Anatomist Hermann Stieve used Nazi victims for his research on the menstrual cycle, but did he also fabricate facts?

Abstract

PurposeHermann Stieve (1886–1952), director of the Berlin Anatomical Institute from 1935, benefited from the rise of execution numbers during the “Third Reich”. He used organs and tissues from executed women for his histological research on the reproductive organs and investigated the influence of “nervous agitation” on the cyclical changes of endometrium and ovary. It is still controversial how he was able to acquire intimate data on the executed women and it was therefore suggested that some of his data may have been “invented”.MethodsNewly emerged dissection protocols and histological drawings from Stieve’s research, together with archived court records, enable a more detailed analysis of Stieve’s published data.ResultsWe extracted 304 case descriptions from Stieve’s publications. Of these, 88 could be linked with 33 identifiable women and related historical records. Nearly all reported causes of death and/or verdicts of executed women were false. Reported clinical data, particularly the day of the menstrual cycle and uterine bleeding shortly before death, are more difficult to verify. We found non-standardised documentation and possible confusions of cases, which may in part be attributable to war effects.ConclusionStieve actively concealed the fate of the executed women, mostly by inventing imaginary stories. This followed a request by the German and Soviet authorities after 1945 not to publish results from cases of political victims, but only from “dangerous criminals”. Scientifically relevant clinical data were not always reported correctly, but are not necessarily fraudulent as different interpretations of this finding can be suggested.