Gottfried Ewald

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Gottfried Ewald (born July 15, 1888 in Leipzig , † July 17, 1963 in Göttingen ) was a German neurologist , psychiatrist and university professor . During the Nazi era , he took a stand against the regime's "euthanasia" program.

Life

Gottfried Ewald was the son of theology professor Paul Ewald (1857–1911). After finishing his school career in 1906 he studied medicine at the universities of Heidelberg and Erlangen and received his doctorate in 1912. med. After obtaining his license to practice medicine, he worked as an assistant doctor at the university neurological clinics in Rostock, Erlangen and at the Berlin Charité .

Ewald initially devoted himself to biological-psychiatric research and initially published on internal issues. He completed his habilitation in Erlangen in 1920 and worked as a senior physician at the university neurological clinic there from 1922 to 1933. From the beginning of the 1920s, Ewald researched and published on psychiatry and neurology.

From 1933 Ewald was director of the University Psychiatric Clinic in Greifswald , where he also held a full professorship. In 1934 he moved from Greifswald to the University of Göttingen as a professor of psychiatry , where he taught until his retirement in 1958. In addition, he headed the University Neurological Clinic in Göttingen, also from 1934, and the Göttingen-Rosdorf State Healing and Nursing Institution until 1954.

time of the nationalsocialism

After the handover of power to the National Socialists , Ewald was a member of several Nazi organizations: Combat League for German Culture (KfdK) National Socialist People's Welfare (NSV), National Socialist War Victims Care (NSKOV), NS-Reichskriegerbund and the Reichskolonialbund (RKB). From 1935 to 1939 he was a supporting member of the SS . In 1937 he applied unsuccessfully for membership in the NSDAP . Before that, during the Weimar Republic from 1923 on , he belonged to the Bund Oberland and from around this time was also a member of the Volksbund for Germanness Abroad . Ewald advocated for the Nazi era , the forced sterilizations and justified this in 1933 in a medical journal as follows:

“Unfortunately it is still completely impossible today to influence, improve or heal the sick germ yourself. We can fight against external harmfulnesses that make the germ sick, like alcohol or syphilis; but we cannot influence a hereditary germ. If one wants to prevent the development of a diseased sex, nothing else remains than to prevent the development of such hereditary diseased germs, that such germ carriers reproduce at all. "

- Gottfried Ewald in 1933 in the specialist journal Medizinische Welt

On the other hand, he was not prepared to support the Nazi euthanasia policy: On August 15, 1940 took place in Berlin's central office T4 a conference "of the health and care system to discuss urgent war of important measures in the field" rather than to renowned psychiatrist as T4 assessor for to win the "destruction of life unworthy of life" within the framework of Nazi euthanasia. Ewald also took part in this conference, chaired by Werner Heyde , who objected to the killing of patients during the meeting. As a result, Ewald was excluded from the conference. After returning to Göttingen, Ewald justified five Nazi officials, including the Reichsärzteführer Leonardo Conti and the head of the Berlin Institute for Psychology Matthias Heinrich Göring , in writing his protest against the planned euthanasia murders. Ewald finally managed to save 129 of the 367 Göttingen patients who were scheduled to be murdered from deportation to the Nazi killing centers. He was unable to prevent the remaining 238 patients from being transported “knowing their fate”.

During the Second World War he was also a military psychiatrist in Göttingen ( military district XI).

Fonts (selection)

  • Abderhalden's reaction with esp. Berücks. of her results in psychiatry (from the psychiatric clinic in Erlangen), S. Karger, Berlin 1920, Zugl .: Erlangen, Med. Hab. Schr., 1920.
  • Temperament and character , Berlin 1924
  • The stigmatized von Konnersreuth: investigation report u. expert opinion Comment , JF Lehmanns Verl., Munich 1927. From: Munich Medicine. Weekly
  • Biological and "pure" psychology in personality development: Principles and Parallel ; At the same time e. Contribution to somatol. Backing d. Individualpsychologie, S. Karger, Berlin 1932. In: Treatises from neurology, psychiatry, psychology and their border areas ; H. 68
  • Textbook of Neurology and Psychiatry, Lehmann, Munich / Berlin 1944 (until 1964 revised in 5 editions published)
  • The limits of psychotherapy , Thieme, Stuttgart 1952
  • The biological-anthropological (existential) structure of personality , Thieme, Stuttgart 1959

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Mirjana Lewandowski: The psychiatrist Gottfried Ewald (1888 - 1963) and the euthanasia program of National Socialism ( Memento of the original from June 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.egmed.uni-goettingen.de 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. at www.egmed.uni-goettingen.de
  2. ^ E. Rüther: On the history of psychiatry in Göttingen , Part II. In: Hanns Hippius (Ed.): University Colloquia on Schizophrenia , Steinkopff, Darmstadt 2003, Volume 1, pp. 187ff.
  3. ↑ a b c d e Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 141
  4. ↑ a b Anikó Szabó, expulsion, return, reparation , Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2000, ISBN 978-3892443810 , p. 143
  5. ↑ Quoted in: Astrid Ley: Zwangssterilization und Ärzteschaft. Background and goals of medical practice 1934–1945 . Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2004, p. 263
  6. ^ Ulrich Tröhler: 250 years of Göttingen medicine. Justification, consequences, conclusions . In: Hans-Heinrich Voigt (Ed.): Natural sciences in Göttingen. A series of lectures . Vandenhoeck + Ruprecht Gm, Göttingen 1988, ISBN 3-525-35843-1 ( Göttinger Universitätsschriften . Volume 13), p. 26
  7. ↑ Ernst Klee: "Euthanasia" in the Nazi state ., Frankfurt / M. 2004, p. 223 ff.
  8. ↑ Ernst Klee: "Euthanasia" in the Nazi state ., Frankfurt / M. 2004, p. 226
personal data
SURNAME Ewald, Gottfried
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German psychiatrist, neurologist, university professor
DATE OF BIRTH July 15, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH 17th July 1963
Place of death Goettingen