Abstract

DO.15.07

Ophthalmologists as members of the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP)

Jens Martin Rohrbach

Department für Augenheilkunde, Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Tübingen

Objective
Soon after its foundation – at first as the German Workers Party (DAP) -  in January 5th 1919 the NSDAP grew rapidly under the influence of Adolf Hitler. From the beginning but especially after the “seizure of power” (“Machtergreifung”) in January 30th 1933, physicians were willing to join the party more often than the members of all other professions. Thus, approximately 40-45% of all physicians became members of the NSDAP till 1945. The reasons for this are many and diverse and still in debate. So far, no detailed investigation has been undertaken to evaluate the NSDAP-membership of ophthalmologists in the NS-era.
Methods
The frequency of NSDAP-membership of ophthalmologists in private praxis (members of the German Ophthalmological Society 1934) and of chairs for ophthalmology at German university eye clinics was evaluated by checking the names in the NSDAP-membership-file (Federal Archive, Berlin).
Results
Approximately 30% of all ophthalmologists in private praxis joined the NSDAP. In 1933, 13% of the chairs for ophthalmology were NSDAP-members. Till 1938, this proportion increased to 48% where it remained till 1943.
Conclusions
In comparison with other medical disciplines ophthalmology had only a minor relevance to the NS-system. Nevertheless, some ophthalmologists like the chair of the university eye hospital in Breslau/Silesia, Walter Dieter, made a successful career in the NSDAP or one of its organizations. As expected, the number of chairs for ophthalmology with a NSDAP membership book increased in the first years after Hitler’s “Machtergreifung”, but after 1938 the proportion remained stable. Ophthalmologists in private praxis joined the party very likely less frequently than physicians in private praxis in general. Nevertheless, it has to be concluded that NS-ideology obviously found a fertile soil in the ophthalmologists of the “Third Reich” too.

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