Herbert Lewin

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Herbert Lewin (born April 1, 1899 in Schwarzenau ; died November 21, 1982 in Wiesbaden ) was a German doctor and chairman of the Central Council of Jews in Germany .

Life

Lewin served as a soldier in the First World War . Then he first studied agriculture and political science in order to be able to take over his father's farm, but then switched to studying medicine . In 1922 he became a member of the SPD . After receiving his doctorate in 1924, he worked in the Jewish Polyclinic in Berlin . In 1932 he submitted a habilitation thesis , which, however, was not accepted for anti-Semitic reasons.

From 1937 he was chief physician in the hospital of the Israelite Asylum for the sick and the elderly on Ottostraße in Cologne . He was into in October 1941 Lodz ghetto deported and worked in several concentration camps as a prisoner doctor. His wife Alice, whom he married in 1925, died in a concentration camp.

After the end of National Socialism in Germany, Lewin stayed in the country and worked as a doctor again. Lewin was commissioned by Konrad Adenauer, then Lord Mayor of Cologne, to bring back surviving Cologne Jews from Theresienstadt . In 1948 he completed his habilitation with Ludwig Nürnberger at the University Women's Clinic in Cologne . From 1950 to 1967 he headed the gynecological clinic of the Offenbach Clinic , was appointed adjunct professor at the University of Frankfurt in 1952, and was appointed full professor in 1965 with simultaneous retirement.

Between 1963 and 1969 he headed the Central Council of Jews in Germany. He was also a member of the German UNESCO Commission and the Federal Health Council .

Herbert-Lewin-Platz, Berlin-Charlottenburg

In September 1949, the revocation of Lewin's election as director of the municipal women's clinic in Offenbach by the then mayor of Offenbach, Johannes Rebholz, became the first anti-Semitic scandal after the release of the western zones from the occupation statute. On this occasion, the Frankfurter Rundschau formulated a demand to the federal government to protect the surviving Jews. Rejected by doctors in Offenbach's municipal council, doctors and nurses from Offenbach's hospital and the city's CDU mayor Karl Kasperkowitz , it was only a global protest and the intervention of higher-level authorities that prompted the Offenbach magistrate (city council) to clean up this scandal. The reason for the revocation was that Lewin would start his work with the feeling of revenge of a former concentration camp inmate, that no woman could confide in him with a clear conscience. The French author Romain Gary incorporated the episode in 1967 in his novel La danse de Gengis Cohn , citing an American article from 1966 to warn of the resurgence of National Socialism in the neighboring country.

Lewin's grave is in the old cemetery in Offenbach am Main.

Honors

In May 1986 in Cologne-Lindenthal , Haedenkamp-Strasse, then the seat of the German Medical Association, was renamed Herbert-Lewin-Strasse in his honor. The doctor Karl Haedenkamp (1889–1955) had already shown a racist and anti-Semitic attitude before 1933 and from 1933 onwards he played a leading role in the elimination of Jewish and politically left-wing doctors , but continued his career in medical self-administration continued unhindered after 1945. The square in front of the headquarters of the German Medical Association , the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians and the Federal Joint Committee in Berlin was also named Herbert-Lewin-Platz in his honor.

Lewin was awarded the Wilhelm Leuschner Medal and the Great Federal Cross of Merit with a star.

Herbert Lewin Prize

The Herbert Lewin Prize honors scientific work that deals with the processing of the history of doctors during the Nazi era. The research award is advertised by the Federal Ministry of Health , the Federal Medical Association , the Federal Dental Association, the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians and the Federal Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians . It was first awarded in 2006. Christoph Kopke is one of the winners .

Publications

  • A dermoid cyst in the vertebral canal. Dissertation. Berlin 1924.
  • The genetic significance of muscle variations. In: Three lectures from the medical faculty of the University of Cologne. University Press, Cologne 1949.
  • With Werner Spiegelhoff: The cycle hormones of women. Biology - Chemistry - Clinic. Enke, Stuttgart 1951.

literature

  • Thomas Irmer:  Deported doctors / doctors in the concentration camp: Herbert Lewin. In: Thomas Beddies, Susanne Doetz, Christoph Kopke (eds.): Jewish doctors under National Socialism. De Gruyter, Munich 2014, pp. 256–264, DOI: 10.1515 / 9783110306057.256 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  • Rebecca Schwoch , Walter Wuttke: Herbert Lewin and Käte Frankenthal: Two Jewish doctors from Germany. In: Deutsches Ärzteblatt . 101. Vol. 19, May 7, 2004, A 1319-1321 ( online ).
  • Rebecca Schwoch: Herbert Lewin. Doctor - Survivor - President of the Central Council (= Jewish miniatures. Vol. 186). Hentrich & Hentrich, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-95565-152-7 .
  • Elke Steiner : Two Jewish doctors from Germany: Herbert Lewin and Käte Frankenthal. Active Museum Spiegelgasse, Wiesbaden 2005 (Reprint of a comic series in the Deutsches Ärzteblatt. Series about Herbert Lewin in the Deutsches Ärzteblatt, 15 episodes: Deutsches Ärzteblatt Heft 40 , 42 , 44 , 46 , 48 , 50/2003 and 1-2 , 4 , 6 , 8 , 10 , 12 , 14 , 16 , 18 /2004 ).

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Michael Brenner: History of the Jews in Germany from 1945 to the present. Munich 2012, p. 159
  2. ↑ Rebecca Schwoch: "Escaped the inferno by a great coincidence." The German doctor Herbert Lewin (1899–1982). In: Journal of General Practice . Vol. 82 (2006), H. 8, pp. 349-351, DOI: 10.1055 / s-2006-933517 .
  3. ↑ Mayor, Deputy Mayor of Offenbach Resign Following Inquiry into Anti-semitic Incident . In: JTA . November 14, 1949 (English)
  4. ↑ Not in the German translation, which Piper-Verlag and its publishing director Hans Rößner have "cleaned up" here as in other places. The TB edition on dtv claims to be "unabridged".
  5. ↑ Martin Kuhn: The memory must not end. In: Offenbach-Post , January 16, 2018, p. 10.
  6. ↑ Michael Dzialoszynski, Jens von der Thüsen: Herbert-Lewin-Strasse ( Memento from May 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), website of the Georg-Büchner-Gymnasium Cologne .
  7. ^ Herbert-Lewin-Platz. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
  8. ^ Sabine Rieser: Herbert-Lewin-Platz: Double memory . In: Deutsches Ärzteblatt . Volume 101, issue 41, October 8, 2004
  9. ^ Herbert-Lewin-Platz . District Office Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf of Berlin, accessed on October 22, 2015.
  10. ^ Herbert Lewin Prize - research prize on the role of the medical profession in the time of National Socialism. In: kzbv.de , accessed on September 24, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Lewin, Herbert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German President of the Central Council of Jews
DATE OF BIRTH April 1, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Schwarzenau
DATE OF DEATH November 21, 1982
Place of death Wiesbaden