, Bund Deutscher Ärztinnen, Kassenärztliche Vereinigung) ebenso belegt wie für wissenschaftliche Akademien (z. B. die Leopoldina) und Forschungsgesellschaften (Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institute, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft). Die seit 1935 bestehende linientreue Gesellschaft Deutscher Neurologen und Psychiater duldete „jüdische“ Mitglieder bis 1938. Alles in allem ergibt sich für den medizinischen (und neurologischen) Alltag das Bild einschneidender Veränderungen, die nicht nur Lebenswege vieler Ärztinnen und Ärzte, sondern auch moralische Standards von Krankenversorgung, Lehre, Forschung und Kollegialität massiv beeinflussten.

This paper aims at reconstructing the biographies of six German neurologists during and after the "Third Reich". Between 1957 and 1976, five of them were presidents of the German Neurological Society (DGN), the sixth was appointed honorary president in 1981. They all joined the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) or Storm Troopers (SA) as young doctors between the ages 20 and 35 years. According to the current state of research they thus have to be classified as formally incriminated, yet none of them developed significant (health) political activities, with the slight exception of Eberhard Bay (1908-1989), who once acted as expert witness in an Hereditary Health Court trial. Gustav Döhring (1909-1963), NSDAP member since 1937, Pette student and co-founder of the DGN, was secretary of the Society for many years and editor of a commemorative publication. Johannes Hirschmann (1910-1991), also a party comrade since 1937, served as an army and military hospital doctor from 1939 to 1945. Richard Jung (1911-1986) had joined the SA in 1934. This entailed his immediate dismissal after the war from the University of Freiburg but benefitting from the support by the dean he could pursue his career not long thereafter. Robert Charles Behrend (1919-1996) became a party member at the age of 20 years and with his time in office in 1975-1976 he was the last of the post-war presidents of the DGN connected to National Socialism in Germany. Older than these five was honorary chairman Gustav Bodechtel (1899-1983) a member of the SA, NSDAP and other Nazi organizations. He was dismissed in 1946 but reinstated just 1 week later due to the interventions by the Medical Academy Düsseldorf and the Mayor of the City. New findings on these personalities are exclusively based on archival research. This underlines the necessity of resorting to sources previously neglected when investigating biographies of twentieth century neurologists.

Max Nonne, an internationally renowned German neurologist, acted from 1918 to 1924 as president of the (first) Society of German Neurologists (GDN). Appointed honorary president in 1925, he held this position in the (second) German Neurological Society (DGN) until his death. Since 1961, this association has honored 16 neurologists with a commemorative medal named after Nonne. His outstanding findings in various fields of neurology are uncontested and some of them live on as eponyms (Nonne-Apelt syndrome, Nonne-Froin syndrome, Nonne-Milroy-Meige syndrome); however, recent archival studies and an analysis of individual publications deeply darkened the image of the "grey eminence" of German neurology. Records kept at the Hamburg State Archive prove that in a memorandum from 1941/1942 following the example of Binding and Hoche, Nonne firmly approved the killing of "life absolutely unworthy of living". In a report addressed to the District Court of Hamburg he attested in 1946 that many physicians charged with manslaughter acted in accordance with the regulations governing "child euthanasia", resulting in the withdrawal of the accusation. In a further statement from 1949 he confirmed that the killing of children and the "euthanasia program" during the NS era were consistent with the state of medical science. An earlier book chapter authored by Nonne immediately after World War I suggested that his social-Darwinistically colored concept of mankind was developed clearly before the Nazi era. Notwithstanding the arrangement to which he came with the new powers after 1933 and his acceptance of tributes to him by them, he repeatedly stood up for his Jewish colleagues. He was never a Nazi, nevertheless, he engaged in activities that fostered NS "euthanasia" going far beyond a "mentality of approval".

The Nazi regime held power for well over a decade in Germany and were steadfast in their anti-Semitic agenda. Among the massive cohort of immigrants to America were approximately 5056 Jewish physicians, including several highly esteemed neurologists and neuroscientists of the time. Emigrating to a new world proved difficult and provided new challenges by way of language barriers, roadblocks in medical careers, and problems integrating into an alien system of medical training and clinical practice. In this article, the authors examine the tumultuous and accomplished lives of three Jewish German and Austrian neurologists and neuroscientists during the time of the Third Reich who shaped the foundations of neuroanatomy and neuropsychology: Josef Gerstmann, Adolf Wallenberg, and Franz Josef Kallmann. The authors first examine the successful careers of these individuals in Germany and Austria prior to the Third Reich, followed by their journeys to and lives in the United States, to demonstrate the challenges an émigré physician faces for career opportunities and a chance at a new life. This account culminates in a description of these scientists’ eponymous syndromes.Although their stories are a testimony to the struggles in Nazi Germany, there are intriguing and notable differences in their ages, ideologies, and religious beliefs, which highlight a spectrum of unique circumstances that impacted their success in the United States. Furthermore, in this account the authors bring to light the original syndromic descriptions: Gerstmann discovered contralateral agraphia and acalculia, right-left confusion, and finger agnosia in patients with dominant angular gyrus damage; Wallenberg described a constellation of symptoms in a patient with stenosis of the posterior inferior cerebellar artery; and Kallmann identified an association between hypogonadotropic hypogonadism and anosmia based on family studies. The article also highlights the unresolved confusions and international controversies about these syndromic descriptions. Still, these unique cerebral syndromes continue to fascinate neurologists and neurosurgeons across the world, from residents in training to practicing clinicians and neuroscientists alike.