War, trauma and medicine in Germany and Central Europe (1914-1939)

摘要

When taking a look at World War One literature one could easily think it was a British war, while in fact there were a number of other armies who sent far more soldiers into battle and to their deaths. This goes for literature on medical aid as well. We are pretty well informed on the Anglo-Saxon doctors and nurses but on German medical aid the information is much scarcer. So, although books on German or Austrian medical men are certainly not lacking, it is a good thing that some German medical historians (and one American woman writing on Germany) have combined forces to write a book on German medicine and World War One and its aftermath. Although concentrating mostly on psychological problems, it also contains interesting chapters on internal medicine and orthopaedics. It was not only psychiatrists, but orthopaedic internists who took advantage of the war to gain respect for their specialty, until then rather neglected, certainly by the armed forces. They did so by changing their medical practices to make them more fitting for the war effort and by doing so showing that their branch of surgery could also be important for achieving the war aims. The underlying factor was a shared belief in 'social Darwinism' and/or racial hygiene, leading to putting the whole above the individual and looking at eugenics and economics to decide what is healthy and what is not, what is sound therapy and what is not.