Virchow medallists and honorary members of the German Society of Pathology and their relationship with National Socialis
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Mathias Schmidt1 · Christina Gräf · Dominik Gross1 1
Institute for the History, Theory and Ethics of Medicine, RWTH Aachen University Hospital, Aachen, Germany
Virchow medallists and honorary members of the German Society of Pathology and their relationship with National Socialism A cross-sectional study Introduction In 1948, the Deutsche Pathologische Gesellschaft (DPG; German Pathological Society) was refounded as the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Pathologie (DGP; German Society of Pathology). This step not only revived the tradition of the specialist society, which was founded in 1897, but also ushered in a new era of a changed and decidedly democratic sociopolitical framework, a phenomenon which can also be observed in this or a similar manner for other specialist medical societies [43]. Within the framework of the ongoing research project “Pathology and Pathologists under National Socialism,” it is necessary to clarify the extent to which the post-war, re-established DGP distanced itself from former National Socialists in its ranks, thus setting into motion a political reorientation, and the extent to which the DGP offered pathologists who had been disenfranchised during the Third Reich opportunities for reintegration. These aspects have been investigated in two studies, the first of which focused on the role of the DGP’s preThis article was written in the context of the DGP-funded research project on the “Role of Pathology and its Representatives in the Third Reich.” The German version of this article can be found under https://doi.org/10.1007/s00292020-00764-1
decessor DPG and its representatives in the Third Reich as well as on the DGP’s “appointment policy” in the Federal Republic of Germany. The results of this first study are quite remarkable: About two-thirds of the German DGP chairmen appointed in the years up to and including 1986 had been members of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, NSDAP) before 1945; some also belonged to other National Socialist organizations. From this, it can be deduced that if an earlier political commitment to National Socialism existed, it did not significantly impact on the election to the office of chairman in the post-war period—and certainly did not present a criterion for exclusion from consideration. In addition, the study shows that almost all former NSDAP members from the ranks of the DGP executive boards in the Federal Republic were able to continue to pursue or even expand their careers [24]. The second, complementary study presented here promises similarly important insights. It focuses on the circle of German pathologists who (1) were granted honorary membership by DGP officials or received the Virchow Medal in the Federal Republic of Germany and (2) had reached the age of adulthood by the end of the Third Reich. This study thus examines in particular the political
orientation as well as the political experiences of the honorees, and also parses the criteria of the society when awarding such honors. In contrast to
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