[Walking aids seen from a cultural historical perspective : Functional and semantic diversity of assistive systems facilitating locomotion in old age].

Background: Assistance systems serving the locomotion of older people interact in many ways with the culture of a society. Since early modern times at the latest, walking aids were tantamount to human frailty; however, the cane also symbolized governmental power or reputation. Nowadays, the cane, the wheelchair, and the rollator have not only a functional significance in terms of a better mobility, they also enable people to take an active part in social life.

[The art of surgery in nuce : Introduction to Institutiones chirurgicae (1601) by Johannes Jessenius (1566-1621)].

Background: In 1601, Johannes Jessenius published the surgical work Institutiones chirurgicae, which is of particular importance for the history of surgery in Germany. So far, research has predominantly concentrated on the anatomical works of Jessenius; his surgical work including aspects of urology has not been the subject of investigation.

Objectives: In the present article, we analyze the structure, reasoning, and linguistic means used by the author in this work.

[Women in urology and the culture of remembrance: Dora Brücke-Teleky (1879-1967)].

Women have long been underrepresented in medicine and urology, and thus also in the history of medicine and urology. However, within the last 10 years there has been an increase in the focus on gender studies, including the relevant topics within the history of science. Within urology the difficult pathway for women to enter the job in Austria could be analysed, which now allows them to be included in the general culture of remembrance.

[A career start in the Third Reich : The pathologist and Rudolf Virchow Award recipient Walter Müller (1907-1983)].

The pathologist Walter Müller is undoubtedly one of the most prominent post-war representatives of his profession. He became full professor and founding dean in Essen, and in 1983 the German Society for Pathology (DGP) awarded him the Rudolf Virchow Medal - the highest distinction of the society - for his merits to the field of pathology.But this glorious career was by no means predetermined.

The hepatopathologist Hans Popper (1903-1988) : An early victim of National Socialism in Austria.

In 1988, the "father of modern hepatology" Hans Popper died. His medical merits are numerous and outstanding and have already been praised many times. In particular, his research on liver diseases has gained widespread recognition.

[Medicine and literature: "Nobel Prize. No jokes please!" : Gottfried Benn and his nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature].

In the early 1950s, the German poet and physician Gottfried Benn was repeatedly nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Drawing on sources from the archive of the Swedish Academy in Stockholm, this essay discusses how Benn was portrayed as a Nobel nominee. His sponsors highlighted not only why he was a remarkable author, but also his national socialist links during the 1930s.

[The pathologist Philipp Schwartz (1894-1977) : From Nazi victim to initiator of the "Emergency Society of German Scholars Abroad". German version].

Without a doubt, Frankfurt Pathologist Philipp Schwartz is one of the most iconic scholars in recent medical history. As the son of Jewish parents, he was forced to emigrate after Hitler seized power in 1933. Despite this repressive experience, he succeeded in founding the "Notgemeinschaft deutscher Wissenschaftler im Ausland" ("Emergency Association of German Scientists Abroad") in 1933, with which he helped hundreds of forcibly emigrated university teachers find academic positions.

[The hepatopathologist Hans Popper (1903-1988) : An early victim of National Socialism in Austria. German version].

In 1988, the "father of modern hepatology" Hans Popper died. His medical merits are numerous and outstanding and have already been praised many times. In particular, his research on liver diseases has gained widespread recognition.

[Psychiatric textbooks from National Socialism and the censorial practice in the Soviet Occupation Zone and early GDR].

The Allied Forces policy of denazification and demilitarization during the early post-war period has had a lasting impact on medical disciplinary cultures in all occupation zones of Germany. By means of various control procedures, the conceptuality and linguistic design, the style and normative horizon of medical literature were reconstituted. This article examines this change using the example of psychiatry and neurology in the Soviet Occupation Zone.

[Medicine and Economy: Measures for a Science Based, Patient-Centred and Resource Conscious Care. The Association of Scientific Medical Societies' (AWMF) Strategy Paper].

The AWMF and its medical societies perceive an increasing dominance of economic targets in the hospital health care sector, leading to impairment of patient care. While resource use in health care should be appropriate, efficient and fairly allocated, "economization" creates a burdensome situation for physicians, nurses and other health care professionals.The AMWF and the medical societies studied causes and developed measures for a scientific, patient-centred and resource-conscious medical care.

Theranostics: is it really a revolution? Evaluating a new term in medicine.

Theranostics or theragnostics are new terms which start to appear occasionally in publications from 2001 onwards, with a marked increase in references from 2011. In the last few years more than 1100 articles using this term were published each year. In 2011 the journal Theranostics was founded.

[Mercury or sarsaparilla. On the pharmacotherapy of venereal diseases by Johannes Franc (1649-1725) and Friedrich Hoffmann (1660-1742)].

In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, ancient humoral pathology was gradually complemented by new concepts of medical theory. Two important theories that emerged in this context were iatrochemistry and iatrophysics. The physician Johannes Franc (1649-1725) from Ulm and Friedrich Hoffmann (1660-1742), the first professor of the medical faculty of the Fridericiana in Halle (Saale), are representatives of these concepts.

[Between red tape and scalpel : Urological literature, denazification and censorship in East Germany in the early postwar period].

This paper addresses the question of how the urological disciplinary culture and urological knowledge were reformed during the early postwar period under conditions of the allied policy of denazification and demilitarization in East Germany. This article deals with the urological textbook as a central medium of disciplinary communication and explores how urological knowledge was processed in complex negotiation processes between authors, publishers and censorship authorities of the Soviet occupation zone. The focus is on mechanisms of medial control to which medical knowledge cycles have been subjected, and thus the archival holdings of censorship authorities that have not yet been evaluated.

Solving a problem by dissolving a tradition. Munich anatomy's body supply since the Second World War.

The system of anatomical body procurement had to be reorganized in Germany after the end of the Second World War. At that time, the country had been split up and, in its Western zones of occupation, which eventually would form the Federal Republic of Germany, a democratic form of government was reintroduced. While political and economic conditions were improving, well-known obstacles of sufficient body supply turned out to be increasingly complicated to overcome.

[Coincidence of Advance Directive and Organ Donor Consent: What Do The Persons Concerned Want? A Survey of German Elderly Citizens].

Aims: In the case of acute brain injury, decision-making uncertainties can arise when both an advance decision to refuse treatment and a prior consent to post-mortem organ donation are present. It is yet unknown how the persons concerned view this potential conflict. The present study aims to investigate how frequent this situation is, whether the persons concerned are aware of the potential conflict and what they would prioritize.

[Health Education and Its (Social) Scientization in the 1950s and 1960s].

The contemporary history of prevention is booming. By means of its preventative societal handling of health and illness, it illuminates exemplarily the transformation in concepts, institutions, and practice of the biopolitical governing of populations. In this regard health education is a decisive technology.

[Internet and mobile-assisted interventions in mental disorders : Implementation in Germany from an ethical perspective].

Background: Internet and mobile-based interventions (IMIs) for mental disorders are seen by some authors as a step forward to narrow the treatment gap in mental health; however, especially in Germany professionals voice ethical concerns against the implementation of IMIs. The fact that there is broad evidence in favor of IMIs and that IMIs have already been implemented in several countries requires an ethical analysis to answer these concerns.

Objective: The objective is to tackle ethical issues connected to a possible implementation of IMIs for mental disorders in Germany and to point out possible solutions.

[The Münsteraner Memorandum on Alternative Practitioners - Analysis and evaluation of critical commentaries].

With its "Münsteraner Memorandum on Alternative Practitioners" the author collective "Münsteraner Kreis" has recently criticized current German double standards for physicians versus alternative practitioners with regard to minimal competency and to quality assurance. The authors' main goal was to attract attention to the problem and to provide systematic arguments in favor of a healthcare system that is serving patients' needs more appropriately. Reactions to the Memorandum were numerous, divergent in their evaluations, often constructive, and frequently emotionally heated.