Felix Skutsch

Felix Skutsch (born January 14, 1861 in Königshütte , † February 19, 1951 in Leipzig ) was a German doctor and gynecologist .

Life

His father, Medical Councilor Fedor Skutsch, was a general practitioner in Wroclaw . Both parents, as well as the grandparents, were Jews . Felix Skutsch attended the Maria-Magdalenen-Gymnasium in Breslau , where he passed the matriculation examination in 1879 (together with Siegfried Czapski , Wilhelm Prausnitz and Richard Reitzenstein ). He then studied at the universities in Breslau , Leipzig and Freiburg .

With the work The Lacerations of the Cervix uteri, Their Significance and Surgical Treatment , he received his doctorate in 1884 at the University of Breslau. Skutsch began his professional activity on April 1, 1884 at one of the oldest university women's clinics in Central Europe in Jena as an assistant doctor under Bernhard Sigmund Schultze , professor of obstetrics and gynecology; In his time, he was one of the leading representatives of his field. Also scientifically promoted by his teacher, Skutsch became his closest collaborator in the same year, comparable to today's senior physician . In December 1886 Skutsch converted to the Christian faith and became a Protestant, Skutsch was a baptismal witness. The pelvic measurement on the living woman was the title of his work, which he did under Henry Brown in 1887 habilitated . After teaching as a private lecturer at the University of Jena until 1891 , he was appointed associate professor in 1891 . After his marriage in 1897, he ran a private medical practice in addition to teaching. The marriage to Helene Friedenthal had two children, Walther and Ilse, who later emigrated to the USA and England. When Skutsch was not awarded the hoped-for successor to Schultze as full professor and director of the university women's clinic in Jena, he left for Leipzig in 1903 . With the intercession of Paul Zweifel (professor of gynecology and obstetrics at the University of Leipzig) and the pathologist Heinrich Curschmann , Skutsch was able to retire in Leipzig. In addition to teaching at the university, Skutsch had an extensive practice as a gynecologist. In addition, from 1908 he headed a private women's clinic. In 1923 Skutsch was then also admitted to the Leipzig University as an associate professor. In 1925 he received a teaching position for theoretical obstetrics. Felix Skutsch was a founding member of the German Society for Gynecology (DGGG) and from 1913 to 1923 chairman of the Obstetric-Gynecological Society in Leipzig. He gave popular science lectures at the Leipzig Adult Education Center.

The measures taken by the National Socialist rulers against Jews then hit Skutsch hard. In September 1933 his teaching license at the university was revoked. This was followed by the termination of the activity of statutory health insurance physicians of non-Aryan descent , which affected him in 1936 and then in 1938 the final ban on the practice of Jewish doctors (Fourth Ordinance to the Reich Citizenship Act of July 25, 1938). The regulation on the registration of the property of Jews - also from 1938 - led Skutsch to drastic restrictions in the way of life in the next few years.

A planned emigration did not take place. Skutsch had to move several times, most recently he lived in a rear building and was deported together with his wife to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in February 1943 . The already 82-year-old Skutsch found a job as a doctor in the women's ward of the concentration camp hospital. He even gave medical lectures organized by the camp inmates. His wife died in the Theresienstadt camp in early 1944. Felix Skutsch was liberated by Soviet troops in May 1945 . He returned to Leipzig. From 1946 the University of Leipzig again led him as an associate professor.

From February 1946 to March 1947 Skutsch was temporarily commissioned with teaching and examining gynecology; in July 1947 he was appointed professor. Skutsch also gave guest lectures in Jena and Halle until 1948. At the end of his 90th year of life, a festive event took place in the lecture hall of the University Women's Clinic in Leipzig, with great participation.

In 2014, the University of Leipzig erected a memorial plaque for Skutsch in Leipzig's southern cemetery .

Works

• Works by Felix Skutsch in the catalog of the Thuringian University and State Library Jena
• Obstetric surgery theory. For students and doctors , Jena 1901
• Palpation of the abdominal and pelvic organs , Leipzig 1891

literature

• Meier, Annerose: The fate of life and scientific work of the gynecologist Felix Skutsch (1861-1951), doctorate at the University of Leipzig (1995)
• DBE, German Biographical Encyclopedia
• Lambrecht, Ronald: Political layoffs in the Nazi era, biographical sketches by professors at the University of Leipzig , Leipzig 2006
• Annual report 1879 of the St. Maria Magdalena grammar school in Breslau

Web links

• Personal details of Felix Skutsch in ghetto Theresienstadt
• Overview of Felix Skutsch's courses at the University of Leipzig (summer semester 1906 to summer semester 1914)
• Felix Skutsch in the professorial catalog of the University of Leipzig

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ingrid Kästner: The gynecologist Prof. Dr. med. Felix Otto Skutsch  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ Diana Smikalla: Memorial plaque for Prof. Dr. med. Felix Skutsch ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.