Erwin Gohrbandt, one of the first surgeons to perform sex reassignment surgery and vice president of the Berlin regional association of the German Red Cross

April 5, 2023
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Erwin Gohrbandt (1890 – 1965) was a German surgeon and university teacher. He was one of the first surgeons to perform sex reassignment surgery. Gohrbandt served as vice president of the Berlin regional association of the German Red Cross. He was also a member of the German Olympic Society. In 1950-51 he was chairman of the Berlin Surgical Society.

  • Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich, Frankfurt am Main 2007, S. 191f.

His younger brother Paul Gohrbandt (1896–1975) was also a doctor.

Life

After graduating from high school in Treptow an der Rega in 1910, Gohrbandt studied medicine from 1910 to 1914 at the Kaiser Wilhelm Academy for Military Medical Education in Berlin. In 1910 he became a member of the Pépinière Corps Franconia. 

  • Kösener Corpslisten 1930, 66/461

At the beginning of the First World War he was drafted into military service as a junior doctor. During his military service, he passed the state examination in January 1915 and received his medical license in 1917.

Before the war

He was then assigned to the Pathological Institute of the Charité. Between 1920 and 1928 he worked at the surgical university clinic of the Charité, from 1924 as senior physician and head of the pediatric surgery department. In 1924, he habilitated in surgery and began teaching. On June 6, 1928 he was appointed Associate Professor of Surgery at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin. In the same year, he moved to the city hospital Am Urban as chief physician of the II. Surgical Department.

In 1931, Gohrbandt, with Ludwig Levy-Lenz , was one of the first surgeons to perform sex reassignment surgery with vaginoplasty on some transsexual patients – a pioneering experimental achievement at the time. Known by name are the patients Dora Richter, a domestic worker at the Institute for Sexology under Magnus Hirschfeld, and the Danish artist Lili Elbe.

During the National Socialist period, Gohrbandt was a research assistant for surgical questions in the Social Office of the Reich Youth Leader.

During the Second World War

From August 1939, Gohrbandt was a consultant surgeon to the army and (from 1940) as the inspector of medical services in the Luftwaffe.

With effect from October 1, 1940, he became Head of the Surgical Department at the Municipal Robert Koch Hospital and at the same time became Clinic Director of the Third Appointed Surgical University Clinic. Gohrbandt participated in the conference on medical questions in distress and winter death on October 26 and 27, 1942. From 1944 he was a member of the scientific advisory board of the General Commissioner for the Sanitation and Health Service Karl Brandt.

  •  Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich, Frankfurt am Main 2007, S. 191f.

He participated in the development of human experiments conducted on prisoners of the Dachau concentration camp, investigating the problems of mortality due to hypothermia.

  • Woolf, Linda (2017), “Nazi Doctors & Other Perpetrators of Nazi Crimes”, Nazi Science: Human Experimentation vs. Human Rights, retrieved 2023-03-11
  • The activities of surgeon Erwin Gohrbandt (1890-1965) on behalf of the Berlin University, the city’s municipal council and the Berlin Surgical Society. Z Arztl Fortbild (Jena). 1990;84(19):1005-8. German. PMID: 2270698.

Post-war period

In the post-war period, he was Ferdinand Sauerbruch‘s deputy in the office of the city council for health care in all of Berlin. He was commissioned by the Soviet military administration in Germany and the Berlin magistrate to ensure sanitation and to monitor hygiene regulations. He drove the reconstruction of the war-damaged Moabit Hospital and headed its surgical department until December 31, 1958. At the same time, he resumed his lectures at the newly founded Free University of Berlin and published the Central Journal for Surgery in 1946. Effective December 31, 1958, he retired. He ran an outpatient clinic in Berlin-Tiergarten until his death in 1965.

Honours

  • Iron Cross 2nd and 1st Class (First World War)
  • Knight’s Cross of the War Merit Cross with Swords (February 1, 1945)
  • Grand Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (1952)
  • Honorary professorship at the TH Berlin (1956)
  • Honorary member of the Berlin Surgical Society (1958)

Works

  • 1928: Lehrbuch der Kinderchirurgie, 1928
  • 1936: Chirurgische Fragen der Kinderheilkunde in der Praxis, 1936

As an editor

  • Zentralblatt für Chirurgie

Not sure about these but maybe:

[Surgical treatment of peripheral circulatory disorders].GOHRBANDT E.Dtsch Gesundheitsw. 1947 Feb 15;2(4):136.PMID: 20342469 German. No abstract available.2CiteShare 

[Scleroderma diffusa and its treatment].GOHRBANDT E.Dtsch Gesundheitsw. 1948 Sep 15;3(18):548-50.PMID: 18104064 German. No abstract available.3CiteShare 

[Scleroderma diffusa].GOHRBANDT E.Zentralbl Chir. 1948;73(6):581-7.PMID: 18108750 German. No abstract available.4CiteShare 

[SCATTERED PANCREATIC ABBERRANT TISSUE–NECROSIS OF ABERRANT PANCREAS].GOHRBANDT E.Zentralbl Chir. 1964 Oct 10;89:1552-4.PMID: 14329148 German. No abstract available.5CiteShare 

[CONSERVATIVE TREATMENT OF THE “SNAPPING FINGER”].GOHRBANDT E.Landarzt. 1964 Feb 10;40:164-5.PMID: 14336255 German. No abstract available.6CiteShare 

[Summarizing opinion on experiences with Estil known to date].GOHRBANDT E, BAUERS E.Ther Umsch. 1961 Oct;18:394-6.PMID: 13899571 German. No abstract available.7CiteShare 

[Short anesthesia with estil].GOHRBANDT E, BAUERS E.Zentralbl Chir. 1961 Mar 25;86:879-82.PMID: 13706327 German. No abstract available.8CiteShare 

[Georg Axhausen].GOHRBANDT E.Zentralbl Chir. 1960 Apr 2;85:561-3.PMID: 13850484 German. No abstract available.9CiteShare 

[In memory of Carl Ludwig Schleich on his 100th birthday].GOHRBANDT E.Hippokrates. 1959 Oct 15;30:711-4.PMID: 13850485 German. No abstract available.10CiteShare 

[Carl Ludwig Schleich on his 100th birthday].GOHRBANDT E.Zentralbl Chir. 1959 Jul 11;84:1089-91.PMID: 13855852 German. No abstract available.                    

[Carl Ludwig Schleich on his 100th birthday].GOHRBANDT E.Ther Umsch. 1959 Jul;16:213-5.PMID: 13855851 German. No abstract available.12CiteShare 

[Vascular transplantation].GOHRBANDT E.Dtsch Med J. 1959 Mar 15;10(5):101-4.PMID: 13639752 German. No abstract available.13CiteShare 

[Cryptorchidism].GOHRBANDT E.Ther Umsch. 1958 Jul;15(7):170-2.PMID: 13580929 German. No abstract available.14CiteShare 

[N. Guleke].GOHRBANDT E.Zentralbl Chir. 1958 May 31;83(22):1141.PMID: 13582041 German. No abstract available.15CiteShare 

[Abdominal surgery in children].GOHRBANDT E.Med Klin. 1958 May 9;53(19):844-5.PMID: 13551844 German. No abstract available.16CiteShare 

[Progress in surgery].GOHRBANDT E.Med Klin. 1958 Apr 4;53(14):525-7.PMID: 13551771 German. No abstract available.17CiteShare 

[To the Retentio testis].GOHRBANDT E.Medizinische. 1957 Jun 8;(23):855-6.PMID: 13440458 German. No abstract available.18CiteShare 

[Hepato-Gastrostomy].GOHRBANDT E.Zentralbl Chir. 1957 Apr 20;82(16):641-5.PMID: 13457093 German. No abstract available.19CiteShare 

[Abdominal surgery in newborn].GOHRBANDT E.Med Klin. 1957 Apr 19;52(16):666-7.PMID: 13430319 German. No abstract available.20CiteShare 

[Errors in surgical diagnosis of appendicitis].GOHRBANDT E.Med Klin. 1957 Jan 11;52(2):41-3.PMID: 13407383 German. No abstract available.                     AMA                            APA                            MLA                            NLM               

[Suicide].GOHRBANDT E.Langenbecks Arch Klin Chir Ver Dtsch Z Chir. 1957;287:349-51.PMID: 13526407 German. No abstract available.22CiteShare 

[Most recent researches in the field of postoperative pathogenesis of thrombosis].GOHRBANDT E.Langenbecks Arch Klin Chir Ver Dtsch Z Chir. 1957;287:337-42.PMID: 13526404 German. No abstract available.23CiteShare 

[Stomach ulcer and stomach cancer].GOHRBANDT E.Dtsch Med J. 1956 Apr 1;7(7):160-2.PMID: 13344160 German. No abstract available.24CiteShare 

[Splenectomy in blood and infectious diseases].GOHRBANDT E, GREWE HE.Med Klin. 1956 Mar 30;51(13):540-1.PMID: 13333583 German. No abstract available.25CiteShare 

[Treatment of hemangioma of the skin].GOHRBANDT E.Med Klin. 1956 Mar 30;51(13):524-5.PMID: 13333577 German. No abstract available.26CiteShare 

[The postoperative clinical picture].GOHRBANDT E.Gac Med Caracas. 1955 Nov;63(7-11):346-7.PMID: 13318201 Spanish. No abstract available.27CiteShare 

[The problem of conservative or surgical treatment of Dupuytren’s contracture].GOHRBANDT E.Med Klin. 1955 Apr 8;50(14):572-5.PMID: 14383153 German. No abstract available.28CiteShare 

[Breast Plastic Surgery].GOHRBANDT E.Langenbecks Arch Klin Chir Ver Dtsch Z Chir. 1955;282:607-8.PMID: 13308089 German. No abstract available.29CiteShare 

[Surgical implications of endogenous protein destruction].GOHRBANDT E.Langenbecks Arch Klin Chir Ver Dtsch Z Chir. 1955;282:51-6.PMID: 13307997 German. No abstract available.30CiteShare 

[Plastic surgery with special reference to skin grafts and transplantations].GOHRBANDT E.Dtsch Med J. 1954 Jun 9;5(11-12):357-60.PMID: 13200330 German. No abstract available.                          

[Foreign bodies in the abdominal cavity].GOHRBANDT E.Med Klin. 1954 Apr 16;49(16):598-600.PMID: 13164913 Undetermined Language. No abstract available.32CiteShare 

[Homoioplasty, heteroplasty and alloplasty].GOHRBANDT E.Langenbecks Arch Klin Chir Ver Dtsch Z Chir. 1954;279:14-26.PMID: 13234444 German. No abstract available.33CiteShare 

[Direct anastomosis between liver and gastrointestinal canal; hepatogastrostomy].GOHRBANDT E.Langenbecks Arch Klin Chir Ver Dtsch Z Chir. 1953;276:639-44.PMID: 13143854 Undetermined Language. No abstract available.34CiteShare 

[To E. v. Redwitz on his 70th birthday].GOHRBANDT E.Zentralbl Chir. 1953;78(14):562.PMID: 13091096 Undetermined Language. No abstract available.35CiteShare 

[Cineroentgenography and stereoscopy in Berlin since 1950].GOHRBANDT E, METZNER J, WESTERKAMP H.Zentralbl Chir. 1953;78(12-13):481-93.PMID: 13091087 Undetermined Language. No abstract available.36CiteShare 

[Film on kinematographic radioscopy].GOHRBANDT E, METZNER, WESTERKAMP.Mem Acad Chir (Paris). 1952 Oct 29-Nov 5;78(27-28):785-6.PMID: 13024789 Undetermined Language. No abstract available.37CiteShare 

[Significance of homoplastic transplants].GOHRBANDT E.Langenbecks Arch Klin Chir Ver Dtsch Z Chir. 1952-1953;273:451-3.PMID: 13045651 Undetermined Language. No abstract available.38CiteShare 

[Cancer of the lung].GOHRBANDT E.Dtsch Med J. 1951 Dec 20;2(23-24):559-60.PMID: 14926453 Undetermined Language. No abstract available.39CiteShare 

[Treatment of multiple sclerosis by novocain block of the sympathicus].GOHRBANDT E.Langenbecks Arch Klin Chir Ver Dtsch Z Chir. 1951 Nov 17;270:295-303.PMID: 14928675 Undetermined Language. No abstract available.40CiteShare 

In memoriam Ferdinand Sauerbruch.GOHRBANDT E.Zentralbl Chir. 1951;76(16):1074-5.PMID: 14893885 No abstract available.                                   

[To Willibald Heyn on his 60th birthday].GOHRBANDT E.Zentralbl Chir. 1951;76(5):290-1.PMID: 14837313 Undetermined Language. No abstract available.42CiteShare 

[Surgical treatment of enuresis].GOHRBANDT E.Langenbecks Arch Klin Chir Ver Dtsch Z Chir. 1950 Apr 11;264:401-8.PMID: 15426255 Undetermined Language. No abstract available.43CiteShare 

[Rapid diagnosis of fat embolism].GOHRBANDT E.Zentralbl Chir. 1947 Apr;72(4):394-6.PMID: 20260734 German. No abstract available.

References

  1. Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich, Frankfurt am Main 2007, S. 191f.
  2. Kösener Corpslisten 1930, 66/461
  3. Harald Rimmele: Biografie von Dorchen Richter. hirschfeld.in-berlin.de
  4. “A Trans Timeline”. Trans Media Watch. Archived from the original on 2018-12-26. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  5. Woolf, Linda (2017), “Nazi Doctors & Other Perpetrators of Nazi Crimes”, Nazi Science: Human Experimentation vs. Human Rights, retrieved 2023-03-11
  6. The activities of surgeon Erwin Gohrbandt (1890-1965) on behalf of the Berlin University, the city’s municipal council and the Berlin Surgical Society. Z Arztl Fortbild (Jena). 1990;84(19):1005-8. German. PMID: 2270698.

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