german neurological society

As proposed by Professor Günther Deuschl, a special session which included also Prof. David B. Vodušek (Ljubljana, Slovenia), Prof. Wolfgang Oertel (Marburg, Germany) and D. A. Macerollo (London, UK) and Prof. Stefan Zierz (Halle, Germany) was organised by the German Neurological Society within their DGN Forum - Germany Meets Europe: What EAN can achieve for science, medical care and education.

by Didier Leys   The “Société Française de Neurologie” (SFN) held its winter meeting in La Salpêtrière, Paris, on January 15th and 16th, 2015. For the first time the board of the SFN decided to invite another National Society of… Continue Reading

Following a short history of neurology in Germany given in previous chapters of this series, chapters 5-8 will highlight some of today’s major issues. Here we start with a sketch of the German Stroke Society (Deutsche Schlaganfall-Gesellschaft – DSG).

After World War II, German neurology had to restart from almost point zero. Even though three “old” neurology chairs at the universities in Hamburg (Heinrich Pette), Heidelberg (Paul Vogel) and Würzburg (Georges Schaltenbrand) still existed or were reinstituted immediately, the process of emancipation of neurology as an independent field had been reversed between 1933 and 1945 (see previous chapters of this series).

Following a “golden century” that had started with Moritz Heinrich Romberg in 1832 (see the previous chapters of this series) German neurology entered its dark age in 1933. Legislation implemented by the “Nazi“ party banned many Jewish fellow citizens including physicians from their professions and from using their possessions.

Following last month’s chapter 1 about “founding fathers of the 19th century” we here continue this historical retrospect with a short review of German neurology in the early 20th century.

Today’s neurology would not have developed and is unthinkable without the close interaction that took place among our European forefathers as early as in the 19th century. The following paragraphs are devoted to some of these pioneers from Germany.

(What takes really long will finally work out well) German saying by Werner Hacke Back in time in the early 90ies as a young chairperson of Neurology at the University of Heidelberg I was a member of the ENS and… Continue Reading