The exodus of a medical school

How the Pernkopf controversy facilitated a historical and ethical analysis of the anatomical sciences in Austria and Germany: A recommendation for the continued use of the Pernkopf atlas

Eduard Pernkopf's Topographical Anatomy of Man has been a widely used standard work of anatomy for over sixty years. International inquiries about the National Socialist (NS) political background of Eduard Pernkopf and the use of bodies of NS victims for the atlas were first directed at the University of Vienna in 1996. A public discussion about the further use of the book followed and led to the creation of the Senatorial Project of the University of Vienna in 1997. This historical research project confirmed the strong NS affiliation of Pernkopf and revealed the delivery of at least 1,377 bodies of executed persons to the Anatomical Institute of Vienna during the NS time. The possible use of these bodies as models cannot be excluded for up to half of the approximately 800 plates in the atlas. In addition tissue specimens from NS victims were found and removed from the collections of the Viennese Medical School and received a burial in a grave of honor. The Pernkopf controversy facilitated the historical and ethical analysis of the anatomical sciences in Austria and Germany during the NS regime. The continued use of the Pernkopf atlas is not only justifiable but desirable as a tool in the teaching of anatomy, history, and ethics.

The tainted legacy of Hans Reiter

There is more than ample evidence that Hans Reiter, whose name has been eponymously linked to a rheumatologic syndrome, was a Nazi war criminal. He was responsible for heinous atrocities that violated the precepts of humanity, ethics, and professionalism. The authors suggest that Reiter's legacy is sufficiently tainted that the professional and ethical position of the medical community should be to no longer afford him this recognition. He should be remembered symbolically to remind us of our moral and professional responsibilities to prevent the kind of "experiments" he perpetrated as Director of the Nazi office for such matters. Medicine is a moral enterprise. Physicians serve to promote the welfare of their patients. Hans Reiter and others like him who have behaved in such a manner have acted beyond the pale of acceptable human behavior. These crimes by Reiter and others like him were transcendently aberrant and evil. We regard Reiter and others like him as tainted. We see no acceptable rationale to preserve any professional memory of Reiter and others like him within our medical culture except as a symbol of what our societal values obligate us to reject. We suggest reverting to or substituting other terms for the syndrome (such as spondyloarthropathy, spondyloarthritis, oligoarthritis, inflammatory oligoarthritis, reactive arthritis, [oligo-] arthritis with conjunctivitis/urethritis/diarrhea, etc) until pathophysiologic or other insights lead to better ones. (It should be noted that the description of this syndrome was not original to Reiter and that current nomenclature is probably in need of revision in any case because the terminology and classification is outdated and clinically imprecise.) We offer these recommendations because we cannot forget. We cannot forget that Reiter and others like him represented an abhorrent evil. We cannot forget that Reiter and others like him desecrated the traditions of our civilization. We cannot forget that Reiter and others like him violated the precepts of the Hippocratic oath. The legacy of Hans Reiter should be that we remember only this and resolve that such transgressions never again occur.