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Doctor Leonardo Conti and His Nemesis: The Failure of Centralized Medicine in the Third Reich

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

Michael H. Kater
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Extract

This article has a twofold aim. First, it intends to present a portrait of the National Socialist physician and functionary Dr. Leonardo Conti, in the context of German health administration during the Third Reich. Second, it proposes to cast more light on the workings of the National Socialist bureaucracy by examining Conti's place in the hierarchical chain of command and by concentrating on his peculiar relationship with the supreme leader.

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Article
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Central European History , Volume 18 , Issue 3-4 , September 1985 , pp. 299 - 325
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Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 1985

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References

1. Reichsärzteordnung, 13 Dec. 1935, Reichsgesetzblatt, 1935, pt. 1: 1433–44. So far, see the informed criticism by Atzbach, Ernst, “Grundfragen der ärztlichen Kammergesetzgebung und Berufsgerichtsbarkeit und ihr Verhältnis zum Grundgesetz unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der historischen Entwicklung des ärztlichen Berufsrechts” (LLD diss., Marburg/Lahn, 1960), 12–16Google Scholar. I shall deal with the details of this legislation in a monograph on physicians in the Third Reich, which is in preparation.

2. Hence my judgment contradicts the earlier-held opinion of British observers, that “The Nazi system of medicine and public health … is like a vast and smoothly-working machine.” Foreign Office and Ministry of Economic Warfare, The Nazi System of Medicine and Public Health [London, 12 1944]Google Scholar, Wiener Library, Tel-Aviv University, Sourasky Central Library, Id, A1b (p. 229). I thank Professor William Seidelman, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, for making a copy of this document available to me.

3. Szagunn, Ilse, “Frau Nanna Conti zum 60. Geburtstag,” Die Ärztin 17 (1941): 154.Google Scholar

4. As late as 1934 Conti was carrying, “for old times' sake,” a gun which he had formerly used against Berlin Communists. Protocol Conti, Berlin, 19 Mar. 1934, Berlin Document Center (cited BDC), OPG Ketterer.

5. On Technische Nothilfe, see Kater, Michael H., “Die 'Technische Nothilfe' im Spannungsfeld von Arbeiterunruhen, Unternehmerinteressen und Parteipolitik,” Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 27 (1979): 52–59.Google Scholar

6. For all of Conti's early history, see: Vita Conti, Berlin-Wilmersdorf, 11 Nov. 1936. Archiv “Verschüttete Alternativen in der Gesundheitspolitik,” Universität Bremen (Nachlass Conti). I am indebted to Frau Elfriede Conti and Professor Stephan Leibfried (Bremen) for granting me access to this document. Also see: SS Files Conti, BDC; Das Deutsche Führerlexikon 1934/35 (Berlin, n.d.), 86Google Scholar; VölkischerBeobachter, 24 Apr. 1939; Lohalm, Uwe, Völkischer Radikalismus: Die Geschichte des Deutschvölkischen Schutz- und Trutzbundes 1919–1923 (Hamburg, 1970), 327Google Scholar. Regarding Nicolai and Conti, see: Schwarz, Jürgen, Studenten in der Weimarer Republik: Die deutsche Studentenschaft in der Zeit von 1918 bis 1923 und ihre Stellung zur Politik (Berlin, 1971), 220–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Zuelzer, Wolf, Der Fall Nicolai (Frankfurt a.M., 1981), 298–99.Google Scholar

7. Völkischer Beobachter, 24 Apr. 1939; Vita Conti (as in n. 6); SS Files Conti, BDC.

8. Vita Conti (as in n. 6); Höhne, Heinz, Der Orden unter dent Totenkopf: Die Geschichte der SS (Gütersloh, 1967), 64–66Google Scholar; SS Files Conti, BDC. Regarding the Daluege-Stennes relationship, see Koehl, Robert Lewis, The Black Corps: The Structure and the Power Struggles of the Nazi SS (Madison and London, 1983), 45.Google Scholar

9. On this see Kater, Michael H., “Zum gegenseitigen Verhältnis von SA und SS in der Sozialgeschichte des Nationalsozialismus von 1925 bis 1939,” Vierteljahrschrift für Sozialund Wirtschaftsgeschichte 62 (1975): 345–64.Google Scholar

10. See: Conti to Goebbels, Berlin, 3 June 1931, Bundesarchiv Koblenz (cited BA), Schumacher/230; and Kater, Michael H., “Frauen in der NS-Bewegung,” Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 31 (1983): 214Google Scholar. Hustert had recently been fired as Himmler's first SS adjutant (Koehl, The Black Corps, 34).

11. Vita Conti (as in n. 6).

12. See Conti, , “Verraten und verkauft? Streiflichter aus dem Berliner Standesleben,” Mitteilungsblatt der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Cross-Berlin des Nationalsozialistischen Deutschen Ärztebundes, 1 (09 1931), BA, NSD 53/2.Google Scholar

13. Correspondence honor proceedings Conti-Deuschl, Sept. 1932, BDC, PK Conti.

14. Ziel und Weg 2, no. 5 (1932): 2; Wer ist's?, 10th ed., ed. Degener, Herrmann A. L. (Berlin, 1935), 1669Google Scholar. According to Blome, Kurt, Arzt im Kampf: Erlebnisse und Gedanken (Leipzig, 1942), 263Google Scholar, Liebl had resigned because of illness.

15. See: Göring to Wagner, Berlin, 24 Jan. 1934, BDC, SS Files Conti; Vita Conti (as in n. 6); Führerlexikon, 86.

16. The events surrounding Speich and Villain have been reconstructed according to the following documents: SS Files Conti, BDC; SA Files Villain, BDC; OPG Ketterer, BDC; OPG Wagner, BDC. Where needed, individual documentation is provided.

17. SS Files Conti, BDC.

18. Deutsches Ärzteblatt 64 (1934): 253.Google Scholar

19. Wer ist's, 805.

20. Vita Conti (as in n. 6); Führerlexikon, 86; Deutsches Ärzteblatt 69 (1939): 324.Google Scholar

21. The appointment was made on 15 May 1934. Deutsches Ärzteblatt 66 (1936): 334.Google Scholar

22. Diels, Rudolf, Lucifer ante Portas: Zwischen Severing und Heydrich (Zurich, n.d.), 70.Google Scholar

23. OPG Ketterer, BDC.

24. Letter dated Munich, 28 Feb. 1934, ibid.

25. For background, see Kater, Michael H., The Nazi Party: A Social Profile of Members and Leaders, 1919–1945 (Cambridge, Mass., 1983), 209–12.Google Scholar

26. Führerlexikon, 90.

27. “Übersichtsdarstellung der Ereignisse im Falle Villain,” n.d., BDC, SS Files Conti. Date of death as marked on Villain's NSDAP membership card, BDC, NSDAP-Zentralkartei. Also see Diels, Lucifer ante Portas, 70. Cf. Cocks, Geoffrey, Psychotherapy in the Third Reich: The Göring Institute (New York and Oxford, 1985), 150–51.Google Scholar

28. Correspondence Conti-SS-Oberabschnitt 0st, July-Nov. 1934, BDC, SS Files Conti.

29. Frick assumed the Prussian ministry on 1 May 1934. On Wagner, see: Ramm, Rudolf, Ärztliche Rechts- und Standeskunde: Der Arzt als Gesundheitserzieher (Berlin, 1942), 52–53Google Scholar; Deutsches Ärzteblatt 67 (1937): 605.

30. On Wagner's death see, inter alia, Deutsches Ärzteblatt 69 (1939): 325Google Scholar. On Conti's ambition see: Decision by Gau-Gericht Gross-Berlin, 19 Oct. 1934; enclosure with letter G. Wagner to unknown, Berlin, 24 Jan. 1935, BDC, SS Files Conti; documents (1934) cited in Zunke, Peter, “Der erste Reichsärzteführer Dr. med. Gerhard Wagner” (MD diss., Kiel, 1972), 118–21Google Scholar. Rumors that Wagner was murdered (on Conti's instigation by the SS?) persisted beyond 1945. See the somewhat questionable testimony by DrWertheim, Franz in Louis Hagen, Follow My Leader (London, 1951), 49.Google Scholar

31. Völkischer Beobachter, 23 Apr. 1939; Ärzteblatt für Norddeutschland 2 (1939): 260Google Scholar; Ramm, Ärztliche Rechts- und Standeskunde, 72. Also see Kater, Michael H., “Die ‘Gesundheitsführung’ des Deutschen Volkes,” Medizinhistorisches Journal 18 (1983): 349–75Google ScholarPubMed. Cocks, Psychotherapy in the Third Reich, 154, asserts that it was Göring who caused Conti's appointment. Even though in light of the above this is likely, it cannot be proved with Cocks's evidence. He cites the book by Hans-Dietrich Röhrs, a former medicinal official in the Reichsgesundheitsführung, which is basically an undocumented polemic against Trevor-Roper's book (see below, n. 54). Röohrs's allusion to Göring's role in Conti's appointment is vague and not backed up by evidence. See his Hitlers Krankheit: Tatsachen und Legenden: Medizinische und psychische Grundlagen seines Zusammenbruchs (Neckargemünd, 1966), 126–27Google Scholar. Cocks could have been cautioned by the fact that Röhrs's book was produced by the revisionist (neo-Nazi) publisher Kurt Vowinckel. See Tauber, Kurt P., Beyond Eagle and Swastika: German Nationalism since 1945 (Middletown, 1967), 1:628.Google Scholar

32. Deutsches Ärzteblatt 66 (1936): 501.Google Scholar

33. Völkischer Beobachter, 23 Apr. 1939. It is not known whether Conti was in agreement with Hitler's appointment of Blome. So far, the documents indicate that Blome served Conti loyally till 1945. See text after n. 36, below.

34. See Deutsches Ärzteblatt 67 (1937): 605Google Scholar. The affair Bartels-Conti-Ley is recounted according to documents in OPG Bartels, BDC.

35. The title of the journal was Die Gesundheitsführung des Deutschen Volkes.

36. Conti to Bartels, Berlin, 20 June 1939, BDC, OPG Bartels.

37. Details of the Conti-Ley confrontation are in: R18/3785−88; R18/3814, BA. Also see Teppe, Karl, “Zur Sozialpolitik des Dritten Reiches am Beispiel der Sozialversicherung,” Archiv für Sozialgeschichte 17 (1977): 248.Google Scholar

38. Hartmann to Conti, Leipzig, 28 Nov. 1940, BA, R 18/3814.

39. The latter appointment is documented in Stockhorst, Erich, Fünftausend Köpfe: Wer war was im Dritten Reich (Velbert and Kettwig, 1967), 94.Google Scholar

40. See Lang, Jochen von, Der Sekretär: Martin Bormann: Der Mann, der Hitler beherrschte (Stuttgart, 1977), 61.Google Scholar

41. Letter draft [Schenck?], “Erlass zur Sicherung der Volksgesundheit,” 20 Jan. [1941], BA, R 18/3786.

42. On this aspect see Kater, Michael H., “Hitler in a Social Context,” Central European History 14 (1981): 253–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

43. Above all, see Bollmus, Reinhard, Das Amt Rosenberg und seine Gegner: Studien zum Machtkampf im nationalsozialistischen Herrschaftssystem (Stuttgart, 1970), 236–50.Google Scholar

44. Mommsen, Hans, Beamtentum im Dritten Reich: Mit ausgewählten Quellen zur nationalsozialistischen Beamtenpolitik (Stuttgart, 1966), 115–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kater, The Nazi Party, 204–5.

45. The privileges of Reichsleiters and Gauleiters are discussed in Kater, The Nazi Party, 191; idem, “Hitler in a Social Context,” 259–60.

46. Inter alia, see the characteristic letter by Conti to Ley, Berlin, 22 Jan. 1942, BAR 18/3786.

47. Quotation is from letter, Todt to Ley, Berlin, 17 Jan. 1942, BA, R 18/3785.

48. See Conti's memorandum, [Berlin], 10 Aug. 1942, BA, R 18/3788.

49. Conti admits failure in his memorandum, Berlin, 28 July 1942, BA, R 18/3788, while publicly feigning confidence: Deutsches Ärzteblatt 72 (1942): 202Google Scholar.

50. Mitscherlich, Alexander and Mielke, Fred, eds., Medizin ohne Menschlichkeit: Dokumente des Nürnberger Ärzteprozesses (Frankfurt a.M. and Hamburg, 1962), 191–92, 203–11Google Scholar; Boelcke, Willi A., ed., Wollt Ihr den totalen Krieg? Die geheimen Goebbels-Konferenzen 1939–1943 (Munich, 1969), 211Google Scholar. Although, according to Lang, Der Sekretär, 151, Conti's reasons for desisting had been formal-judicial, he did become involved in various facets of “euthanasia” operations, sufficiently at least to have been convicted at Nuremberg. See Klee, Ernst, “Euthanasie” im NS-Staat: Die “Vernichtung lebensunwerten Lebens,” 2d ed. (Frankfurt a.M., 1983), 83, 87–88, 109–10, 163, 303–4, 352Google Scholar.

51. The Conti-Brandt affair is documented according to R 18/3809−10, BA.

52. Conti's competency in the civilian sector was safeguarded in paragraph 2 of the order. Reichsgesetzblatt, 1942, pt. 1:515.

53. See Kater, The Nazi Party, 169–233.

54. Brandt's vita according to: Brandt, entry declaration NS-Ärztebund (1932), BA, R 18/3810. Regarding Magnus, see: Trevor-Roper, Hugh R., The Last Days of Hitler (London, 1952), 66Google Scholar; Wer ist's, 1018; Maerz, Barbara, “Die ‘Münchener Neuesten Nachrichten’ als Quelle zur medizinischen Lokalgeschichte für die Zeit von 1933 bis 1938 unter bevorzugter Berücksichtigung der medizinischen Veranstaltungen und der Berichterstattung über Personen und Institutionen des Gesundheitswesens” (MD diss., Munich, 1977), 92Google Scholar. Regarding Sauerbruch, see Sauerbruch, Ferdinand, Das war mein Leben, 2d ed. (Munich, 1979), 381, 391.Google Scholar

55. See the divergent accounts in: Trevor-Roper, , The Last Days of Hitler, 66Google Scholar; Dietrich, Otto, The Hitler I Knew (London, 1957), 175Google Scholar; Jaeckel, Gerhard, Die Charité: Die Geschichte des berühmtesten deutschen Krankenhauses (Bayreuth, 1963), 368Google Scholar; Zoller, Albert, Hitler privat: Erlebnisbericht einer Geheimsekretärin (Düsseldorf, 1949), 120–21.Google Scholar

56. SS Files Brandt, BDC.

57. Brandt, entry declaration NS-Ärztebund (1932), BA, R 18/3810. For the back ground of the hospital-employed assistant doctors’political caution see Kater, Michael H., “The Nazi Physicians’League of 1929: Causes and Consequences,” in Childers, Thomas, ed., The Nazi Mobilization of the Masses in the Weimar Republic (London, 1986), text at n. 75.Google Scholar

58. Inter alia, see Conti's ordinance of May-June 1942, printed in Deutsches Ärzteblatt 72 (1942): 241Google Scholar.

59. Conti to Lammers, Berlin, 7 June 1943, BA, R18/3810. A similar letter apparently was sent to Bormann. Brandt's “style” (in a 1943 incident in Hamburg) is described in Bürger-Prinz, Hans, Ein Psychiater berichtet (Munich and Zurich, 1973), 115.Google Scholar

60. Frick to Lammers, Berlin, 8 June 1943, BA, R 18/3809.

61. Hitler's health as a charismatic prerequisite is treated in Kater, “Hitler in a Social Context,” 269–70. Brandt's almost constant presence with Hitler is ably documented in Below, Nicolaus von, Als Hitlers Adjutant 1937–45 (Mainz, 1980), passim.Google Scholar

62. The Brandt-Speer-Bormann relationships up to 1944 are reflected upon in: Speer, Albert, Spandauer Tagebücher (Frankfurt a.M., 1975), 44Google Scholar; idem, Erinnerungen, 8th ed. (Frankfurt a.M. and Berlin, 1970), 288, 421Google Scholar; Trevor-Roper's introduction to The Bormann Letters: The Private Correspondence between Martin Bormann and his Wife from January 1943 to April 1945, ed. Trevor-Roper, Hugh R. (London, 1954), xiii, 44Google Scholar; Heeresadjutant bei Hitler 1938–1943: Aufzeichnungen des Majors Engel, ed. Kotze, Hildegard von (Stuttgart, 1974), 56–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

63. Martin Bormann to Gerda Bormann, Führerhauptquartier, 14 Aug. 1944, The Bormann Letters, 78–79.

64. Lammers to Brandt, Feldquartier, 7 Sept. 1943, BA, R 18/3810.

65. Ibid.

66. Reichsgesetzblatt, 1943, pt. 1:533.

67. Details are in Lang, Der Sekretär, passim. Also see ordinance, “Aufgabenbereich der Partei-Kanzlei,” 2 Apr. 1942, International Military Tribunal (Nuremberg, 1947–1949), 40:1Google Scholar.

68. See, for instance, Bormann to Conti, Führerhauptquartier, 3 Aug. 1943, BA, R 18/3810.

69. Conti became a Gruppenführer on 1 Oct. 1941, and Obergruppenführer on 20 Apr. 1944. Brandt was Brigadeführer in March 1943 and Gruppenführer on 20 Apr. 1944 (SS Files Conti and Brandt, BDC).

70. Kauffmann to Conti, [Berlin], 20 Oct. 1943, BA, R 18/3809.

71. See the rhetorical letter by Brandt to Himmler, Berlin, 19 May 1944, BDC, SS Files Brandt.

72. This is documented in R 18/3810, BA.

73. Trevor-Roper, The Last Days of Hitler, 66–69, 72–73; The Bormann Letters, xiv, 87, 130, 137; Leonard, L. and Heston, Renate, The Medical Casebook of Adolf Hitler: His Illnesses, Doctors and Drugs (London, 1979), 89–91.Google Scholar

74. Adolf Hitler: Mono loge im Führerhauptquartier 1941–1944: Die Aufzeichnungen Heinrich Heims, ed. Jochmann, Werner (Hamburg, 1980), 434–35, n. 23.Google Scholar

75. Trevor-Roper, The Last Days of Hitler, 73–74; Lang, Der Sekretär, 314–15; Speer, Erinnerungen, 469–70; Heston and Heston, The Medical Casebook of Adolf Hitler, 96–97.

76. Hilberg, Raul, The Destruction of the European Jews (Chicago, 1967), 694Google Scholar; Wistrich, Robert, Who's Who in Nazi Germany (New York, 1982), 39.Google Scholar

77. Also aborted was the—allegedly long-planned—reform of the judiciary, at least according to Hans Frank. On the phenomenon in general, see: Mommsen, Beamtentum im Dritten Reich, passim; Kater, The Nazi Party, 190–233.

78. Thus far, see Kater, The Nazi Party, 190–233.

79. See: Merkl, Peter H., Political Violence under the Swastika: 581 Early Nazis (Princeton, 1975)Google Scholar; Kater, Michael H., “Generationskonflikt als Entwicklungsfaktor in der NS- Bewegung vor 1933,” Geschichte und Gesellschaft 11 (1985): 217–43.Google Scholar

80. I intend to deal with the last-mentioned problem in a follow-up study.

81. For Bavaria, cf. Hüttenberger, Peter, “Nationalsozialistische Polykratie,” Geschichte und Gesellschaft 2 (1976): 428.Google Scholar

82. Mommsen, Hans, “Hitlers Stellung im nationalsozialistischen Herrschaftssystem,” in Hirschfeld, Gerhard and Kettenacker, Lothar, eds., Der “Führerstaat”: Mythos und Realiät: Studien zur Struktur und Politik des Dritten Reiches (Stuttgart, 1981), 52–53, 59–60.Google Scholar

83. Notably Karl Dietrich Bracher, in his section of: Bracher, Sauer, Wolfgang, Schulz, Gerhard, Die nationalsozialistische Machtergreifung: Studien zur Errichtung des totalitären Herrschaftssystems in Deutschland 1933/34, 2d ed. (Cologne and Opladen, 1962)Google Scholar. Now see also Bracher, , “Stufen totalitärer Gleichschaltung: Die Befestigung der nationalsozialistischen Herrschaft 1933/34,” in Michalka, Wolfgang, ed., Die nationalsozialistische Machtergreifung (Paderborn, 1984), 13–28.Google Scholar

84. Mommsen, “Hitlers Stellung im nationalsozialistischen Herrschaftssystem,” 59–60. In this connection it must be noted that Walther Hofer's criticism of those scholars who have developed the polycracy model is wide of the mark. There can be no question as to the essential validity of the polycratic argument. See Hofer's, article, “50 Jahre danach: Über den wissenschaftlichen Umgang mit dem Dritten Reich,” Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht 34 (1983): 5Google Scholar; and my remarks in Journal of Modern History 54 (1982): 813–14CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

85. Vita Bartels in Bartels, “Antrag auf OPG-Verfahren,” Munich-Harlaching, 18 Aug. 1939, BDC, OPG Bartels.

86. It should be noted that even among the Reichsleiters there were those who found access to Hitler difficult. The most prominent example is Rosenberg.