Angrit Lorenzen-Schmidt

The historians Dr. Michael Buddrus from the Institute for Contemporary History Munich-Berlin and Angrit Lorenzen-Schmidt from the Rostock History Workshop e.V. have completed a biographical lexicon of doctors who practiced in Mecklenburg from 1929 to the summer of 1945 after three and a half years of research. More than 2,300 medical professionals are portrayed, including self-employed, employed, and civil servant doctors, as well as hospital, company, and military doctors. The officials of the state medical bureaucracy, leaders of the NS doctors' organizations, heads of medical associations, and medical professional organizations are also included. Not least, the study group encompasses doctors who came to Mecklenburg as refugees or through service obligations and worked there. The biographies of the doctors are historically contextualized and supplemented by detailed studies on medical policy and health conditions, the state of medical care, and the health status of the Mecklenburg population. The conditions in Mecklenburg are consistently compared with those at the national level, and the area of medical crimes is placed within the much larger field of normal medical activity. This richly illustrated biographical lexicon and the accompanying studies on medical historical issues are based on mostly unexplored sources and represent the most comprehensive project of its kind to date. There is currently no comparable publication for any other German federal state.