Heinz Kürten

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Heinz Heinrich Kürten (born May 29, 1891 in Limburg , † December 16, 1966 in Munich ) was a German internist , National Socialist eugenicist and university professor.

Life

Until the end of the Second World War

Heinz Kürten studied medicine at the Universities of Heidelberg and Leipzig since 1911 . He then did military service in the First World War as a field doctor and assistant doctor in 1918, he received his doctorate in Heidelberg .

From 1919 to 1929, Kürten worked as an assistant at the University of Halle , initially under Emil Abderhalden and from 1921 under Franz Volhard . The background to the change was a conflict with Abderhalden, who accused Kürten of having unauthorized viewing one of his unpublished works. This dispute lasted for several years, as Kürten had a strong aversion to Abderhalden because of his rejection of Kürten's planned habilitation . Nevertheless, he was able to complete his habilitation in 1925 and then worked as a private lecturer and non-civil servant associate professor . From 1929 to 1934 he practiced as a general practitioner.

Kürten was a member of the DNVP for about 1 year until the Dawes Plan and from February 1, 1930 a member of the NSDAP . From 1931 he worked as a regional consultant for racial hygiene in the regional administration in the Halle-Merseburg district . He was also the deputy district leader and deputy district chairman. After the National Socialist takeover of power in July 1933 , he joined the Nazi teachers and lecturers association . He also became a member of the NSV , the Reich Air Protection Association , the Colonial Association , the SS and the Reich Chamber of Culture . In January 1934 he was appointed steward of the NSDAP at the medical faculty in Halle.

In recognition of his services, he was appointed associate professor at the University of Munich in May 1934 . In December 1934, Kürten was appointed personal professor of internal medicine, heredity and racial hygiene at the University of Munich without the participation of the medical faculty and held this position until 1945. From 1935 to 1937 he was dean of the medical faculty. In this role, Kürten proposed Adolf Hitler for the 1937 Nobel Peace Prize . At the same time he was director of the polyclinic there . His specialty was internal medicine. He researched human heredity and race care.

At the head of the faculty, Kürten tried to lead the dean's office entirely in the spirit of the NSDAP. Kürten had hardly any contact with colleagues and many faculty members were reserved towards him. He held company roll calls in the clinic and ended faculty meetings with a "Sieg Heil". As dean, Kürten pursued the goal of expanding the faculty “into a working group in the ideological National Socialist sense.” Appointment procedures were characterized by the fact that, in addition to academic qualifications, the political aspect always played a major role. Kürten hardly involved the faculty in these personnel decisions. From the end of 1937 to 1942 he was the deputy dean. (Helmut Böhm, From Self-Administration to the Leader Principle, pp. 397/398 and 453)

A possible appointment by Kürten to the chair of internal medicine at the University of Halle failed in 1936 due to Abderhalden's intervention, which in this case threatened to stop his scientific work.

In the Reich leadership of the NSDÄB , Kürten was the main branch manager. As editor he was responsible for the magazine Ziel und Weg des NSDÄB. From 1934 to 1944, Kürten was the commissioner and Gauamtsleiter of the Racial Politics Office in the Gau Munich-Upper Bavaria .

In the activity report of the Racial Political Office (RPA) of October 14, 1940, under the subject "Necessity and possibilities of a generous mixed race card index covering all of Germany", Kürten states that the use of the consultation hours (of the RPA) by Jews and mixed race caused the RPA to to create a mixed race card file in addition to the Jewish register. With this card index not only Jews who appear as mixed race 1st degree , but also mixed race II degree, “who want to appear as German blooded” were recorded. On December 5, 1940, Kürten received the answer from Erhard Wetzel , Rassenpolitisches Amt Reichsleitung , that such an index was to be welcomed. In this confidential letter it is also pointed out “that the tendency with regard to the future treatment of the first-degree Jewish mixed race is clearly to make them worse than before. It cannot be ruled out that after the end of the war equality with full Jews will be considered. "

In this activity report there is also the subject "Mixed Jews with two passports", where Kürten discusses the problem that first degree mixed race Argentinians could marry a German-blooded woman. As a German citizen and a mixed race of the first degree, a permit is required, which (due to the blood protection laws) is not to be expected. Kürten sees a solution to the problem here, "if first-degree mixed breeds could already be prosecuted for racial disgrace for unauthorized sexual intercourse."

The article Five Years of Nuremberg Laws in the Völkischer Beobachter (Munich edition, September 15, 1940) is criticized by Kürten in his report on the activities of the RPA, as the latter “only deals with this problem legally”. The essay with the title “Who can half-Jews marry?”, Which appeared shortly afterwards, denies the assimilation and rejects the marriage with half-Jews, which had previously been affirmed. Kürten reports: “Thereupon, of course, there was at least a remarkable level of concern among the half-breeds, which was expressed in the increasing use of our consultation hours. - The fact that the standpoint we have taken is the one that is expressed in the last-mentioned essay does not need any special reference. Otherwise, however, it seems to me highly undesirable that the main organ of our movement should take two opposing views within such a short period of time. "

One of the verifiable victims of Kürten is Harry Philippi, bank director, "first degree mixed race", who was engaged to a "German". In May and June 1943, Kürten had summoned both of them in writing to the office hours of the RPA and, under threat of punishment (Gestapo, protective custody and concentration camp), asked them to terminate this engagement immediately. When asked about the legal basis for this demand, Kürten replied to Philippi that there was no such thing, that it was enough for the Secret State Police to make this requirement. After renewed threats of arrest and concentration camps, Philippi was forced to sign the immediate termination of the engagement.

Harry Phillippi was arrested by the Gestapo on July 8, 1944, following the intervention of Kürten, because he had continued to meet with his fiancée and "thereby sabotaged the laws of the government and spreading unrest and excitement to large sections of the population". Philippi came to Stadelheim on September 15, 1944, and to Ettstrasse on September 27, 1944 , where he was presented with a protective custody warrant signed by Kaltenbrunner . On September 28, 1944 he was transported to Schwandorf (local court prison) and from there via Hof to Weimar. On November 17, 1944, he was sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp . Harry Philippi only barely survived this imprisonment in the Buchenwald concentration camp, his imprisonment ended on April 11, 1945 due to the liberation of the concentration camp by the Americans.

On May 27, 1944, Kürten was informed by the Gauobmann of the German Labor Front (DAF), Gauverwaltung Munich-Upper Bavaria, “that the operating group of the Munich University Policlinic has been awarded recognition as a war model company ”.

In the Völkischer Beobachter it was written on May 31, 1944 that the five sub-clinics would unite under the overall management of Kürten to form an ideal operating community . “If anywhere, then it is confirmed here that the spirit of leadership is also the spirit of business. Every imaginable social care for the members of the staff: company improvements, health care, beauty of work, sport, strength through joy, company roll calls and community celebrations, cultivating camaraderie, emergency aid, honoring particularly deserving people, all this and much more has contributed to making the health company one to make exemplary model operation. Thanks to the purposeful work of its manager, the last member of the national socialist community has been included in the great front of the National Socialist community since 1934 through example and training as well as through active participation in the life of the party and its branches. [...] You (the operating community) do more than their duty and help in the struggle for life of our people through tireless service to public health. "

post war period

After the end of the Second World War , Kürten was dismissed from the University of Munich and worked in Munich as a resident specialist for internal medicine and at a private cancer research center. From 1951 he was a professor for reuse and since 1956 he received the retirement benefits of a full professor emeritus .

On July 20, 1945, the rector of the University of Munich wrote to the military government, Public Health Department, that in addition to Kürten, the following active National Socialists were on the teaching staff of the Medical Faculty of the University of Munich, who have since been removed from service by the Bavarian State Ministry for Education and Culture : Professors Alfred Schittenhelm , Ernst Rüdin , Max Clara , Karl Pieper , Franz Wirz , Walter Schultze , Gustav Freytag and Gustav Borger and the lecturers Ernst Francke, Fritz Roeder , Karl Lisch and Karl Ihm. In a letter dated July 26, 1945, the rector of the University of Munich is informed by the Bavarian State Minister for Education and Culture , Otto Hipp , with the subject "Cleansing of the civil servants", about the immediate suspension of all payments for Kürten, Clara, Wirz, Schultze, Freytag , Francke and Roeder informed.

The Court of Cassation in the Bavarian State Ministry for Special Tasks decided in accordance with Art. 52 No. 3 of the Liberation Act and the business distribution plan of September 5, 1946 in the proceedings against Kürten to repeal the ruling of the Munich Appeals Chamber, 17th Senate, of October 24, 1949. The appointment procedure before the Munich Appeals Chamber was ordered to be carried out again by a Senate that had not previously been involved in the matter.

On August 28, 1950, the Minister for Political Liberation announced under the subject “Mitigation of the professional ban on Professor Dr. med. Heinz Kürten “Kürten with,“ The prohibition of occupation expressed in the ruling of the Main Chamber of Munich of June 28, 1949 or the Munich Chamber of Appeal, 17th Senate, of October 24, 49 is mitigated in application of Art. 53 of the Liberation Act to the extent that the person concerned From September 1st, 1950, he is allowed to practice as a doctor for internal diseases. The further ordered loss of license to practice is canceled. "

On June 19, 1951, the appeal chamber issued the following ruling against Kürten: “The appeal of the person concerned and that of the applicant Dr. Harry Philippi against the decision of the main chamber of June 28, 1949 is rejected. The costs of the appellate body are borne by the person concerned and the applicant Dr. Philippi was half a burden. The amount in dispute is set at DM 27,309 .--, also for the first instance. "

Kuerten presented on 26 July 1951 in accordance with Article 131 of the Basic Law as of former director of the University Polyclinic & Medical Polyclinic an application for retirement at the Bavarian State Ministry of Education and Culture and asks "considering my economic situation for early granting of a transitional allowance." Since no Spruchkammer decision for Kürten, from which it emerged in which group he was classified according to the Liberation Act , the granting of the requested transitional salary was suspended until then.

On April 2, 1952, Kürten was informed by the Minister for Political Liberation in Bavaria: "" The decisions of the Munich Appeals Chamber of June 19, 1951 and October 24, 49 and the Munich Main Chamber of June 28, 49, are repealed (Art. 52 Befr. Ges. The lawsuit against Kürten from 5.1.49 is withdrawn and the proceedings are discontinued (§ 1 Abschl.Ges.) ".

Works (selection)

  • For the diagnosis, therapy and prognosis of pulmonary tuberculosis in ancient times and the Middle Ages. Thieme, Leipzig 1936, DNB 580481204 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Degeners Who is it? 10th edition. Berlin 1935, DNB 1003263968 , p. 911.
  2. ↑ a b c Michael Grüttner : Biographical Lexicon on National Socialist Science Policy (= Studies on Science and University History. Volume 6). Synchron, Heidelberg 2004, ISBN 3-935025-68-8 , p. 103.
  3. ^ The cases of Blennorrhoea neonatorum at the Heidelberg University Eye Clinic from 1907–1918. Dissertation catalog of the University of Heidelberg, accessed on February 21, 2020.
  4. ^ A b c d Hans-Christian Harten, Uwe Neirich, Matthias Schwerendt: Racial hygiene as an educational ideology of the Third Reich. Bio-bibliographical manual. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-05-004094-7 , p. 422.
  5. ^ Andreas Frewer: Medicine and Morals in the Weimar Republic and National Socialism. The magazine "Ethik" under Emil Abderhalden. Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2000, ISBN 3-593-36582-0 , pp. 186f.
  6. ↑ a b c Helmut Böhm: From self-administration to the leader principle. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-428-08218-4 , p. 611.
  7. ↑ Membership number 420586 ( BayHStA MK 43926, questionnaire descent with signature from Kürten, May 14, 1937)
  8. ^ Ernst Klee: The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 , p. 349.
  9. ↑ a b University Archives Munich, replacement file Kürten
  10. ↑ Joachim Kaasch, Michael Kaasch: Hallesche Naturwissenschaftler (Emil Abderhalden and Johannes Weigelt) in the time of National Socialism: A case study with Jena relations. In: Uwe Hoßfeld u. a. (Ed.): »Combative Science«. Studies at the University of Jena under National Socialism. Böhlau, Köln / Weimar 2003, ISBN 3-412-04102-5 , pp. 1025-1064, here p. 1037 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  11. ↑ a b c d e State Archives Munich NSDAP 145, page 5
  12. ^ A b Martin Broszat, Elke Fröhlich, Anton Grossmann (ed.): Bavaria in the Nazi era. Domination and society in conflict. , De Gruyter, Oldenbourg, ISBN 9783486423815 , 1981, page 482/483
  13. ↑ Blood Protection Laws
  14. ↑ Martin Broszat, Elke Fröhlich, Anton Grossmann (eds.): Bavaria in the Nazi era. Domination and society in conflict. , De Gruyter, Oldenbourg, ISBN 9783486423815 , 1981, page 482/483, footnote 36
  15. ^ Minutes by Harry Philippi dated May 30, 1943
  16. ^ Spruchkammer I, Munich, January 8, 1948, interrogation protocol from Harry Philippi.
  17. ↑ Philippi, Harry, Polit. Mischl. 1st degree, index no. 22110, Buchenwald Archives
  18. ↑ University archive, Polyclinics in general. Sen. 295
  19. ↑ Article: Sick Treatment in Numbers - A Visit to Max Holthausen's University Polyclinic, Uni-Archiv Polikliniken im Allg. Sen 295.
  20. ↑ a b c d e BayHStA MK 43926.
  21. ↑ BayHStA
personal data
SURNAME Kürten, Heinz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kürten, Heinz Heinrich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German internist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH May 29, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Limburg on the Lahn
DATE OF DEATH December 16, 1966
Place of death Munich