Conformity by Force and Acquiescence
The Strongman of the Medical Profession Deposes Himself: Dr Alfons Stauder
It was in 1904 that the gastroenterologist Dr Alfons Stauder (1878–1937) began his rise in various medical associations. By 1926, he was chief executive of the German Medical Federation, and by 1929 of the Hartmann Association as well. He was thus the Weimar Republic’s most powerful medical office holder until the Nazi takeover.
When it appeared that Dr Gerhard Wagner, head of the National Socialist German Doctors’ League (NSDÄB), would become the new commissioner of the two big medical associations, Stauder resisted at first before finally acquiescing. In March 1933, he himself called for the removal of all Jews holding office in the medical associations. In a statement to members of the German Medical Federation and the Hartmann Association on 7 June 1933, he emphasized the “absolute necessity of bringing medical professional associations into conformity [Gleichschaltung]” and resigned from all his offices.
A Democratically Committed Physician is Ousted: Dr Fritz Wester
Born 1880 in the western German region of Bergisches Land, Fritz Wester had close ties to political Catholicism. After his medical studies, he initially worked as a public health officer. With the end of the First World War, he turned to politics. Joining the Centre Party, he became a member of the Prussian House of Representatives in 1923. As a board member of the Hartmann Association, he was also influential in healthcare policymaking. His political convictions brought him into conflict with the Nazis early on. In March 1933, Nazi officials and politicians pushed
for his removal from all posts. Stauder and the board of the Hartmann Association likewise
called him “untenable”. Wester outlived the Nazi regime and went on to play a central role in
the reconstruction of medical associations in the Rhineland. He died in Cologne in 1950.
Lockstep March to the “Reich Führer of Doctors”
With the founding of the Statutory Health Insurance Physician Association of Germany (KVD) in August 1933, a legally mandated body representing doctors’ interests on the national level was created for the first time. Before then, the German Empire and the Weimar Republic had only had voluntary professional associations for doctors, of which the largest were the German Medical Federation and the Hartmann Association of Germany’s Doctors. The Nazi Party had its own interest group for doctors, the National Socialist German Doctors’ League (NSDÄB). Its head, Dr Gerhard Wagner, sought complete political control over both the German Medical Federation and the Hartmann Association. On 24 March 1933, both bodies agreed to Wagner’s appointment as commissioner, thereby abandoning their previous assertion of non-partisanship. In 1934, Wagner’s official title was changed to “Reich Führer of German Doctors”.