Albert Viethen

Albert Viethen (born November 23, 1897 in Mönchengladbach , † March 27, 1978 in Berchtesgaden ) was a German pediatrician and university professor .

Life

Albert Viethen was the son of the architect and builder Peter Wilhelm Viethen and his wife Anna Katharina, née Dautzenberg. He had seven siblings. He finished his school career in 1916 at the humanistic grammar school in Mönchengladbach. From the beginning of March 1916 to November 1918 he took part in the First World War as a soldier in the 1st Rhenish Pioneer Battalion , where he was deployed on the eastern and western fronts. He suffered several war injuries and retired from the army with the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd class with the rank of lieutenant of the reserve. He then completed a medical degree at the universities of Bonn, Freiburg and Cologne, which he had to interrupt in the meantime due to gas poisoning during the war. On December 10, 1923, he passed his medical state examination in Freiburg. He did his medical internship at the Medical Clinic and the Women's Clinic of the University of Freiburg. At the beginning of January 1925 he was approved and in 1926 Dr. med. PhD . From October 1924 he was employed at the University Children's Clinic in Freiburg, where, among other things, he headed the X-ray department and the children's tuberculosis care in Oberbaden. Most recently as senior assistant, he completed his habilitation in Freiburg in May 1932 for paediatrics and radiology and from 1933 acted as senior physician at his place of work.

Viethen joined the Stahlhelm in 1933 , to which he belonged for a year. At the time of National Socialism he became a member of the SS in 1934 (SS No. 244.227), where he rose to Obersturmführer at the end of January 1944. Furthermore, he belonged to the NS organizations NS-Ärztebund , NSV , NSKOV , NS-Altherrenbund and NSDDB . He became a member of the NSDAP in 1937 ( membership number 5,257,415), immediately after the ban on admission was relaxed . His marriage to Christa Schröder on June 24, 1937 in Berlin-Charlottenburg resulted in three children (2 sons and 1 daughter).

Around the beginning of 1936 he took over the deputy chair for paediatrics at the University of Freiburg and the provisional management of the university children's clinic there. The following year he was appointed associate professor. At the beginning of November 1937 he took over the representation of the chair of paediatrics at the University of Halle as well as the management of the university children's clinic there. Due to conflicts with the Medical Faculty in Halle, he applied for a transfer back to Freiburg and ended his work in Halle on August 1, 1938. In 1938, he declined appointments to the Medical Academy in Danzig and the University of Shanghai.

Instead, he was appointed to the chair of paediatrics at the University of Erlangen on October 1, 1939 , where he was also director of the university children's clinic.

Towards the end of the Second World War , Viethen was arrested by members of the US Army at the end of April 1945 due to his membership in the SS and released from the university office in November 1945. During his two-year internment, he went through several camps, where he worked as a camp doctor. In March 1947 he was released from internment. In December 1947 he was denazified as a fellow traveler after a trial chamber . After an appeal in September 1948, he was classified as exonerated. Viehten was unable to continue his university career. He initially practiced as a resident pediatrician in Erlangen and in mid-May 1949 became chief physician at the Felicitas Children's Hospital in Berchtesgaden. He was also the medical director of the “Schönsicht” children's sanatorium there, where child abuse occurred during his tenure, and he also worked in other children's sanatoriums. In 1958 he was officially retired . At the beginning of October 1962 he retired and then worked as a pediatrician.

Middle Viethen 1963 before the District Court of Ansbach for aid for murder accused in several cases. He was accused of having referred 20 children from the University Children's Hospital in Erlangen to the children's department at the Ansbach Sanatorium, where they were victims of child euthanasia . He gave u. a. stated that he did not know anything about child euthanasia and that former clinic employees agreed with him in this regard. In May 1964, he was released from persecution.

literature

• Dagmar Bussiek: Albert Viethen, Director of the University Children's Hospital in Erlangen 1939-1945 . In: Wolfgang Rascher, Renate Wittern-Sterzel (ed.): History of the University Children's Hospital Erlangen . V&R unipress, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-89971-205-6 , pp. 125-212.

Web links

• Entry on Albert Viethen in the Catalogus Professorum Halensis

Individual evidence

1. ↑ In the care of the Nazis at: tagesschau.de from August 10, 2020