Werner Schmidt (medic, 1913)

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Werner Schmidt (born March 19, 1913 in Östringen ; † January 18, 2007 in Hanau ) was a German doctor and writer .

life and work

Born in 1913 in Östringen as the son of a tobacco dealer, the family moved to Langgöns near Gießen in May 1913 . From 1932 Schmidt studied medicine in Giessen. He became a visiting doctor in Hamburg hospitals. In 1942 he received his doctorate on leukemic reactions . As a doctor he was forced to join the Todt Organization at the beginning of 1945 and was transferred to a town near Dresden , where he had to provide medical care for the village population and forced laborers . His mother, Johanna Schmidt, survived the deportation to the Theresienstadt ghetto as a German Jew .

After the end of the Second World War, Werner Schmidt played a key role in the reconstruction of the Medical Clinic at the University of Giessen . In 1956 he became an adjunct professor and was medical director of the Hanau City Hospital for many years.

His autobiography Life at Limits. Autobiographical report by a doctor from dark times , first published in 1989 by Ammann Verlag , then in 1993 and 2003 by Suhrkamp Verlag , is an important testimony to the situation of “half-Jews” in Nazi Germany and post-war Germany. In 1990 it was awarded the German Medical Association's literature prize.

In 1991 Schmidt received the Justus Liebig Medal from the University of Giessen .

Werner Schmidt was married to the actress Herta Stoepel and is the father of the author and Suhrkamp publisher Ulla Unseld-Berkéwicz and the musician and composer Lesch Schmidt .

Works

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Schmidt, Werner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German doctor and writer
DATE OF BIRTH March 19, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Langgöns
DATE OF DEATH January 18, 2007
Place of death Hanau