Walter Schnell (doctor)

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Walter Schnell (born March 10, 1891 in Schmalkalden ; † January 7, 1960 in Marburg ) was a German social hygienist, physiologist, sports and aviation medicine.

Life

Schnell, the son of a corps staff pharmacist, spent his school days in Strasbourg and Marburg until he graduated from high school in 1910 . He then did his military service and studied medicine at the Philipps University in Marburg . In 1918 he was promoted to Dr. med. PhD . From 1914 to 1918 he took part in the First World War, initially in a hospital as a field doctor, later as a senior physician in the air force of the 1st Army Corps (Prussia) . During the war he received his license to practice medicine in 1915 . Schnell, who was awarded the two Iron Crosses and the Oldenburg Friedrich-August-Kreuz I and II class, initially accepted an assistant doctor position at the Medical University Clinic in Frankfurt am Main after his discharge from the army in 1919. He soon switched to the Physiological Institute of the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster . From 1920 he was a city assistant doctor at the health department in Halle (Saale) . In 1923 he moved to Frankfurt am Main as a city medical advisor, where he received a teaching position for biology and physical exercise hygiene at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main . From 1925 he headed the local health department in Halle as a city medical officer. Together with the university professor Hans Hahne , he conducted racial studies of the Halle population. He had previously set up a marriage counseling center in Halle, one of the first of its kind in Germany. Schnell became president of the International Sports Medical Association (FIMS) in 1928 and was active in the German Medical Association to promote physical activity. From 1930 to 1933 he edited the Journal of Health Administration and Health Care . During his time as a private lecturer and city medical advisor in Halle, he contributed to the encyclopedia of the entire therapy with contributions to sports medicine .

Political activity

Schnell was politically active during the Weimar Republic from 1925 to 1933 with the German People's Party (DVP), for which he took over the honorary chairmanship of the Halle-Merseburg regional association and ran unsuccessfully for the 1933 Reichstag election. He was also a member of the Stahlhelm . After handing over power to the National Socialists , he joined the NSDAP on March 25, 1933 ( membership number 2,758,499). For the Hitler Youth (HJ) he worked as a medical officer. Schnell also belonged to the National Socialist Medical Association and the National Socialist Lecturer Association . In addition, he was district head of the NSV and rose to the position of brigade leader with the NS-Fliegerkorps (NSFK) . Schnell was a member of the Presidium of the German Air Sports Association , where he also headed the medical department. He was also head of the aviation investigation center in Halle. He was a member of the health committee of the German Municipal Assembly. The judge at the Halle Hereditary Health Court was also quick and gave an opinion on the Nazi Euthanasia Act that had not come into force. Schnell was also active in the Race Political Office in Halle.

Professorship at the University of Halle

Schnells habilitation for social hygiene followed at the University of Halle in 1928 , where he worked as a private lecturer in social hygiene from 1928. From 1935 he held lectures as an associate professor on aviation medicine and from 1937 on racial hygiene and population policy as well as hereditary health care. From 1942 he taught at the University of Halle as a full professor of physiology.

Second World War

After the beginning of the Second World War , Schnell was in charge of the health system in “Litzmannstadt” as a commissioner in German-occupied Poland until 1940. “Here he fought typhus with“ special measures ”against Jews , thus driving the ghettoization in coordination with the NSDAP Gauleitung ahead and prepared deportations ”. As a senior field doctor he was drafted into the Air Force in 1941 and again after a leave of absence in the spring of 1943 .

post war period

At the end of the war, Schnell was interned in the United States in April 1945 because of his National Socialist activities and was dismissed from his position as a professor and as a city medical officer in Halle. He came to Marburg, where he was denazified at the end of 1946 . Schnell wrote an affidavit for Karl Brandt, who was accused in the Nuremberg medical trial . He later practiced as a resident doctor and was the founder and executive president of the Green Cross . He also published the congress reports of the German National Health Care Center. From 1954 to 1956 he was a chairman of the Hessian Sports Medical Association. He was a member of the specialist committee for aerospace medicine of the Scientific Society for Aerospace (WGL).

literature

Web link

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dissertation: Contributions to the knowledge of uric acid infarction .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Walter Schnell in the Catalogus Professorum Halensis
  3. ↑ Frank Hirschinger: "Approved for extermination". Halle and the Altscherbitz State Hospital 1933–1945 , Cologne 2001, p. 49.
  4. ↑ K. Tittel: Germany's Achievements for International Sports Medicine - Historical Reminiscences (PDF; 991 kB). In: German magazine for sports medicine, JG. 55, edition 12/2004, p. 315.
  5. ↑ William Buchge: Springer-Verlag: catalog of his magazines. 1843-1992. Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg 1994, p. 83 f.
  6. ↑ Walter Marle (Ed.): Lexicon of the entire therapy with diagnostic information. 2 volumes, 4th revised edition. Urban & Schwarzenberg, Berlin / Vienna 1935 ( list of employees ).
  7. ↑ Frank Hirschinger: "Approved for extermination". Halle and the Altscherbitz State Hospital 1933–1945 , Cologne 2001, p. 49.
  8. ↑ Frank Hirschinger: "Approved for extermination". Halle and the State Hospital Altscherbitz 1933-1945 , Cologne 2001, p. 68.
  9. ^ A b Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 553.
  10. ↑ Frank Hirschinger: "Approved for extermination". Halle and the Altscherbitz State Hospital 1933-1945 , Cologne 2001, pp. 84, 212.
  11. ^ A b Angelika Ebbinghaus and Karl Heinz Roth : Short biographies on the medical process . In: Klaus Dörner (Ed.): The Nuremberg Medical Process 1946/47. Verbal transcripts, prosecution and defense material, sources on the environment. Saur, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-598-32028-0 ( indexing volume ) ISBN 3-598-32020-5 (microfiches), p. 145.
  12. ^ A b Frank Hirschinger: "Approved for extermination". Halle and the Altscherbitz State Hospital 1933–1945 , Cologne 2001, pp. 211f.
  13. ↑ Angelika Uhlmann: "Sport is the general practitioner at the sick camp of the German people". Wolfgang Kohlrausch (1888-1980) and the history of German sports medicine . Dissertation of the Philosophical Faculty of the Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg i. Br 2004 (PDF; 1.7 MB)
  14. ^ Scientific Society for Aviation and Space Travel, Scientific Society for Aviation (Founded 1952): Yearbook 1960, F. Vieweg., 1960, p. 478 (obituary for Walter Schnell).
personal data
SURNAME Quick, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physician and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH March 10, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Schmalkalden
DATE OF DEATH January 7, 1960
Place of death Marburg