New German medicine

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New German medicine refers to a medical concept in National Socialism , which is the so-called traditional medicine and known as "biological therapies" outsider methods should match, based on existing since the mid-1920s aspirations for a unified, scientifically sound medicine and experience vested lay knowledge again connective medical world and the from 1933 as part of the National Socialist health policy under the direction of the "Reichsärzteführer" Gerhard Wagner . Essential elements were the propagation of a new image of a doctor, the criticism of purely scientific medicine , the promotion of "biological medicine" with reference to folk and naturopathy, and, taking into account the racial hygiene of the time, the emphasis on (National Socialist) " public health " Health of the individual, prevention , a heroic-ascetic approach to life and radical cost containment through recourse to the country's own materia medica .

"Medicine Crisis"

“Neue Deutsche Heilkunde” took up the term “Neue Deutsche Heilkunst”, which first appeared around 1929. The naturopathic physician Karl Strünckmann had thus brought a strongly völkisch- national element into the discussion about the " crisis of medicine " (also "crisis in medicine"), which had been invoked since the mid-1920s, also under the influence of Erwin Liek's writings : “It is my belief that the German people are called to gradually develop a completely new, purely German healing art. This German healing art of the future will have become a fact when the healing knowledge of alternative practitioners and the healing knowledge of conventional medicine have entered into a new synthesis. "

The debate about the “crisis of medicine” included on the one hand the criticism of a “de-soul of medicine” through an allegedly predominant mechanistic view of conventional medicine, which only allowed scientific knowledge. In addition, other phenomena were covered with this catchphrase, such as the crisis of the medical profession, which many doctors perceived as threatening, for which the social security system was held responsible, among other things . Finally, a crisis of confidence was described, which was expressed in the increasing turn of patients to unapproved healers. However, according to estimates that are hardly reliable, more than half of all Germans were treated by non-doctors by the end of the 1920s.

First steps in the National Socialist health policy

National Socialism was positive towards naturopathy (including phytotherapy ) and folk medicine . In addition to the allegations that were already known from the discussion about the “crisis in medicine”, National Socialists criticized conventional medicine for being “Jewish-Marxist,” too strongly oriented towards social medicine and too open to therapy. The “New German Medicine” should devote itself more to the prevention of the “ people's body ” than to the care of the individual and, with the support of the naturopathic lay movement, develop into an all-encompassing “health management” that also included the spread of “ racial hygiene ” and hereditary biological thinking . The doctor should become the “health leader of the German people” and “fight for the health of his people as a biological soldier of his class”. The prerequisite for the medical profession to be able to assume the leading role in health policy for which it was intended, however, was to restore the confidence of the population. A "synthesis" of conventional medicine and naturopathy as well as other alternative healing systems should contribute to this. This meant that non-medical therapists should be superfluous and should be eliminated as competitors of conventional medical practitioners.

In October 1933, the Reichsärzteführer Wagner published an appeal in the Deutsches Ärzteblatt “To all doctors in Germany who deal with biological healing methods”, in which he wrote that there are healing methods that are not in accordance with conventional medicine, but are still successful and which are often even superior to the medicine taught at the university. The call was welcomed by representatives of the groups addressed with happy addresses of devotion . In November 1933 Wagner announced that they wanted to set up a "Reich working group for biological and naturopathic doctors". However, almost two years passed before such a merger was realized. One of the reasons for the delay was that initially so-called Jewish-Marxist elements should also be removed from the ranks of doctors who used biological healing methods. Other reasons lay in disputes that broke out in and between the associations addressed.

Reich working group for a new German medicine

On May 25, 1935, the "Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft für eine Neue Deutsche Heilkunde" (Reich Working Group for a New German Medicine), which Alfred Haug examined in more detail in the context of his dissertation in 1983, was founded as an amalgamation of the following associations: German General Society for Psychotherapy , German Society for Baths and Baths climatology , German Central Association of homeopathic physicians , Kneipp Medical Association , National Association of naturopaths , Reich Association of German private hospitals and Association anthroposophic doctors . The director was Karl Kötschau , the managing director Oskar Väth , the head of the Reich Association of Natural Doctors. Alfred Brauchle established the association's goals . The Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft was dissolved again in early 1937. At the latest with the announcement of the four-year plan in 1936, which was supposed to serve as preparation for war, the scientific direction in medicine had regained momentum. In addition, the incompatibility of the groupings intended for unification meant that the Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft was unable to achieve the “ideological penetration” of the medical profession to the extent expected.

Until 1941, however, an amalgamation of lay associations existed, which was founded in 1935 as the “Reich working group of associations for natural ways of living and healing”. Its director was Georg Gustav Wegener . The synchronization took place here without any noticeable resistance. Eventually this umbrella organization was also dissolved and replaced by the "German Public Health Association".

literature

  • Detlef Bothe: Neue Deutsche Heilkunde 1933–1945, presented on the basis of the magazine “Hippokrates” and the development of the folk medicine lay movement. Diss. Free Univ. Berlin 1991, published as: Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Medizin und Naturwissenschaften, Issue 62, Matthiesen Verlag, Husum 1991, ISBN 3-7868-4062-8 ( summary ( memento of August 17, 2005 in the Internet Archive )).
  • Alfred Haug: The Reich Working Group for a New German Medicine (1935/36). A contribution to the relationship between conventional medicine, naturopathy and National Socialism. (Medical dissertation, Marburg 1984) Husum 1985 (= treatises on the history of medicine and natural sciences. Issue 50).
    • Alfred Haug: The Reich Working Group for a New German Medicine (1935-1936). (Lecture given at the 66th annual meeting of the German Society for the History of Medicine, Natural Science and Technology on September 26, 1983 in Giessen) In: Würzburger medical-historical messages 2, 1984, pp. 117-130.
  • Alfred Haug: "New German Medicine". Naturopathy and conventional medicine during National Socialism. In: Johanna Bleker , Norbert Jachertz (ed.): Medicine in the “Third Reich”. Cologne 1989; 2nd, expanded edition 1993, pp. 129-136.
  • Uwe Heyll: Water, fasting, air and light: the history of naturopathy in Germany , Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2006 ISBN 3593379554
  • Matthias Heyn: National Socialism, Naturopathy and Preventive Medicine: The New German Medicine of Karl Koetschau. Med. Diss. Hannover 2000.
  • Robert Jütte : The “New German Medicine” or: the failed attempt at a “synthesis” (1933–1945). In: Robert Jütte: History of Alternative Medicine. From folk medicine to today's unconventional therapies . CH Beck Verlag, Munich 1996. ISBN 3-406-40495-2 , pp. 42-55.
  • Doris Kratz, Hans-Michael Kratz: “New German Medicine” and “New German Medicine” - manifestations of adaptation to ideological and political objectives of the fascist dictatorship from 1933 to 1945. Med. Diss. Leipzig 1985.
  • Matthias Meusch: "New German Medicine". In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 1031 f.
  • Walter Wuttke-Groneberg: Folk and naturopathy on “new paths”. Notes on the incorporation of non-conventional medical healing methods into National Socialist medicine. In: Alternative Medicine, Berlin 1983, pp. 27-50 (= argument special volume AS 77).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Alfred Haug (1984), p. 117 f.
  2. ↑ Matthias Meusch: "New German medicine". 2005, p. 1031 (On the National Socialist doctor as “Health Leader of the People”).
  3. ↑ Erwin Liek: The doctor and his mission. Munich 1925.
  4. ↑ Matthias Meusch (2005), p 1,031th
  5. ↑ Werner E. Gerabek (Ed.): Encyclopedia Medical History. P. 47
  6. ↑ Cf. for example Anton Graf: The position of the doctor in the state. Lehmann, Munich 1933. - Graf was a doctor in Gauting.
  7. ↑ Gunther Schenk: Medicinal Herbal Studies in National Socialism - Status, Development and Classification in the Framework of the New German Medicine. Baden-Baden 2009 (= DWV writings on the history of National Socialism. Volume 7). At the same time medical dissertation in Würzburg 2003.
  8. ^ Alfred Haug: The Reich Working Group for a New German Medicine (1935-1936). In: Würzburger medical historical reports 2, 1984, pp. 117–130; here: p. 117
  9. ↑ Roswitha Haug: The effects of the Nazi doctrine on homeopathy and phytotherapy. A comparative analysis of one medical and two pharmaceutical journals . Diss. Rer. nat., Deutscher Apotheker Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-7692-5221-7 .