Disparate lives: Ludwig Guttmann and Robert Wartenberg

Abstract

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 anew home in England. His skills in neurosurgery enabled him to convert amilitary hospital into the world's leading treatment center for spinal cord injuries. He was the founder of the Paralympic Games and received aknighthood from Queen ElizabethII. 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 anew 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".