Abstract
At the time of the Machtuebergreifung, the public health service was completely splintered and its responsibilities were distributed among numerous disconnected authorities. As a consequence of this administrative weakness, despite their absolute importance, there was no centralization of Volk health activities. In addition to a state health system, there were municipal departments in cities, Districts, Territories, multiple insurance carriers and also numerous private organizations of Reich committees which pretended to serve Volk health, but in fact hindered the health system through the pursuit of their own selfish goals. Much of this occurred because of the struggle for power and not from striving to improve health; the weakening of the Volk and the disregard of its health-related problems were evident. Before fundamental changes could be carried out in this regard, all power of the Public Health Service, all existing organizations and all Reich committees had to be brought together and legalized according to a unified goal.
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Notes
- 1.
Ramm describes the reasons for the unification of the Public Health Service and gives a broad outline of its hierarchical structure. Thus, the physician could carry out what Gerhard Wagner identified as the task of his Public Health Department: the “promotion and perfection of the health of the German people…and to ensure that the people realize the full potential of their racial and genetic endowment.” (Wagner, quoted in Lifton, 30).
- 2.
Landkreis – Rural sub-division of a Regierungsbezirk (which was a sub-division of a territory) in Prussia.
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Regierungspraesident - Senior administrative officials in a Regierungsbezirk.
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Landrat-The chief authority in the administration of a Landkreis. Frequently the same man as the Party Kreisleiter.
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Burgermeister – mayor of a town or city.
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Kater reports that, initially, the time-honored “Amtaerzte,” were required to possess good academic records, a certain amount of field experience and the ability to pass additional examinations. But, as early as spring 1935, because more attractive options were available elsewhere, certain prerequisites for an Amtzerzte came to be lowered.
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The Public Health Department was responsible for the implementation of the “Genetics Health Law,” and “the Law for a Healthy Marriage.” The so-called “sterilization law”, promulgated in July 1933, served throughout the Nazi period as the model of all eugenic legislation. It introduced compulsory sterilization for persons suffering from a variety of mental and physical disorders and in the process defined the groups to be excluded from the national community. This legislation was followed in October 1935 by the Marriage Health Law, which mandated screening the entire population to prevent marriages of persons considered carriers of hereditary degeneracy, particularly those covered by the sterilization law.(H. Friedlaender, The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution (Chapel Hill: U. of North Carolina Press, 1995), 23) Henry Friedlander reports that the exact number of persons actually sterilized are not available, but states that “it is generally agreed that at least 300,000 persons were sterilized during the years preceding World War II”(Friedlaender, 1995, 30).
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Oberpraesident – The senior administrative official in a Prussian Territory.
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Oberpraesident – the senior administrative official in the Prussian Territory.
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This paragraph was added to the 1942 edition.
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This paragraph was added to the 1942 edition.
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This paragraph was added to the 1942 edition.
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This paragraph was added to the 1942 edition.
- 14.
On the death of Gerhard Wagner, Leonardo Conti (1900–1945) was named Reich Health Leader. Conti was born in Lugano, Switzerland. He attended the Friedrich Wilhelm Gymnasium in Berlin. He served in Field Artillery Regiment 54 in World War I. After the war, he was involved early in anti-communist and anti-semitic agitation and publicly debated Karl Liebknecht, one of the leaders of the communist Sparticist revolution, who was later murdered. He participated in the Kapp putsch in 1920. He undertook his medical studies in Berlin and Erlangen from 1919 to 1923. At first he practiced as a general practitioner in Munich, where he was not a member of the sickness fund. He first entered the Sturmabteilung (SA) in 1923 but transferred to the Schutzstafel (SS) in 1930. His major patron in the regime was Ministerpresident Herman Goering; thru Goering Conti became Prussia’s commissar of health and the Berlin executive of the NSD-Aerztebund. Conti was reported to have a rather colorless personality. He was always at odds with others who vied for leadership of medicine, first Wagner, then after Wagner’s death, with Karl Brandt. (Swoch, 358–9)
Kater reports that Conti was unable to satisfactorily reconcile the duplicate institutions of the KVD and the Reich Physicians’ Chamber and this failure was exploited by his major rival after Wagner’s death, Doctor Karl Brandt, Hitler’s personal physician. (Kater, Doctors Under Hitler, 25) Conti committed suicide, by hanging himself with his shirt, in the Nurmberg prison in 1945.
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Ramm, R. (2019). Part III: The Public Health Service and the Responsibilities of State Health Departments. In: Medical Jurisprudence and Rules of the Medical Profession. Philosophy and Medicine, vol 135. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25245-8_3
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