Ferdinand Sauerbruch
Encyclopedia
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
surgeon
Surgery
Surgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...
.
Sauerbruch was born in Barmen
Barmen
Barmen is a former industrial metropolis of the region of Bergisches Land, Germany, which in 1929 with four other towns was merged with the city of Wuppertal, North Rhine-Westphalia. Barmen was the birth-place of Friedrich Engels and together with the neighbouring town of Elberfeld founded the...
(now a district of Wuppertal
Wuppertal
Wuppertal is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in and around the Wupper river valley, and is situated east of the city of Düsseldorf and south of the Ruhr area. With a population of approximately 350,000, it is the largest city in the Bergisches Land...
), Germany. He studied medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
at the Philipps University of Marburg
Philipps University of Marburg
The Philipp University of Marburg , was founded in 1527 by Landgrave Philip I of Hesse as the world's oldest university dating back to a Protestant foundation...
, the University of Greifswald, the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena
Friedrich Schiller University of Jena
Friedrich Schiller University of Jena , is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany....
, and the University of Leipzig
University of Leipzig
The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...
, from the last of which he graduated in 1902. He went to Breslau in 1903, where he developed the Sauerbruch chamber, a pressure chamber for operating on the open thorax, which he demonstrated in 1904. This invention was a breakthrough in thorax medicine and allowed heart and lung operations to take place at greatly reduced risk. As a battlefield surgeon during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, he developed several new types of limb prostheses
Prosthesis
In medicine, a prosthesis, prosthetic, or prosthetic limb is an artificial device extension that replaces a missing body part. It is part of the field of biomechatronics, the science of using mechanical devices with human muscle, skeleton, and nervous systems to assist or enhance motor control...
, which for the first time enabled simple movements to be executed with the remainig muscle of the patient.
Sauerbruch worked at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich
Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich
The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich , commonly known as the University of Munich or LMU, is a university in Munich, Germany...
from 1918 to 1927 on surgical techniques and diet
Diet (nutrition)
In nutrition, diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism. Dietary habits are the habitual decisions an individual or culture makes when choosing what foods to eat. With the word diet, it is often implied the use of specific intake of nutrition for health or weight-management...
s for treating tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
. From 1928 to 1949, he was the head of the surgical department at the Charité
Charité
The Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin is the medical school for both the Humboldt University and the Free University of Berlin. After the merger with their fourth campus in 2003, the Charité is one of the largest university hospitals in Europe....
in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, attaining international fame for his innovative operations. Because of his experience and extraordinary skills he quickly attained an international reputation and operated on many prominent patients. At the same time he was well known for his uncompromising and passionate dedication to all patients independent of their social, political or ethnical backgrounds. Before World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the Nazi Government awarded him the German National Prize for Art and Science
German National Prize for Art and Science
The German National Prize for Art and Science was an award created by Adolf Hitler in 1937 as a replacement for the Nobel Prize . The award was designed by Müller-Erfurt and created in the form of a pendant studded with diamonds...
. Sauerbruch position towards the Nazi regime is ambiguous and the subject of debate. In his position he was clearly in contact with the political elite but he was never a member of and did not support the political objectives of the NSDAP. He was, however, a fervent nationalist who wanted to undo the "humiliation of Versailles" and was keen to show off his country as an advanced and sophisticated society. While he had accepted the "German Nationalpreis", a short-lived German alternative to the Nobel-Prize, he also publicly spoke out for people who were prosecuted (e.g. Liebermann). He was part of the so-called Mittwochgesellschaft, a group of scientist that included critical voices and he was arrested in the context of the connection of his son Peter to Carl Graf v. Stauffenberg.
In 1937, he became Reichsforschungsrat (Reich Research Council) that supported "research projects" of the SS, including experiments on prisoners in the concentration camps. After extensive research, however, it is clear that he has not been in connection with any concrete cases; in the opposite he was one of the few University professors who publicly spoke out against the NS-Euthanasia program T4. In 1942, he became Surgeon General to the army – in this position he should have known of experiments with mustard gas on prisoners in the concentration camp Natzweiler. On 12 October 1945, he was charged by allies with having contributed to the Nazi dictatorship, but not convicted for lack of evidence.
Sauerbruch stayed at his station throughout the whole war, his operating theatre was literally taken by the Red Army in 1945. Late in life, he became demented and was dismissed from the Charité because he continued to perform operations on patients, some with uncertain results. His colleagues detected the errors but were unable to stop him because of his fame and power (for an account, see Youngson, 1997).
Sauerbruch died in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
at the age of seventy-five. His life was portrayed in the German 1954 film Sauerbruch – Das war mein Leben
Sauerbruch – Das war mein Leben
Sauerbruch – Das war mein Leben is a 1954 German film. It is based on surgeon Ferdinand Sauerbruch's memoirs Das war mein Leben, which were ghostwritten by Hans Rudolf Berndorff and were published in the German magazine Revue shortly before the release of the film. The film was shot from 26...
, which is based on his memoirs Das war mein Leben he is buried in Berlin-Wannsee.
A high school in Grossröhrsdorf in Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
in modern Germany bears his name
His oldest son Hans Sauerbruch (1910-1996), became a painter; he lived in Berlin, Rome and after the war in Konstanz am Bodensee
His second son Peter Sauerbruch (5 June 1913 – 29 September 2010) was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was a grade of the 1939 version of the 1813 created Iron Cross . The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was the highest award of Germany to recognize extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership during World War II...
on 4 January 1943 as a Hauptmann
Hauptmann
Hauptmann is a German word usually translated as captain when it is used as an officer's rank in the German, Austrian and Swiss armies. While "haupt" in contemporary German means "main", it also has the dated meaning of "head", i.e...
in the general staff
General Staff
A military staff, often referred to as General Staff, Army Staff, Navy Staff or Air Staff within the individual services, is a group of officers and enlisted personnel that provides a bi-directional flow of information between a commanding officer and subordinate military units...
of the 14. Panzer-Division
14th Panzer Division (Germany)
The German 14th Panzer Division was an armoured division in the German Army during World War II. It was created in 1940 by the conversion of the 4th Infantry Division.- Commanding officers :...
and leader of a Kampfgruppe
Kampfgruppe
In military history and military slang, the German term Kampfgruppe can refer to a combat formation of any kind, but most usually to that employed by the German Wehrmacht and its allies during World War II and, to a lesser extent, in World War I...
"Sauerbruch". he lived in Hamburg and Munich
His third son, Friedrich Sauerbruch, was a surgeon as well. He was assisting his father and was actually responsible for the termination of his fathers activities at the Charité (which had become too risky due to his illness). He lived in Berlin and later in Moers