Gertrud Korb

Gertrud Korb (born April 23, 1910 in Schweinfurt , † March 1989 in Karl-Marx-Stadt ) was a German doctor. After the Second World War, she played a key role in the reconstruction of the health system in Chemnitz and was at times also a member of the People's Chamber for the Kulturbund of the GDR .

Life

Gertrud Korb was born as Gertrud Schuhmann on April 23, 1910 in Schweinfurt as the daughter of a lawyer. She first attended elementary schools in Kemnath and Kitzingen , and then switched to the upper secondary school in Würzburg . After graduating from high school, she began studying medicine in 1930, which took her to the universities in Rostock , Innsbruck and finally back to Würzburg . There she was in 1936 with the dissertation research on the germ content of potato salads Dr. med. PhD.

In 1937, Korb found a job in Chemnitz at the local city hospital on Zschopauer Strasse. As a result, she completed her training as a specialist in surgery there. In view of the increasing shortage of doctors caused by the war, Korb developed into one of the main pillars of the hospital, especially towards the end of the war. In a heavy air raid on March 5, 1945, the main building of the 800-bed facility was badly damaged. After Korb was appointed chief physician and medical director of the hospital by the Soviet occupation authorities, she devoted herself to re-establishing the house with all her strength and thus made a decisive contribution to the reconstruction of the health system for Chemnitz and its surroundings. During this time, Korb became known nationwide when she successfully operated on a pericardial tamponade in August 1947 . Until then, this operation had only rarely been carried out with success. This event subsequently served as the literary model for the novel Ein Herz Beats , published in 1954 . Life and work of the Honored Doctor of the People Dr. med. Gertrud Korb by Regina Hastedt . In addition, in 1952 Korb was awarded the honorary title of Honored Doctor of the People for her development work in Chemnitz .

Korb initially held back politically after the war, also due to her work. In order to do this, she devoted herself to establishing the cultural association for the democratic renewal of Germany in Chemnitz , which she founded there together with Hanns Diettrich and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff . She remained loyal to this mass organization, in 1954 she took over the chairmanship of the Karl-Marx-Stadt district association for some time and was also part of the presidential council of the Kulturbund. From 1950 to 1954 she was a member of the city council of Chemnitz, then she was nominated by the Kulturbund as a candidate for the People's Chamber. This candidacy went hand in hand with joining the SED . From 1954 to 1963 Korb represented the Kulturbund in two electoral terms as a member of the People's Chamber. In the GDR parliament, she sat in the committee for health care in line with her job. In the course of her professional activity, Korb later moved to the polyclinic in Chemnitz's Lortzingstrasse, where she worked as a surgical specialist until she retired. In April 1985 Gertrud Korb was honored with the Patriotic Order of Merit in gold , and the SED central body Neues Deutschland published greetings addresses on her 70th and 75th birthday . Nevertheless, the well-known Chemnitz personality died almost 80 years old in March 1989, lonely and almost unnoticed in a nursing home in Chemnitz.

Honors

• 1952 Honored Doctor of the People
• 1985 Patriotic Order of Merit in Gold

Web link

Vita on Chemnitzgeschichte.de