In the “twilight zone”: honorary members of the German Neurological Society 1954–1982

Abstract

From the mid-1950s to the early 1980s the German Neurological Society (DGN) appointed in addition to international physicians, numerous German physicians as honorary members. From apresent day perspective, some of them are to be classified as "incriminated" with their commitment to the National Socialist "movement" and its health policy goals, which at times went far beyond aformal membership of the party and its organizations. Thus, there is no doubt about the völkisch views of the Würzburg psychiatrist Martin Reichardt (1874-1966), which he articulated in lectures and publications. The Erb student Siegfried Schönborn (1874-1966), also a member of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP), was in contact with Karl Fahrenkamp, who advised Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler on medical issues. Hamburg-based Hans-Robert Müller (1901-1981), one of the "founding fathers" of the DGN, joined the Hitler party in 1937. In contrast, neurosurgeon Hans Kuhlendahl (1910-1992) was in addition amember of the Storm Troopers (SA). Hans Jacob (1907-1997), SA-Rottenführer, party comrade and head of the Neuropathology Department at Hamburg University, profited by the "euthanasia" action: as part of the so-called concomitant research he examined ca.40 brains of children who had been killed at the "special departments" in Langenhorn and Lüneburg. Unlike his peers, the renowned neurogeneticist Peter Emil Becker (1908-2000) is today judged as an opportunistic bystander. He was one of the few who faced up to his NS past later in life, but the response he met was ambivalent because he withheld mention of his party membership. With respect to the honorary members, it remains an open question why 40years after the end of the "Third Reich" the DGN still honored neurologists who in some cases had been heavily involved in the biopolitics of that era.