Hans-Joachim Rauch

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Hans-Joachim Rauch (born June 12, 1909 in Wiesbaden , † February 1, 1997 in Heidelberg ) was a German psychiatrist , neurologist and university professor who was involved in Nazi euthanasia research.

Life

Hans-Joachim Rauch was the son of the court advisor and theater director Hermann Rauch (1869–1954) and his wife Alice, née Blümner (1870–1926). He completed his school career in Wiesbaden with the Abitur and from the summer semester 1927 studied medicine at the universities of Heidelberg , Göttingen , Vienna and Prague . In July 1933 he passed the first medical state examination in Heidelberg. He received his doctorate in autumn 1933 with the thesis "Two cases of splinters violation of the orbit with retardation of a foreign body" in Heidelberg Dr. med. At the beginning of November 1933 he was approvedand then completed his medical internship in Saarland by October 1934. In early November 1934 he became a volunteer assistant at the Psychiatric University Clinic in Heidelberg , where he initially worked as a neuropathologist . After almost three years of service as an active medical officer, he returned to Heidelberg at the beginning of March 1938, where he initially worked as an extraordinary assistant and from March 1941 as a scientific assistant at the Heidelberg University Psychiatric Clinic.

Rauch was not a member of the NSDAP , but was a member of the NSV . From the beginning of the Second World War he did military service as a military doctor until January 1942. In April 1942 he worked for a few weeks at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research to research “pathology in idiots”. In Heidelberg, Rauch was involved in NS euthanasia research on children under the psychiatrist Carl Schneider . From the beginning of July 1942 to the end of March 1943 he was seconded to a research department headed by Schneider in the Wiesloch sanatorium ; this activity was remunerated with 150 RM . For Schneider's research program, Rauch dissected the brains of children who had been murdered in the Eichberg state sanctuary and nursing home .

From April 1943 until the end of the war in May 1945 he was deployed in the Army Medical Squadron in Heidelberg and during this period was assigned to the psychiatric university clinic with the rank of medical officer. After he was recognized as a specialist in psychiatry and neurology in mid-February 1944, he completed his habilitation at Schneider in Heidelberg at the end of February 1944 with the text: "The way gliomas spread and their influence on tissue structure". He then worked as a private lecturer in Heidelberg from October 1944 . His research focus later shifted from neuropathology to forensics .

Even before the end of World War II , Rauch Schneider succeeded Schneider as provisional director of the Heidelberg University Psychiatric Clinic in March 1945 and remained in this position until November 1945. From the end of August 1949 he was senior physician and from mid-January 1950 an adjunct professor of forensic psychiatry in Heidelberg. He was promoted to medical director and from 1963 headed the department for forensic psychiatry at the Psychiatric University Clinic in Heidelberg. In August 1973 he was appointed scientific advisor and professor. As a busy court expert, Rauch was involved in spectacular court cases in the Federal Republic of Germany. Even after his retirement in 1977, Rauch was still listed as an employee of the Heidelberg University Clinic. In the proceedings against the former RAF member Peter-Jürgen Boock , the defense successfully refused Rauch in 1983, referring to his role in Nazi euthanasia as an expert; Rauch was then involved in the proceedings as an expert witness .

In 1983, the Heidelberg public prosecutor started investigations against Rauch as well as his former doctor colleagues Carl Friedrich Wendt and Friedrich Schmieder because of their involvement in Schneider's euthanasia research. The preliminary investigation was closed on May 16, 1986 by the Heidelberg public prosecutor's office, as there was "insufficient suspicion" of having "been involved in the killing of even one patient or of having known the planned fate of the patients examined". According to witnesses, doctors and nurses in Heidelberg knew that patients had been killed on the Eichberg. The public prosecutor's office did not consider this to be established knowledge, but rather rumors. Willi Dreßen , the head of the Ludwigsburg central office , thought it was "difficult to understand that under these circumstances the three doctors missed what their work in the research department was about", and it was completely unbelievable that the accused should not have heard of the National Socialist murders of the sick.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Hermann August Ludwig Degener, Walter Habel: Who is who ?: Das deutsche Who's who , Volume 23, Schmidt-Römhild, 1984, p. 991.
  2. ↑ a b c d Dagmar Drüll: Heidelberger Gelehrtenlexikon 1933–1986 , Berlin 2009, p. 483f.
  3. ↑ a b c Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 481.
  4. ↑ Matthias Hamann, Hans Asbek, Andreas Heinz: Halved reason and complete Medicine: Principles, Real History and Fort effects of psychiatry under the Nazis , Schwarze Risse, 1997, p 103rd
  5. ↑ 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. 185f.
  6. ↑ Gerhard Mauz : In the world in which nothing is perfect . In: Der Spiegel . No. 50 , 1983, pp. 81-85 ( online ).
  7. ↑ Quoted in: Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 481.
  8. ^ Willi Dreßen: The Heidelberg case against Rauch u. a. - attempt a legal evaluation. In: Christoph Mundt, Gerrit Hohendorf, Maike Rotzoll: Psychiatric research and Nazi “euthanasia”. Contribution to a memorial event at the Psychiatric University Clinic Heidelberg Das Wunderhorn, Heidelberg 2001, ISBN 3-88423-165-0 , pp. 91–96, here p. 93.
personal data
SURNAME Rauch, Hans-Joachim
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German psychiatrist, neurologist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH June 12, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Wiesbaden
DATE OF DEATH February 1, 1997
Place of death Heidelberg