Psychiatrists as forensic authorities: evaluation of dangerous habitual offenders in West Germany during the 1960s - the Helmut Hoinka case.

Background: Preventive detention for highly dangerous habitual offenders has been in force in Germany for 90 years. The necessity of this measure is hotly debated from a legal perspective. However, the assignment of preventive detention is largely determined by the opinion of medical experts.

Adolescents' life between violence and discipline. Medical care in the "Jugendhäuser" juvenile detention centers in East Germany in the 1960s-1980s.

Background: In 1952-1989, special juvenile detention centers, called Jugendhäuser, were established in the German Democratic Republic. There, juvenile delinquents had to not only complete their sentences, but they were also supposed to be re-educated into conscious socialist personalities through a system of collective education proposed by Soviet pedagogue Anton Makarenko. Among twelve Jugendhäuser in East Germany, the ones in Halle and Dessau were considered to have the most severe conditions due to the praxis of mental and physical violence.

50 years of the first ethics commission in Germany: the Ulm Ethics Commission in an international perspective.

Background: The creation of the legal framework to recognize rights of patients and participants in clinical trials began in Germany in the 19th century. However, the ethical review of medical research in terms of the protection of rights and welfare of human subjects has only become a widespread practice since the establishment of ethics commissions. The first ethics commissions emerged at the universities under the influence of the German Research Foundation.

Politicization of psychiatry and the improvement of ethical standards in the 1970s.

Background: The Code of Ethics for Psychiatry adopted by the World Psychiatric Association in 1977, also known as the Declaration of Hawaii, was a milestone in the development of ethical standards in psychiatry. The impetus for the development of the code came primarily from the politicization of psychiatry, first discovered in the USSR, and later in other countries of the socialist camp, such as Romania, Yugoslavia, and the People's Republic of China. The purpose of this article is to trace reasons for the lack of consolidation among Western psychiatrists against the politicization of psychiatry and their efforts to improve the ethical standards in this medical field.

Fetal Development in Anatomical Preparations of Ruysch and the Meckels in Comparison.

Anatomical collections have been used for centuries for research and teaching purposes. By the example of selected preparations of fetal development from the Ruysch collection (17th-18th centuries) and the Meckel collections (18th-19th century), this article aims to trace the changing purposes, specifics and methods of creating specimens as well as the development of anatomy during that period. The selected specimens are compared and analyzed implementing the historical-critical method.