Friedrich Mauz

Friedrich Robert Mauz (born May 1, 1900 in Eßlingen am Neckar ; † July 7, 1979 in Münster ) was a German psychiatrist and neurologist , at the time of National Socialism a T4 reviewer and professor of psychiatry and neurology at several universities .

Life

Mauz, son of a doctor, studied medicine at the University of Tübingen . After the First World War he was a member of the Tübingen student battalion. At the Psychiatric University Clinic in Tübingen, he focused on psychiatric training with Robert Gaupp . Between 1922 and 1923 he was a research assistant there and then an assistant doctor until 1926. In his first scientific article he dealt with the topic: About schizophrenics with pycniac physique: A contribution to clinical diagnostics and prognostics , which appeared in 1923 in the journal for the whole of neurology and psychiatry. With this theme doctorate he attended the University of Tübingen in 1926 to Dr. med. In 1926 Mauz followed his mentor Ernst Kretschmer to the University Psychiatric Clinic in Marburg, where he worked as a senior physician from 1927. His habilitation took place in 1928 with the work The prognostic of endogenous psychoses , an extension of the doctrine of constitution , which was published in 1930.

Mauz is one of the few German psychiatrists who dealt with the psychotherapy of schizophrenics as early as the 1920s . He followed up on Eugen Bleuler's conception as it was received by Robert Eugen Gaupp and Ernst Kretschmer in Tübingen. In his habilitation thesis, Mauz argued that psychotherapeutic interventions could be made in the case of mild schizophrenia and that certain schizophrenic defects could be compensated for after an acute attack, not least “through active psychotherapeutic procedures”. Mauz did not initially deal with the psychotherapy of schizophrenics. He did not take up this issue again until 1948, but was rejected by his colleagues.

From 1928 he taught as a private lecturer at the University of Marburg .

time of the nationalsocialism

Mauz signed the professors' commitment to Adolf Hitler at German universities and colleges in November 1933, even before he was appointed adjunct professor at the University of Marburg in 1934. He also became a judge at the Hereditary Health Supreme Court in Kassel . Mauz, who was a member of the SA as a squad leader in 1934 , joined the NSDAP in 1937 . He was also a member of the National Socialist Teachers' Association (NSLB), the National Socialist German Medical Association (NSDÄB) and the National Socialist Cultural Association. As a substitute, Mauz taught at the University of Gießen in 1936 and from the winter semester 1937/1938 at the University of Kiel . There, however, Mauz is said not to have been taken on as a full professor because there were doubts about his National Socialist attitude. The background was the knowledge that his son's godfather was a half-Jew and a Social Democrat . Professional aspects may also play a role, since he represented the psychotherapeutic treatment of psychoses . Mauz finally returned to Marburg University Hospital in 1938.

Mauz moved in 1939 as director and associate professor at the University Psychiatric Clinic in Königsberg, where he stayed until 1945. From 1941 he was a full professor at the University of Königsberg and, during the Second World War, senior field doctor and military psychiatrist for Military District I in Königsberg. From September 2, 1940 until January 29, 1941, Mauz was an external expert for Aktion T4 and worked on a law on euthanasia ("Law on assisted suicide for the terminally ill"). The bill was finalized at the end of August 1940, but did not become legally valid.

After the end of the war

Soon after the end of the war, Mauz became director of the Ochsenzoll Psychiatric Hospital in Hamburg-Langenhorn . In a note from the health authorities it said: "His position in Hamburg means a great benefit for us scientifically and also medically". A critical reappraisal of the history of this institution, which was deeply involved in the National Socialist “euthanasia” program , was not to be expected from this man.

Mauz was investigated because of his T4 expertise, but the proceedings were discontinued on May 24, 1951. Mauz claimed that he had not processed the registration forms sent to him and not sent them back to the Aktion T4 headquarters . At least in no case did he recommend euthanasia to any patient. Mauz, who had also taken part in an expert meeting as part of Aktion T4 in Berlin, testified on August 10, 1960 before the Public Prosecutor's Office in Frankfurt am Main :

"This was the reason for me [...] measures of the regime at that time, which one was confronted with, not to evade, but to save what can be saved [...] Now that I knew what was being played, I immediately after my return after Königsberg intensively used to counteract the T4 campaign. "

In fact, according to an expert report by the DGPPN , Mauz was directly involved in the killing of patients as an expert in 25 cases. The commission headed by Volker Roelcke also found no evidence that Mauz - as he claims - was reluctant to cooperate or even delayed proceedings.

From 1953 until his retirement in 1968, Mauz was director of the University Neurological Clinic in Münster and professor at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster . He redesigned the clinic in line with his psychotherapeutic ideas. Mechanical restraints were banned while methods such as hypnosis and dream analysis were used. Mauz was skeptical of physical treatment methods such as electroconvulsive therapy or insulin shock therapy and warned that the introduction of psychotropic drugs could destroy psychotherapeutic approaches.

In 1956 he was a member of the Medical Advisory Council for questions relating to the provisions of war victims at the Federal Ministry of Labor . From 1956 Mauz belonged to the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina . The honorary membership of the German Society for Psychiatry and Neurology , which he had been president of in 1957/58, was officially revoked in 2011.

Mauz was the father of three children, a son and two daughters. His son Gerhard Mauz (1925–2003) was a court reporter for the magazine Der Spiegel .

Fonts (selection)

• Psychiatric writings - Münster / Westphalia: University Clinic for Psychiatry, 1985, reprint
• The human of our time from a medical point of view - Cologne: Dt. Doctors Publishing House, 1956
• The predisposition to seizures - Leipzig: G. Thieme, 1937
• The prognosis of endogenous psychoses - Leipzig: G. Thieme, 1930
• On schizophrenics with a pycnian physique - Berlin: Springer, 1923

literature

• Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 (= Fischer 16048. The time of National Socialism ). 2nd Edition. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 .
• Ernst Klee: "Euthanasia" in the Nazi state. The "destruction of life unworthy of life" ; Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer Verlag, 1983, ISBN 3-10-039303-1 .
• Ernst Klee: What they did - what they became. Doctors, lawyers and others involved in the murder of the sick or Jews . 12th edition, Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-596-24364-5 .
• GW Schimmelpenning: Psychotherapy for schizophrenics in the German post-war period. In: Medizinhistorisches Journal 22 (1987), pp. 369-381.

Web links

• Mauz, Friedrich. Hessian biography. (As of March 22, 2020). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jürgen Peiffer: Hirnforschung in Deutschland 1849 to 1974. Letters on the development of psychiatry and neurosciences as well as the influence of the political environment on scientists , Springer, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3540406905 , p. 1097
2. ↑ ^{a b} Marion Grimm: Alfred Storch (1888-1962): Daseinsanalyse und Anthroposophische Psychiatrie , Gießen 2004, dissertation, p. 106 (pdf; 1.9 MB)
3. ↑ ^{a b} Resolution to withdraw honorary memberships from November 24, 2011 (PDF) ( Memento from August 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) on the DGPPN website , here p. 1 f. and 4-6.
4. ↑ Heinz Schott and Rainer Tölle : History of Psychiatry. Disease teachings, wrong ways , forms of treatment , Munich 2006, p. 535f.
5. ↑ Schimmelpenning, Psychotherapie bei Schizophrenics, pp. 372–376, cited above. 375.
6. ↑ ^{a b c d} Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich: Who was what before and after 1945. , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 396
7. ↑ Hanns Hippius : University Colloquia on Schizophrenia , Steinkopff-Verlag, Darmstadt 2004, Volume 2, ISBN 3-7985-1486-0 , p. 195
8. ^ Ernst Klee: "Euthanasia" in the Nazi state. The "destruction of life unworthy of life" ; Frankfurt am Main, 1983, pp. 227f., 241f.
9. ↑ Hanns Hippius: University Colloquia on Schizophrenia , Steinkopff-Verlag, Darmstadt 2004, Volume 2, ISBN 3-7985-1486-0 , p. 195
10. ↑ Peter von Rönn: The development of the Langenhorn institution ... In: Klaus Böhme, Uwe Lohalm (ed.): Paths to death. Hamburg 1993, p. 118
11. ↑ Ernst Klee: What they did - What they became. Doctors, lawyers and others involved in the murder of the sick or Jews , Frankfurt am Main 2004, p. 169
12. ↑ Friedrich Mauz during a testimony before the General Public Prosecutor's Office in Frankfurt am Main on August 10, 1960. Quoted in: Ernst Klee: What they did - What they became. Doctors, lawyers and others involved in the murder of the sick or Jews , Frankfurt am Main 2004, pp. 169, 321 (note 113)
13. ↑ Michael Billig: Ex-chief physician assistant in mass murder , in: Münstersche Zeitung of December 20, 2011, 1st local page
14. ↑ Schimmelpenning, Psychotherapie bei Schizophrenics , pp. 378-380.
15. ↑ Friedrich Mauz's membership entry at the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina , accessed on October 12, 2012.
16. ^ Gisela Friedrichsen : Gerhard Mauz - 1925 to 2003 , in Der Spiegel , issue 34 of August 18, 2003, p. 152.