[Rudolf Schindler and the gastroscopy]

Abstract

Rudolf Schindler (1888 - 1968) accelerated the spread of gastroscopy in various ways. Together with the technical expert Georg Wolf he developed in 1932 the semiflexible gastroscope, which for about 25 years was the standard gastroscope worldwide before the onset of the fiberscopic era. With his previously constructed rigid gastroscope he became the founder of routine gastroscopy. His Lehrbuch und Atlas der Gastroskopie made him the leading endoscopic authority. He founded the ambulant gastroenterological-endoscopic practice. He was the first to describe and differentiate gastritis. In 1941 he founded the American Gastroscopic Club, he was its first president and the first editor of the journal of this society. For about 40 years he practiced gastroscopy every day with his wife Gabriele. Last but not least, Schindler was a leading authority, which attracted a steadily increasing number of pupils. Schindler was born and grew up in Berlin. He made most of his innovations in Munich between 1920 and 1934. An arrest by the Nazis of two months duration in 1934 drove him away from Germany. In the next decade he made Chicago the Mekka of gastroscopy. In 1943 he moved to California, From 1958 through to 1950 he worked in Belo Horizonte, Brasil. He spent his last years again in Munich. Schindler, possibly the best known digestive endoscopist and an innovative artistical personality, received worldwide high acceptance.