Reading the biography of Max Pettenkofer you will discover unexpected turns (starting his career as a third class actor in Augsburg) but also recognize him as one of the founders of Public Health (with a big impact on Munich city development by canalization and foundation of a fire department). Munich had been on the forefront even before the foundation of the famous Boston Public Health school.<\/p>\n
With Volksgesundheit<\/em> the idea of Public Health became perverted by the Nazis. With Erbgesundheit<\/em> in mind the Nazis even tried to eradicate genes from the gene pool. Munich became Hauptstadt der Bewegung<\/em>, and its university even awarded Mengele (the later physician in Auschwitz) a PhD degree.<\/p>\n During post-war period there was probably no epidemiological research in Munich, with Public Health only an unimportant discipline in the medical curriculum. When doing a first major epidemiological study in Munich at the end of the 1980ies and a first genetic population based study in the mid 1990ies, I felt a particular obligation for informed consent where any misuse of genetic data should be avoided.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, these goals are being threadened by an increasing ignorance of informed consent and missing legislative framework for genetic testing in Germany.<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n Reading the biography of Max Pettenkofer you will discover unexpected turns (starting his career as a third class actor in Augsburg) but also recognize him as one of the founders of Public Health (with a big impact on Munich city development by canalization and foundation of a fire department). Munich had been on the forefront … Continue reading Munich, Pettenkofer, Nazis and Public Health: An obligation<\/span>