“Healthcare Leadership”
A Meteoric Nazi Career: Dr Ursula Kuhlo
Ursula Kuhlo (1909–84) studied medicine and sports in Königsberg (today Kaliningrad). She then began a career in the medical associations and the Reich Youth Leadership (RJF), joining the RJF staff in 1937 as a mid-level officer of the League of German Girls (BDM) before being appointed in 1938 by the “Reich Führer of Doctors” to oversee the female doctors’ section in the Reich Medical Association and the KVD, and then becoming head of the RJF’s health department in 1940. This made her the first woman in such a high position.
By 1937, Kuhlo was already being included at a conference of Hitler Youth regional doctors at the “Leadership School of the German Medical Profession” in Alt Rehse, where she later gave courses herself. In addition to professional development, these courses were also a conduit for Nazi ideological training. After the Second World War, Kuhlo worked in Bielefeld, again as a paediatrician, and occasionally taught aspiring kindergarten teachers at a vocational school.
The Individual Caught Between Self-Improvement and State Control
Even before taking power in 1933, the Nazis were developing their own ideas about medicine. These began to shape healthcare policy in 1933, under the concept of “healthcare leadership” or “Gesundheitsführung” (a word using the same root as “Führer”). Group sports and exercise were supposed to enhance the performance of the individual. But in principle, the health of the individual patient was no longer the main focus. Instead, doctors were only to act in the interests of “Volksgesundheit” or “health of the German folk”, surveilling patients to this end. This ideology culminated in the murder of disabled and/or unwell individuals who were considered a threat to “Volksgesundheit”. To inculcate this mission into medical professionals, a “Führerschule” or “leadership school” was established in the village of Alt Rehse, Mecklenburg. It regularly held Nazi ideological training sessions, primarily for physicians.