Editing Ferdinand Sauerbruch (section)

== Biography ==
Sauerbruch was born in [[Barmen]] (now a district of [[Wuppertal]]), Germany. He studied [[medicine]] at the [[Philipps University of Marburg]], the [[University of Greifswald]], the [[Friedrich Schiller University of Jena]], and the [[University of Leipzig]], from the last of which he graduated in 1902. He went to [[Breslau]] in 1903, where he developed the [[Sauerbruch chamber]], a pressure chamber for operating on the open [[human thorax|thorax]], which he demonstrated in 1904. This invention was a breakthrough in thorax medicine and allowed heart and lung operations to take place at greatly reduced risk. As a battlefield surgeon during [[World War I]], he developed several new types of limb [[prosthesis|prostheses]], which for the first time enabled simple movements to be executed with the remaining muscle of the patient.
[[File:1932 Liebermann Der Chirurg Ferdinand Sauerbruch anagoria.JPG|thumb|[[Max Liebermann]]: Ferdinand Sauerbruch (1932), [[Hamburger Kunsthalle]]]]
Sauerbruch worked at the [[Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich]] from 1918 to 1927 on surgical techniques and [[diet (nutrition)|diet]]s for treating [[tuberculosis]]. From 1928 to 1949, he was the head of the surgical department at the [[Charité]] in [[Berlin]], attaining international fame for his innovative operations.  Because of his experience and extraordinary skills, he quickly attained an international reputation and operated on many prominent patients.  At the same time, he was well known for his uncompromising and passionate dedication to all patients independent of their social, political or ethnic backgrounds. 

Before [[World War II]], the German Government awarded Sauerbruch the [[German National Prize for Art and Science]]. Sauerbruch's position towards the Nazi government is still the subject of debate. In his position, he was clearly in contact with the political elite but he was never a member of the [[NSDAP]]. However, he did [[Vow of allegiance of the Professors of the German Universities and High-Schools to Adolf Hitler and the National Socialistic State|support the political objectives of the NSDAP]] and encouraged other scientists to join it. In 1935, Prussian [[Minister President]] [[Hermann Göring]] appointed him to the [[Prussian State Council (Nazi Germany)|Prussian State Council]], and he remained a member through the end of the Nazi regime.<ref>{{cite book |last= Lilla |first= Joachim |title= Der Preußische Staatsrat 1921–1933: Ein biographisches Handbuch |publisher= Droste Verlag |location=Düsseldorf |year= 2005 |page= 234 |isbn=978-3-770-05271-4}}</ref> He was a fervent [[German nationalism|nationalist]] who wanted to undo the "humiliation of [[Treaty of Versailles|Versailles]]" and was keen to show off his country as an advanced and sophisticated society. While he had accepted the ''German Nationalpreis'', a short-lived German alternative to the Nobel Prize, it is said he also publicly spoke out for people who were persecuted (e.g. the [[Impressionism|Impressionist]] painter [[Max Liebermann]]). He was part of the so-called ''[[Berliner Mittwochsgesellschaft (1863–1944)|Mittwochsgesellschaft]]'' ([[:de:Mittwochsgesellschaft#Weimarer Republik und Dreißiger Jahre|de]]) (Wednesday Society), a group of scientists that included critical voices; and after [[20 July plot|20 July 1944]] he was arrested and interrogated by the Gestapo because his son [[Peter Sauerbruch|Peter]] had ties to [[Claus von Stauffenberg]].

In 1937, he became a member of the newly established [[Reichsforschungsrat|Reich Research Council]] that supported "research projects" of the SS, including experiments on prisoners in the [[concentration camp]]s. As head of the General Medicine Branch of the RRC, it was alleged that he personally approved the funds which financed [[August Hirt]]'s experiments with [[mustard gas]] on prisoners at [[Natzweiler concentration camp]] from 1941 until 1944.<ref>''Pathways to Human Experimentation, 1933-1945: Germany, Japan, and the United States'' by Gerhard Baader, Susan E. Lederer, Morris Low, Florian Schmaltz and Alexander V. Schwerin, ''Osiris'', 2nd Series, Vol. 20, ''Politics and Science in Wartime: Comparative International Perspectives on the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute'' (2005), p.216</ref> However, he was one of the few university professors who publicly spoke out against the NS-Euthanasia program T4.{{fact|date=November 2021}} In 1942, he became Surgeon General to the army. In mid-September 1943, Sauerbruch was awarded the [[Knight's Cross of the War Merit Cross]] with Swords. On 12 October 1945, he was charged by the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]] for having contributed to the Nazi dictatorship, but acquitted for lack of evidence.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/3214.html|title = Ernst Ferdinand Sauerbruch}}</ref>

Sauerbruch continued hospital surgery throughout the whole war; his operating theatre was taken by the Red Army in 1945. Late in life, he developed dementia and was dismissed from the Charité because he continued to perform surgeries on patients, some with uncertain results. His colleagues detected the errors but were unable to stop him because of his fame and power.<ref>{{cite book |author=Youngson RM |chapter=The demented surgeon is operating |title=Medical Curiosities |publisher=Carroll & Graf |location=New York |year=1997}}</ref>

Sauerbruch died in [[East Berlin]] at the age of seventy-five. He is buried at [[Berlin-Wannsee|Wannsee]]. A high school in [[Grossröhrsdorf]] in [[Saxony]] in modern Germany bears his name.<ref>[http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,605223,00.html Dubious Role Models:Study Reveals Many German Schools Still Named After Nazis Jan Friedmann 02/04/2009 Spiegel Online]</ref>

'''Portrayals in Media'''

Sauerbruch's life was portrayed in the German 1954 film ''[[Sauerbruch – Das war mein Leben]]'', which is based on his memoirs ''Das war mein Leben'' (This Was My Life), although the validity of these memoirs (written by the journalist Hans Rudolf Berndorff) is contested by Sauerbruch's disciple [[Rudolph Nissen|Rudolf Nissen]].

The second series of the German series ''[[Charité at War |Charité at War (TV series)]]'' depicts the workings of the Charité under Sauerbruch's leadership during World War II and the impact of the contemporary political climate on the hospital staff.