Swedish–German contacts in the field of anatomy 1930–1950: Gösta Häggqvist and Hermann Stieve

Max Clara and Innsbruck - The origin of a German Nationalist and National Socialist career

This investigation aims to summarize hitherto scattered pieces of evidence of the early biography of Max Clara, especially considering his connections with the Histological Institute of the University of Innsbruck. Max Clara was born in 1899 in South Tyrol, at that time part of the Habsburg Empire. After high school in Bozen and his participation in World War I, Clara studied medicine in Innsbruck, Austria and Leipzig, Germany, graduating from Innsbruck University in 1923. He joined the Corps Gothia, a German Student Corps, at the start of his studies and became socialized as a German nationalist. When the Tyrolean Parliament conducted an illegal referendum in 1921, in which a majority voted for the merger of Tyrol with Germany, the active members of the Gothia spontaneously removed the border barriers between Austria and Bavaria in the municipality of Scharnitz. They brought them to Innsbruck to be deposited in the statehouse. Clara's participation in this activity is not documented but is very likely. Seventy-four per cent of the members of this corps joined the Nazi party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, NSDAP), even before the annexation of Austria by National Socialist (NS) Germany in 1938. Clara likely met Maximinian de Crinis, an SS officer and high-ranking member of the NS health administration, through contacts within their respective corps. De Crinis supported Clara decisively in the anatomist's appointments as chair of anatomy at the University of Leipzig and later at the University of Munich. Initially, Clara began his academic career at the Institute of Histology and Embryology in Innsbruck as (student) demonstrator, and in 1923 as an assistant. In December 1923 Clara had to leave Innsbruck for Blumau, South Tyrol to take over the medical surgery of his father, who had passed away unexpectedly. Back in Italy, he continued his histological research in his spare time and published a large number of scientific papers. His connections with Innsbruck and especially with histologist Jürg Mathis never ceased.

[Urology, gynecology, and andrology united against infertility? : The careers of Boris Belonoschkin (1906-1988)]

Male arrogance, medical ignorance of anatomy and functioning of the human genitals, and social reservations about sex education have hampered urological and gynecological research since the 1920s. This changed under the premises of National Socialism when some physicians willing to cooperate were given the opportunity to perform human experiments. The gynecologist Boris Belonoschkin was one of them. He continued his career in Sweden after 1945, where he became an internationally respected scholar. As such, he was able to bring books of his former German colleagues to international attention again. He also promoted andrological research in Western Germany.

Scientists, Instruments, and Even Brains in Transfer: German-Spanish Postwar Networks and the Construction of the Neuroendocrine System (1952-1960)

This article presents the process of relocation of hegemonies and “center-periphery” dynamics in neuroanatomy after World War II through the study of the links between the Spanish anatomical school of José Escolar García and some German institutions. We have analyzed their works on the morphology of the neuroendocrine system as a case study, showing how the first contacts of the Spaniards with the United States started a material transfer process between centers on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean through the mediation—and adaptation—of the periphery. The case also shows how scientific networks in the “new” Europe were reestablished after the Nazi era and how important these systems were for the transfer of knowledge, using them for the circulation of experts, instruments, and even biological samples.