Thomas Schnalke

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Thomas Schnalke 2018 at the Charité press conference

Thomas Schnalke (born February 16, 1958 in Ludwigshafen am Rhein ) is a German medical historian , university professor and director of the Berlin Medical History Museum .

Professional background

Thomas Schnalke studied medicine in Würzburg and Marburg. The medical state examination followed in 1985 and a doctorate in 1987. Since 1988 he has worked as a research assistant at the Institute for the History of Medicine at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg . In 1993 he completed his habilitation in the history of medicine .

In 2000, he was appointed professor for the history of medicine and medical museology at the Charité Medical Faculty of the Humboldt University in Berlin . This professorship is linked to the management of the Berlin Medical History Museum .

Schnallke was in charge of the conception of the highly regarded permanent exhibition of this museum on the development of modern medicine since the early 18th century. In addition, he realizes a varied program of special exhibitions, in which, in addition to medical and medical history content, he also likes to focus on topics from the border areas between science and art. He is also the author and editor of numerous publications.

Return of skulls to Namibia

In 2011 the Charité got caught between the fronts of a political conflict of interest between Germany and Namibia. As part of the ceremonial handover of 20 skulls from the Charité's anthropological collections to the government of Namibia, there were violent protests by activists and sympathizers of the ethnic groups concerned, which is why Minister of State Cornelia Pieper left the event prematurely. The skulls came from members of the Nama and Herero ethnic groups from the former German colony of German South West Africa.

As part of a DFG-funded research project to clarify the origin of anthropological collection objects, which u. a. Schnalke has been in charge since 2010, it could be proven that the returned skulls came from the colonial war that the so-called German protection troops waged against Nama and Herero from 1904 to 1907, and thus came from a clearly injustice context. Efforts by activists to recognize the armed conflicts on the German side as genocide are officially not shared by Germany, as Namibia's demands for reparations are feared.

Participation in exhibitions (selection)

  • 2002: Virchow's cells. Evidence of a committed scholarly life in Berlin
  • 2009/2010: world knowledge. 300 years of science in Berlin (Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin)
  • 2009: From the crime scene to the laboratory - forensic doctors uncover
  • 2009/2010: gold-filled and pearl-like - 300 years of dentistry in Berlin
  • 2010/2011: Charité. 300 years of medicine in Berlin
  • 2010/2011: beyond man. Interventions by Reiner Maria Matysik , in cooperation with the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (September 17, 2010 to January 9, 2011)
  • 2011/2012: Who cares? History and Daily Life of Nursing
  • 2012: Ilana Halperin. Stones - An exhibition with works by Ilana Halperin at the intersection between art, medicine and geology , in collaboration with the Schering Foundation
  • 2012/2013: Visit to the depot.
  • 2017: Charité - The Series. , on the occasion of the Charité series (March 3 to May 14, 2017)
  • 2016/2018: Hieb & Stich. On the trail of crime.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Political conflict of interest
  2. ↑ Andreas Winkelmann: Witnesses to Two Stories - The Charité returned skulls from colonial times to Namibia. Deutsches Ärzteblatt 2012; 109 (15): A754-755
personal data
SURNAME Schnalke, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German medical historian, university professor and museum director
DATE OF BIRTH February 16, 1958
PLACE OF BIRTH Ludwigshafen am Rhein