Ottmar Kohler

Ottmar Kohler (born June 19, 1908 in Gummersbach , † July 27, 1979 in Idar-Oberstein ) was a German surgeon who became known as the doctor of Stalingrad through the novel of the same name by Heinz G. Konsalik .

Family and origin

Kohler's family comes from East Prussia, where - in Jedwabno - Kohler's father worked as a doctor. Kohler's mother, too, came from a family of doctors, from Gummersbach . The father died shortly before Kohler's birth, which is why the pregnant widow and two children returned to her family in Gummersbach.

education

After Kohler had received the Abitur at the Oberrealschule Gummersbach, he began to study medicine at the universities of Cologne , Vienna and Rostock . During his studies in 1928 he became a member of the Cimbria Munich fraternity . In the winter semester of 1932/33 he finished his studies as the best of 75 students in his class.

In 1934 he began training as a surgeon as an assistant doctor at the Cologne-Mülheim hospital, which he finished in 1938. As a finished surgeon, he wanted to voluntarily join a six-week exercise with the Infantry Regiment 45 of the 21st Infantry Division stationed in Marienburg in the summer of 1939 .

Battle for Stalingrad

With the beginning of the Second World War on September 1, 1939, he was immediately drafted into the war with the 60th Motorized Infantry Division . She took part in the campaigns in France, the Balkans and Russia. In autumn 1942 this division approached the Russian city of Stalingrad . There the Battle of Stalingrad began in September , in which he served as a medical officer .

In December, Kohler was given leave from the front to recover from a motorcycle accident. Although the battle had already developed into a cauldron battle, Kohler flew back to Stalingrad without attempting to extend his vacation. After the surrender of the 6th Army on February 2, 1943, he was taken prisoner.

Captivity in the Soviet Union

Kohler was interned in a total of 13 Soviet POW camps, beginning in Dubowka , around 50 kilometers north of Stalingrad . There he continued to work as a doctor without having to resort to surgical instruments. Instead, he and his fellow inmates reworked crooked pipe cleaners, sewing needles, bicycle spokes, horseshoes, shaving mirrors, and penknives to handle serious surgery. For example, he succeeded in an upper arm amputation with a borrowed hacksaw and a skull operation with a drill and chisel from a warehouse joinery. After each change of camp, the medical care had to be completely rebuilt.

Kohler treated rapidly spreading diseases such as dysentery, ulcers, frostbite, and burns with drugs, in the manufacture of which he relied on medieval medicine and naturopathy. In addition to fellow prisoners, from whom he earned the nickname “Angel of Stalingrad”, he also treated Russian officers, soldiers and the civilian population.

In the autumn of 1949 Kohler was assigned to a prisoner of war transport for which he had to organize the sanitation. However, he was tried for making derogatory remarks about the October Revolution and sentenced to 10 years of forced labor after a five-minute trial. After five months in prison, Kohler was sent to a Stalingrad hospital.

Return to Germany

After almost eleven years of imprisonment, Kohler returned to Germany on January 1, 1954 with one of the last transports of prisoners of war. His deeds in Stalingrad and the Soviet camps were already so well known that Kohler was celebrated as a folk hero: In the Friedland camp , the central reception point for all returnees to West Germany, he was welcomed by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer .

From 1954 Kohler worked as a senior physician at the 2nd Surgical University Clinic in Cologne and then from 1957 to 1973 as medical director at the municipal hospital in Idar-Oberstein .

In recognition of his achievements, streets were named after him at his place of death, Idar-Oberstein, and at his place of birth, Gummersbach. Ottmar Kohler asserted many times that he never wanted to be the hero he was portrayed as in public. He died on July 27, 1979 in Idar-Oberstein. He was buried in his hometown of Gummersbach .

His estate , 278 folders with documents on the battle for Stalingrad and photos, has been kept in the Koblenz State Main Archive since 1979 under the signature "700.184".

Honors

• 1954 Cross of Merit of the Federal Order of Merit
• 1954 Paracelsus Medal of the German Medical Association
• 1978 Hartmann-Thieding plaque from the Hartmannbund , the association of doctors in Germany

Novel and film hero

The writer Heinz G. Konsalik processed the reports about Kohler in his two novels " The Doctor of Stalingrad " and " The Heart of the 6th Army " .

“The Doctor of Stalingrad” has been translated into 17 languages ​​since 1956 and had a circulation of more than two and a half million copies. The novel was finally filmed in 1958 under the same title , with O. E. Hasse as the medical officer, Eva Bartok as the Russian doctor and the young Mario Adorf as the paramedic. Since Kohler shied away from the hype about himself, he appears in the book and film as Dr. Boehler . However, the book and film are set in the prison camps around Stalingrad, not in the city itself.

Varia

In Idar-Oberstein , the street leading to the city's clinic is named "Dr.-Ottmar-Kohler-Straße". There are also references to his work in Idar-Oberstein on the street signs.

literature

• Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Volume 7: Supplement A – K. Winter, Heidelberg 2013, ISBN 978-3-8253-6050-4 , pp. 575-577.
• Bernd P. Laufs: The doctor from Stalingrad. Projection surface for the search for the good German. In: Deutsches Ärzteblatt . Vol. 105, 2008, H. 25, p. A1385 f. ( online ).
• Bernd P. Laufs: Doctor from Stalingrad. In: Heimatkalender Landkreis Birkenfeld 2009. Bad Kreuznach 2008, pp. 194–196.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} 95 years ago. June 19, 1908. Dr. Ottmar Kohler. The angel of Stalingrad. (No longer available online.) State Main Archive Rhineland-Palatinate, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved May 10, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ ^{a b} June 19, 2008 - 100 years ago: Ottmar Kohler is born: "The doctor of Stalingrad". WDR, accessed on May 10, 2013 . 
3. ↑ knerger.de: Ottmar Kohler's grave
4. ↑ Holdings 700,184 Dr. Ottmar Kohler (1908-1979). State Archive of Rhineland-Palatinate, accessed on May 10, 2013 .