Ludwig Guttmann's Academic Relationship with Postwar Germany

Abstract

Sir Ludwig Guttmann's pioneering work in the treatment of spinal injury not only improved the care for patients with paraplegia up to now but revolutionized basic principles of neurorehabilitation. A wide selection of publications honors the personal and academic life of this singular German neurologist and neurosurgeon of Jewish descent. When the Nazis came into power, Guttmann was dismissed from his hospital workplace, humiliated, and later forced to leave Germany. Surprisingly, after the Second World War, the psychiatrist Friedrich Panse, who had been a member of the Nazi party, initiated Guttmann's academic rehabilitation up to his nomination as emeritus professor of Cologne University in 1964. The present article recounts the difficult academic restitution and poses the question why Guttmann sought to re-establish connections to Germany, a country that had expelled him so harshly some decades before.

Keywords: Academic rehabilitation; Cologne University; Emeritus professor; Friedrich Panse; Ludwig Guttmann; Postwar Germany.