Prof. Dr. med. Karl-Heinz Leven

CV

Karl-Heinz Leven, MD, has the Chair of the History of Medicine at the University Erlangen-Nuremberg since 2009; he studied medicine, history, classical philology at Dusseldorf and Bonn. From 1988 to 2009 he worked at the Institute for the History of Medicine at the University Freiburg. Since 2012 he is member of Leopoldina National Academy of Sciences. His research interests are ancient and byzantine medicine, history of epidemics, history of medical faculties (Freiburg and Erlangen), medicine in Nazi-Germany and history of medical ethics.

Selected Publications

• Leven, K.-H.: A Sound of Thunder. Von Pest, Grippe und Corona. In: Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht 73  (2022), pp. 372-386.
• Leven, K.-H.: Geschichte der Medizin. Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. München, 3^rd edition 2019.
• Leven, K.-H. (Ed.): Antike Medizin. Ein Lexikon. München: C.H. Beck 2005.
• Leven, K.-H.: Die Geschichte der Infektionskrankheiten. Von der Antike bis ins 20. Jahrhundert. Landsberg/Lech: ecomed 1997.
• Leven, K.-H.: Die Freiburger Universitätsmedizin im Nationalsozialismus. Mittäter, Mitwisser und nicht-symmetrische Diskretion. In: Kalchthaler, P./Stockhausen, T.v. (Hg.): Freiburg im Nationalsozialimus. Freiburg: Rombach 2017, pp. 83-99. 177-179.

FRIAS Research Project

Collaboration. Protest. Memory Culture. The Freiburg Pathologist Franz Büchner (1895-1991) during the Nazi-era.

Franz Büchner (1895-1991), since 1936 (and until 1963) successor of Ludwig Aschoff as chair of pathology at the University Freiburg, was the only German physician who uttered an open protest against the so-called “euthanasia,” the murder of the disabled. Büchner did this in a lecture “The Oath of Hippocrates,” held on November 18^th, 1941, in the main lecture hall of the university. His contemporaries clearly perceived the protest. Büchner, however, did not engage in resistance against the Nazi-regime. He remained a loyal German professor, working in some fields of military medicine and held the rank of medical officer of the army. After 1945 his protest was interpreted as a sign that the Freiburg University as a whole should have been a kind of castle of resilience against Nazi-ideology. But reality looked different. Büchner himself had quite a realistic view of his role during the Nazi-era as well as of the behaviour of his colleagues.

The project at FRIAS relies on printed sources, but especially on archival material, the scientific depositum of Franz Büchner, now held in the university archive. Its aim is to analyse the room of manoeuvre of a German professor in a totalitarian system. Additionally, the reception of Büchner´s protest in the memory culture up to the present day will be examined.