{"id":1354,"date":"2007-11-26T20:20:37","date_gmt":"2007-11-26T18:20:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wjst.de\/blog\/2007\/11\/26\/in-honor-of-professor-kurt-spohn-1919-1998\/"},"modified":"2023-07-31T19:45:40","modified_gmt":"2023-07-31T17:45:40","slug":"in-honor-of-professor-kurt-spohn-1919-1998","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wjst.de\/blog\/sciencesurf\/2007\/11\/in-honor-of-professor-kurt-spohn-1919-1998\/","title":{"rendered":"In honor of Professor Kurt Spohn (1919-1998)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"p1020753.JPG\"<\/a> \"p1020738.JPG\"<\/a>
\n\"p1020751.JPG\"<\/a> \"p1020749.JPG\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Dedicated to honor Professor Dr. Kurt Spohn, former director of the Department of Surgery, St\u00e4dtische Klinikum Karlsruhe from 1960-1984 (where I worked from 1978-1985).\u00a0Spohn started his career in Heidelberg with Karl Heinz Bauer<\/a> who followed Kirschner 1943 on the Heidelberg chair and who promoted Kurt Spohn as “Oberarzt” in 1952. After short visits in Homburg\/Saar and Santiago de Chile he eventually came to Karlsruhe.
\nThese biographical data do not tell so much while I have never seen again a surgeon working with such a high precision. Even decades later I can remember his exceptional technical skills, slow motion movements while being faster at the end of the day than any other surgeon.
\nHe usually was operating in two theaters in parallel removing up to 10 gallstones during one morning. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday were boss’ days. Sure, we feared him for being choleric and his way to manage such a large department would no more appropriate today.
\nWhen I started my early work shift at 6 am in the outpatient plaster ward, I could already see light in his office. When leaving the late shift at 8 pm his silver Mercedes was often still in front of the clinic.<\/p>\n

A nice photo may be also found in Langenbecks Arch Chir 1981; 355<\/a>. It seems to be the only online resource so far about Professor Spohn. It includes his inaugural speech here in Munich when being president of the German Society of surgery in 1981.<\/p>\n

Alles ist lehrbar – und das meiste auch lernbar -, was zum R\u00fcstzeug eines ordentlichen Chirurgen geh\u00f6rt
\n1. Die saubere Diagnostik. Weit \u00fcber die H\u00e4lfte aller Diagnosen sind in einer subtilen Anamnese zu stellen. Labor und Technik sichern sie nur und k\u00f6nnen ohne Qualit\u00e4tsverlust viel gezielter und kostenbewusster eingesetzt werden, als das heute \u00fcblich geworden ist. Kritiklose Apparate-Diagnostik ohne gesicherte Indikation ist unverzeihlich!
\n2. Die definierte Indikation zum rechtzeitigen Eingriff. Operiert werden darf nur, was konservativ nicht mit der gleichen Aussicht auf Erfolg behandelbar ist.
\n3. Die exakte Planung der Behandlungs-Taktik in interdisziplin\u00e4rer Sicht.
\n4. Die optimierte Vorbehandlung und Vorbereitung zur An\u00e4sthesie und zur Operation und die Weiterbehandlung nach der Operation im st\u00e4ndigen Konsilium mit den Nachbardisziplinen unter kritischer Abw\u00e4gung von Kosten und erreichbarem Erfolg.
\n5. Die subtile Technik: Stetes Zusehen, h\u00e4ufiges Assistieren, \u00dcben des Umgangs mit den Instrumenten f\u00fcr sich alleine, schlieBlich eigene Operationen unter Assistenz eines Erfahrenen. Standardisierte Handgriffe werden schulm\u00e4ssig mit immer gleichen Handgriffen vorgenommen. Nur bei st\u00e4ndiger Ein\u00fcbung bleiben Kopf und H\u00e4nde frei f\u00fcr w\u00e4hrend der Operation auftretende Problemsituationen.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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more links<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.archivportal-d.de\/item\/GEZSQEM5IUQJTCXCOUNHOS6UOPGDEHTS<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de\/item\/7D6EMHSVOHBPNKBEY3ZC6N43QE5TJWRY<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de\/item\/SE2TCCLOVRYONVQFSS7C4FLYSWM2O4WA<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de\/item\/CZU35PG4QVEGSABMPUFL5SVQJGGGU4CO<\/a> (legend is wrong – the doctor on the left is Dr. Goos not Dr. Hammann)<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.stadtarchiv-karlsruhe.findbuch.net\/php\/view.php?link=382f4241205363686c6573696765722031393831x112&force_html=1#&path=..\/pics\/I.._Archivische%20Sammlungen._~8_BA._~8_BA_Schlesiger._~1981._~A41_32_2_13.jpg<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.stadtarchiv-karlsruhe.findbuch.net\/php\/view.php?link=382f4241205363686c6573696765722031393833x2043&force_html=1#&path=..\/pics\/I.._Archivische%20Sammlungen._~8_BA._~8_BA_Schlesiger._~1983._~A46_155_2_41.jpg<\/a><\/p>\n\n

 <\/p>\n

\n CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 03.05.2026<\/span>\n <\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dedicated to honor Professor Dr. Kurt Spohn, former director of the Department of Surgery, St\u00e4dtische Klinikum Karlsruhe from 1960-1984 (where I worked from 1978-1985).\u00a0   CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 03.05.2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-philosophy-of-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wjst.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wjst.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wjst.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wjst.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wjst.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1354"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.wjst.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22339,"href":"https:\/\/www.wjst.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1354\/revisions\/22339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wjst.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wjst.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wjst.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}