Hermann Knaus

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Hermann Knaus

Hermann Hubert Knaus (born October 19, 1892 in St. Veit an der Glan , Austria-Hungary ; † August 22, 1970 in Graz ) was an Austrian gynecologist and the developer of a time selection method for natural birth control.

Live and act

Hermann Knaus was born as the son of the businessman Friedrich Knaus and Amalia, née Schäbart, in St. Veit an der Glan in Carinthia . He attended schools in St. Veit, Klagenfurt and finally in Knittelfeld , where he passed his Matura in 1911 . In 1912 he began studying medicine in Vienna , which was ultimately interrupted by the First World War.

During the First World War he was used as a soldier in the Austro-Hungarian troops in Galicia and South Tyrol . He received the rank of first lieutenant and several awards for bravery.

After the war he continued his medical studies in Graz in 1919 , where he also received his doctorate in 1920. He then began his clinical work as an assistant doctor under Emil Knauer (1867–1936) at the Graz Women's Clinic. From October 1924 he worked as a Rockefeller Fellow at the Pharmacological Institute at the University of London and with Francis Hugh Adam Marshall at the University of Cambridge . From 1926 he worked again at the University of Graz, where he qualified as a professor for gynecology and obstetrics in 1927 under Emil Knauer .

In 1930 he spent research semesters in Berlin and Paris and was appointed associate professor at the University Clinic Graz and in 1931 a full assistant at the women's clinic.

In October 1932 he married the medical student Ružica Stankovic (* 1909 , † 1951 ), daughter of a Serbian businessman from Belgrade, in Maria Saal . In January 1934 the only daughter, Ingeborg, was born.

In 1934 he accepted a call as a full professor and head of the gynecological-obstetric clinic at the German Karl Ferdinand University in Prague .

In the political review of the lecturers at the German Czech universities after the Munich Agreement , the annexation of the " Sudetenland " and the formation of the " Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ", Knaus was placed on level 3 ('Either characteristically burdened or fluctuating attitude, influenceable, without serious political misconduct ') and therefore just adopted. The reason given for his classification was: "Jews at the clinic, not ready for national concerns".

As a result, Knaus joined the pro-National Socialist Sudeten German Party and the NSDAP . From 1939 to 1941 he was dean of the medical faculty at Karl Ferdinand University in Prague .

In 1940 he drew up a report on the catastrophic results of operations by the Berlin surgeon Kurt Strauss , which had been forced upon the faculty. Although he had been entrusted with the report by his superiors, Robert Ley initiated proceedings against him before the Supreme Party Court of the NSDAP on the initiative of Leonardo Conti . Despite the intercession of Reinhard Heydrich , Max de Crinis , Bernhard Rust and other high-ranking Nazi officials, a warning was issued in December 1942.

In 1943, at the instigation of Leonardo Conti , another trial was carried out against Knaus before the Supreme Party Court of the NSDAP . It was about the supposedly anti-German preface by Francis Hugh Adam Marshall in Knaus' work The Periodic Fertility and Infertility of Woman . After the Reich Ministry of Propaganda had checked and approved the book in 1939, the proceedings were finally closed.

Knaus experimented with rabbits to promote or interrupt pregnancy and also made experiments with guinea pigs to induce genital cancer.

After the end of the Second World War and the dissolution of the German Charles University in Prague , he again became a gynecologist in Graz. From October 1948 to March 1949 he was a visiting professor at Hammersmith Hospital of the Imperial College London . From 1950 to 1960 he headed the gynecological department of the Lainzer Hospital in Vienna.

The Knaus-Ogino doctrine

At the 21st meeting of the German Society for Gynecology on May 23, 1929 in Leipzig, Knaus presented his new findings, which he used to defeat the common doctrine: First of all, egg cells can only be fertilized for a few hours. Secondly, the sperm cells must “reach the egg cell no later than the second day after their ingestion into the female reproductive system (...) in order to still be able to fertilize the same.” Thirdly, fertilization can only take place in a narrow time window around ovulation .

Independently of Knaus, the Japanese gynecologist Ogino Kyūsaku came to similar conclusions. Therefore, the method of natural contraception or desired child generation was named after the two of them Knaus-Ogino method .

Nobel Prize candidacy in 1936

In 1936, Knaus was proposed by the kidney specialist Wilhelm Nonnenbruch for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine . The two Swedish experts, the gynecologist Erik Ahlström (1877-1949) and the pharmacologist Göran Liljestrand , did not support the candidacy - his research results are still too new and not sufficiently confirmed by other scientists; he could be proposed again in a few years.

The recommended waiting time actually contradicted the will of the founder: afterwards, the prize should be awarded to the person who, with his discovery, has brought the greatest benefit to humanity in the past year. In any case, it had been seven years since Knaus' first presentation.

Another explanation for the rejection lies in Knaus' research area: in the 35 years since the award was first awarded in 1901, no scientist had been awarded for research specific to women. In fact, it was hard to imagine that in 1936 a topic that was so taboo in society and so unattractive in the media as ovulation and menstruation would be highlighted in this way. Only in 2008 and 2010 were two women-specific researches awarded the Nobel Prize, namely Harald zur Hausen (2008) and Robert Edwards (2010).

His role in the encyclical Humanae Vitae

Knaus received an order from Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani for an expert opinion on the pill. “The Pro-Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Ottaviani, received Professor Knaus, whose method of birth control was taught by Pius XII. as the only morally acceptable one had been accepted. Ottaviani had a summary of the views of the famous gynecologist on the effects of the "pill" and on birth control in general drawn up, which Paul VI. should be submitted. "

The handover takes place on October 10, 1967 in Rome. Immediately afterwards he published it in a medical journal as well as in church journals. It is not clear whether it actually had an impact on the Pope's decision.

Publications (selection)

  • To close the anus praeternaturalis with the one-step, bloody spur transection. In: Bruns' Contributions to Clinical Surgery. Volume 128, 1923, ISSN  0007-2680 , pp. 441-450.
  • About the use of Rhodan potassium supplements in gynecology. In: Clinical weekly . Vol. 9, No. 17, 1930, p. 815 .
  • About the time of the woman's ability to conceive. In: General German midwives newspaper. Vol. 45, No. 15, 1930, ZDB -ID 553379-X , pp. 291-293.
  • The periodic fertility and sterility of women. The way of birth control. In: Zentralblatt für Gynäkologie. Volume 57, 1933, ISSN  0044-4197 , pp. 1393-1408, (as a book: Maudrich, Vienna 1934; 3rd, completely revised edition, as: The physiology of human generation. Ibid 1950).
  • Birth control the natural way. In: Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift. Volume 47, 1934, ISSN  0043-5325 , pp. 26-28.
  • About the need to keep a calendar of the occurrence of the menstrual period. Maudrich, Vienna 1934.
  • The Prontosil for combating septic conditions in gynecology. In: Medical Clinic. Volume 34, No. 41, 1938, pp. 1347-1352.
  • On the function of the testicle after vasoligature. In: Proceedings of the XVth International Physiological Congress. Leningrad - Moscow, August 9th to 16th, 1935 (= Физиологический Журнал СССР имени И. М. Сеченова. = The Sechenov Journal of Physiology of the USSR. Volume 21, No. 5/6, 1938). State Biological and Medical Press, Moscow et al. 1938.
  • Healing of a concurrent vesicovaginal and ureterovaginal urinary fistula. In: Zentralblatt für Gynäkologie. Volume 63, 1939, pp. 1162-1665 .
  • On the question of the emergence and healing of ureteral fistulas after radical operations In: Zentralblatt für Gynäkologie. Volume 67, 1943, p. 1434 ff.
  • The fertile and sterile days of women and their safe calculation. A book of enlightenment for all girls and women about the rhythm of the procreative forces in the woman's body and its use for a natural sex life with full control of their reproduction. Maudrich, Vienna 1950.
  • Physiology of the egg and sperm cell, periodicity of the menstrual cycle, ovulation and conception dates. In: Biology and Pathology of Women. A handbook of gynecology and obstetrics. Volume 3. 2nd, completely revised edition. Urban & Schwarzenberg, Berlin et al. 1952.
  • The fertile and sterile days of women and their forensic significance. In: Österreichische Richterzeitung. Volume 33, 1955, ZDB -ID 525811-X , p. 149 ff.
  • At the beginning of a new era in the treatment of carcinoma colli uteri. In: Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift. Volume 73, 1961, pp. 561-565.
  • The real length of human pregnancy. At the end of the calculation of the due date according to FC Nägele. Maudrich, Vienna 1970.
  • On the use of the 'pill' as an anti-contraceptive. In: Medical Clinic. Vol. 63, No. 12, 1968, pp. 447-450.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Volkmar Sigusch, Günter Grau (ed.), Personenlexikon der Sexualforschung (Frankfurt 2009), p. 368
  2. ^ Francis Hugh Adam Marshall - Agricultural Physiologist in WJ O'Connor : British Physiologists 1885-1914: A Biographical Dictionary
  3. ↑ Ružica Stankovic died suddenly of kidney failure in 1951 .
  4. ↑ Prager Zeitung of October 30, 2014: The Prague Years of an Exceptional Doctor. http://www.pragerzeitung.cz/index.php/home/gesellschaft/18612-die-prager-jahre-eines-ausnahmearztes
  5. ^ Petr Svobodný: Hermann Hubert Knaus - profesor lékařské fakulty Německé (Karlovy) univerzity v Praze v letech 1938-1945, Acta Universitatis Carolinae: Historia Universitatis Carolinae Pragensis. Příspěvky k dějinám Univerzity Karlovy, 2008, 111-122; P. 118
  6. ↑ According to [1] he was resistant "for medical or human reasons"; he was committed to Jewish colleagues such as Alfred Kohn , professor emeritus for histology. Kohn survived the Holocaust.
  7. ↑ a b c d Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Second updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, p. 319.
  8. ↑ Hermann Knaus: About the time when women are able to conceive , Allg. German Midwife doctor 15, 1930
  9. ^ "Nomination Database". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 9 Dec 2014. < http://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show.php?id=12552 >
  10. ^ H. Bauer: Birth control controversial, Die Presse from October 16, 1967
  11. ↑ HH Knaus: On the use of the 'pill' as an anticoncipient , Med. Klin. 63 (1968), No. 12
personal data
SURNAME Knaus, Hermann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Knaus, Hermann Hubert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian surgeon and gynecologist
DATE OF BIRTH October 19, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Veit an der Glan
DATE OF DEATH 22nd August 1970
Place of death Vienna