[Manfred Pflanz (1923-1980) - A key Protagonist for the Institutionalization of Social Medicine and Medical Sociology in Germany].

Manfred Pflanz, an internist with his focus on social medicine, medical sociology and epidemiology, (1923-1980) played a key role in the institutional integration of social science expertise into medicine in the Federal Republic of Germany during the 1960s and 70 s. The present study, a biographic sketch of Pflanz, describes his work, his programmatic ideas on social medicine and medical sociology, and his activities as an expert consultant in public health for various political entities. This should enable getting an insight into the origins and ramifications, as well as the contemporary programs and international embeddedness of the overlapping fields of social medicine and medical sociology in Germany.

The animal model of human disease as a core concept of medical research: Historical cases, failures, and some epistemological considerations.

This article uses four historical case studies to address epistemological issues related to the animal model of human diseases and its use in medical research on human diseases. The knowledge derived from animal models is widely assumed to be highly valid and predictive of reactions by human organisms. In this contribution, I use three significant historical cases of failure (ca.

Medicine during the Nazi period and the Holocaust: what are the implications? An interview with Volker Roelcke.

In this interview, Volker Roelcke explains and analyzes historical evidence refuting erroneous assumptions about medical atrocities committed by physicians during the Nazi era, provides insight into the implications of medicine during the Nazi period and the Holocaust for medicine and bioethics today, analyzes the history of the term "genocide," and suggests formats for future teaching, among other topics.

[Biography, social context, and the body in an experimental system: evidence as result of an integrated methodology exemplified by the hypertension research of Thure von Uexküll].

The Wiesbaden congress of internal medicine in 1949 played host to a heated debate on issues of method, epistemology, and evidence in psychosomatic medicine. Paul Martini, specialist in internal medicine and protagonist of methodically conducted clinical trials, criticized the methodology of knowledge production in psychosomatic medicine and disputed the validity of its claims. Starting from this controversy, the contribution reconstructs the formation and implementation of an experimental system on the origins of hypertension in which Thure von Uexküll, specialist in internal medicine as well as in psychosomatics, aimed to integrate somatic variables as well as the subjectivity, the biography, and the social relations of the patient.

Eugenic concerns, scientific practices: international relations in the establishment of psychiatric genetics in Germany, Britain, the USA and Scandinavia, c.1910-60.

The article describes the emergence of research programmes, institutions and activities of the early protagonists in the field of psychiatric genetics: Ernst Rüdin in Munich, Eliot Slater in London, Franz Kallmann in New York and Erik Essen-Möller in Lund. During the 1930s and well into the Nazi period, the last three had been research fellows at the German Research Institute for Psychiatry in Munich. It is documented that there was a continuous mutual exchange of scientific ideas and practices between these actors, and that in all four contexts there were intrinsic relations between eugenic motivations and genetic research, but with specific national adaptations.

Participant observation and change of perspectives: medical anthropology and the encounter with socially marginalised groups. First experiences with a new teaching concept.

This paper examines the new teaching concept "Providing medical care on the fringe of society: Participant observation and change in perspectives" in the context of the interdisciplinary field of Querschnittsbereich 2/Q 2 (the transdisciplinary section under AOÄ, the German Regulations for licensed physicians) that explores the history, theory and ethics of medicine. The disciplinary approach usually adopted in Q 2 is supplemented with concepts from medical anthropology; in addition students will be exposed to people in extreme social situations. The aim is to make students aware of and invite them to reflect upon: the importance of participant observation in the specific on-site setting of medical thinking and acting; the importance of the subjectivity of all those involved in doctor/patient interaction; and the fact that key medical terms (such as the "need" as seen by the physician vs.

The use of executed Nazi victims in anatomy: Findings from the Institute of Anatomy at Gießen University, pre- and post-1945.

There is increasing evidence that both during the time of National Socialism, and in the post-World War II-period, the corpses of executed victims of the Nazi regime, as well as body parts taken from them were used for teaching and research purposes in German anatomical institutes. The paper addresses the related issues by looking at the case of the Institute of Anatomy at Gießen University whose director, Ferdinand Wagenseil, is documented to have had certain political reservations towards the Nazi regime, but at the same time used the situation to get access to more corpses, most likely for teaching purposes. On a second level, new archival sources are used to explore to what extend corpses and body parts of Nazi victims were used in the post-WW II period.

[In search of politics in knowledge production. A plea for a historical-political epistemology].

Knowledge production has an intrinsic political dimension. Starting from this presupposition, it is argued that the systematic integration of and reflection on the political dimension is necessary for an adequate understanding of historical processes of knowledge production in the sciences. The consecutive plea for a historical-political epistemology proceeds in two steps: First, it is illustrated that in a number of recent historical science study cases, the political dimension is frequently marginal, or even absent.

[Sulfonamide-research on human subjects in Nazi concentration camps: a critical re-evaluation of the epistemological and ethical dimension].

Existing scholarship on the experiments performed in concentration camps beginning in 1942 on the value of sulfonamides in treatment of wound infections, in which inmates were used as experimental subjects, maintains that not only were the experiments ethically and legally completely reprehensible and unacceptable, but that they were also bad science in the sense that they were investigating questions that had already been resolved by valid medical research. In contrast to this, the paper argues on the basis of contemporary publications that the value of sulfonamides in the treatment of wound infections, including gas gangrene infections, was not yet established, that is, that the questions pursued by the experiments had not been resolved. It also argues that regarding their "design" and methodical principles, the experiments directly followed the rationality of contemporary clinical trials and animal experiments.

[The establishment of psychiatric genetics in Germany, Great Britain and the USA, ca. 1910-1960. To the inseparable history of eugenics and human genetics].

The article reconstructs the emergence of institutionalized research programs in the field of psychiatric genetics. It focuses on the first institutions in this field in Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States: the Genealogisch-Demographische Abteilung (GDA) at the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Psychiatrie in Munich founded in 1917/18; the Program (later: Department) of Medical Genetics at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, associated with Columbia University, and founded in 1936; and the Psychiatric Genetics Unit at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, founded in 1959. The early protagonists which today are considered the founding-fathers of this field in Britain and the USA, Eliot Slater and Franz Kallmann, both had been research fellows at the Munich GDA in the mid-1930s which at that time was directed by Ernst Rüdin.

Psychiatric genetics in Munich and Basel between 1925 and 1945: programs-practices-cooperative arrangements.

The first research institution worldwide to exclusively devote its research to psychiatric genetics was the Department of Genealogy and Demography at the German Institute for Psychiatric Research (Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Psychiatrie) in Munich, founded in 1917. In 1924, it was integrated into the Kaiser Wilhelm Society. From its foundation until the end of World War II in 1945, the department was directed by the Swiss citizen Ernst Rüdin, one of the protagonists of the racial hygiene movement in Germany.