Werner Ludwig (physician)

This article describes the doctor Werner Ludwig. For the German politician see Werner Ludwig .

Werner Ludwig (3rd from left) in July 1958 during the repatriation of American soldiers who had flown into GDR airspace in a helicopter in June 1958

Werner Ludwig (born  December 15, 1914 in Mülheim an der Ruhr ; †  December 11, 2001 in Dresden ) was a German social and military physician who was a professor at the Dresden Medical Academy and the GDR Academy for Medical Training . In addition, he was President of the German Red Cross of the GDR from 1957 to 1981 and also Vice President of the League of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in 1973 . After German reunification, he was an honorary member of the Presidium of the all-German DRK from 1991.

Life

Werner Ludwig's grave at the Weißer Hirsch forest cemetery

Werner Ludwig was born in Mülheim an der Ruhr in 1914 and worked as a military surgeon after studying medicine , which he completed from 1934 to 1939 at the Military Medical Academy in Berlin and graduated with a doctorate . From 1942 he worked as a senior physician and later as a staff physician in the Battle of Stalingrad , during which he was taken prisoner by the Soviets in 1943 . He later joined the National Committee for Free Germany and the Federation of German Officers in the Soviet Union .

After his return to Germany in 1948, he initially worked as a district doctor in Grimma . In 1950 he became head of the health department in the organizing committee of the World Festival of Youth and Students in Berlin. He then worked as a department head in the Ministry of Health , in 1952 he took over the chairmanship of the organizing committee for the establishment of the German Red Cross of the GDR. From 1953 to 1957 he was the first chairman of the central committee of the DRK of the GDR and then its president until 1981. After two of his children left for the Federal Republic of Germany, he was ousted from office. Siegfried Akkermann acted as his successor until 1987 , Ludwig became honorary vice president.

Werner Ludwig completed his habilitation at the Medical Academy in Erfurt in 1962 and was professor for social hygiene at the Medical Academy in Dresden from 1965 . From 1971 to 1976 he headed the GDR National Committee for Health Education as President. In addition, during this time he held a chair for health education at the Academy for Medical Training of the GDR in Berlin. In 1973 he was vice president of the League of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies .

Werner Ludwig died in Dresden in 2001 . His estate was handed over to the Main State Archives in Dresden in 2010 .

Awards

Werner Ludwig was appointed Senior Medical Officer in 1961 and received the Patriotic Order of Merit in 1974 and the Gold Medal for the Patriotic Order of Merit in 1984. In 1979 he was awarded the Gold Star of Friendship of Nations . In addition, he was elected honorary president in April 1990 at an extraordinary congress of the DRK of the GDR, and after German reunification and the merger of the two German Red Cross societies to form the all-German DRK in 1991, he was elected honorary member of its executive committee.

Works (selection)

• The development of our health care system. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1953
• Red Cross: Origin and Change. Considerations from a social hygiene point of view with special consideration of the rebuilding of the German Red Cross in the GDR. Union-Verlag, Dresden 1958
• The role and tasks of the German Red Cross in socialist society: the doctor and the four Geneva Conventions for the Protection of War Victims of August 12, 1949. German Red Cross of the GDR, Dresden 1972
• Health Education Outline. Verlag Volk und Gesundheit, Berlin 1973 (second edition 1978)

literature

• Jan Wielgohs:  Ludwig, Werner . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 . (The year of death is incorrectly stated there as 2002.)

Web links

• Literature by and about Werner Ludwig in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gisela Petrasch: The German Red Cross of the GDR - Estate of its President Werner Ludwig taken over from the Main State Archives in Dresden ( Memento of the original from August 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Sächsisches Archivblatt. 1/2011. Published by the Saxon State Archives, p. 19 ( PDF file , approx. 1.5MB).
2. ↑ Gisela Petrasch: The German Red Cross of the GDR - Estate of its President Werner Ludwig taken over from the Main State Archives in Dresden ( Memento of the original from August 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Sächsisches Archivblatt. 1/2011. Published by the Saxon State Archives, p. 18/19 ( PDF file , approx. 1.5MB).
3. ↑ Neues Deutschland , October 5, 1984, p. 5.
4. ↑ Berliner Zeitung , September 29, 1979, p. 5.