gms | German Medical Science

Objective: Analysis of profession, origin, and rank of persons visiting his department in Würzburg and Berlin and signing in his guestbook, which is stored in the Karl-August-Bushe Archive in Würzburg.

Methods: The visitors signed with their name, their affiliation or country, and (in most instances) the date of their visit. Since deciphering of the hand-written entries often met with difficulties we used a variety of tools in order to identify the person behind the signature, e.g., their published papers, contemporary phone and address books, family trees open to the public (e.g. Ancestry), and articles on the history of neurosurgery in the states mentioned.

Results: Of a total number of 571 entries, assigned to some 515 individuals, 98 could finally not be deciphered, whereas in 269 cases the persons behind the signatures could be identified. We found many famous names representing the contemporary or future international „Who’s who“ in surgery, neurosurgery and neuroscience. 49 percent of the visitors came from abroad, a large proportion from Japan, South America and Southeast Europe, apart from the allied states Italy and Spain. The predominance of these countries mainly reflected current German economic and strategic interests, in addition to some historic ties. About 20 visitors later became famous in their home countries for pioneering work in neurosurgery or neuroscience, and 13 of them after spending a scholarship with Tönnis. We found that some scholarships were granted by institutions which appeared neutral on the outside, but were actually subjected to strict political (and ideological) control, e.g., “A.-v.-Humboldt-Stiftung“ or “Mitteleuropäischer Wirtschaftstag“. Moreover, literature data indicate that even the selection of applicants for fellowships was guided by political authorities. Other visitors of Tönnis’ department included high-ranking Nazi authorities as well as a number of military personnel, the latter reflecting the German rearmament and the recognized military significance of neurosurgery. Finally, several entries tell us stories about the dramatic reality of daily life under the Nazi regime.

Conclusion: While Tönnis’ neurosurgical activities and mentorship in Berlin have usually been looked at without considering the political conditions of that time, his guestbook has broadened our perspective.