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Medical Associations and Their Staff

“Untenable” for the KVD: Gerta Disselkamp

Very little is known about Gerta Disselkamp. For example, no photos of her have survived.<span class=prov></span>
Very little is known about Gerta Disselkamp. For example, no photos of her have survived.

Maria Gertrude (“Gerta”) Disselkamp was born in Krefeld in 1893. She began working for the Medical Association of Krefeld in 1914 and became the head secretary at the local KVD district office in 1933. On 13 May 1937, she swore her oath to Adolf Hitler. In May 1938, she began working for the KVD regional office in Düsseldorf. On 28 September 1938, she purportedly expressed criticism of Nazi Germany’s wish to take over the so-called “Sudetenland”. After Dr Hans Heinrich Harrfeldt, head of the KVD Rhineland regional office, found further evidence of Disselkamp’s supposed political and ideological unreliability, he dismissed her without notice.

In a letter to the Düsseldorf Labour Court dated 5 November 1938, Harrfeldt pointed to Disselkamp’s expressions of sympathy for the plight of Jewish doctors as proof of “open opposition to the actions of the national leadership and of the representative body of German doctors”. After Disselkamp legally contested her dismissal without notice, the Labour Court converted it into an ordinary dismissal with notice.

Harrfeldt moved to Munich in 1939. There, he headed the Bavarian medical association, the Nazi Party’s regional office for public health, the Munich district office of the KVD, and the city’s local medical association. On 4 July 1945, Harrfeldt committed suicide in Traunstein, Upper Bavaria. Gerta Disselkamp continued living in Krefeld, passing away at a local nursing home in 1991.

Statement, signed by Dr Harrfeldt, dated 1 October 1938, p. 4 | <span class=prov>Historicval archive of thev</span>
Statement, signed by Dr Harrfeldt, dated 1 October 1938, p. 4 | Historicval archive of thev
Photo of Hans Heinrich Harrfeldt, published on the occasion of his departure as head of the KVD Rhineland regional office at the turn of 1938/39, in <i>Ärzteblatt für Rheinland</i>, 24/1 (1938/39), 5 January 1939, p. 7<span class=prov></span>
Photo of Hans Heinrich Harrfeldt, published on the occasion of his departure as head of the KVD Rhineland regional office at the turn of 1938/39, in Ärzteblatt für Rheinland, 24/1 (1938/39), 5 January 1939, p. 7
Memo from Dr Hermann Lautsch, member of the KVD national executive board, dated 16 April 1942, with the precise text of the oath of allegiance (detail) | <span class=prov>Historical archive of the KBV, Berlin, 00173</span>
Memo from Dr Hermann Lautsch, member of the KVD national executive board, dated 16 April 1942, with the precise text of the oath of allegiance (detail) | Historical archive of the KBV, Berlin, 00173

Loyal to the Führer?

The Nazis relied on various tools to secure their political power. In the area of public service—to which the statutory health-insurance physician associations also belonged—this included the 1933 “Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service”, which began a step-by-step removal of all Jewish and politically undesirable employees from state-funded offices. 

In 1937, a mandatory oath of allegiance to Adolf Hitler was introduced for all public employees. The text was legally binding, so that any open criticism of Nazi policy could be construed as a violation of the oath and thus a professional breach of duty. For the “followership” or “Gefolgschaft”, which was the Nazi propaganda term for the workforce, the oath of allegiance was also used to politically “bring them into line” and to discipline them.

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