[Three Jewish Germans as chief surgeons in the Berlin-Friedrichshain Hospital--a historical reminiscence].

Three jewish Germans were between 1903 and 1933 continuously in charge of a department of surgery at the oldest municipal hospital in Berlin-Friedrichshain (founded 1874). They were A. Neumann (1865-1920), Moritz Katzenstein (1872-1932) and Max Marcus (1892-1983). A. Neumann described in 1907 the so-called omentum-majus-cuff. By this a drain is wrapped up and put into a perforated ulcus pylori, which cannot be treated by another procedure. M. Katzenstein in 1900 was the first in Germany who repaired a torn off meniscus by suture with a good result (The very first was T. Annandale in Edinburgh in 1883). Aside of this procedure, important for prevention of gonarthrosis, M. K. described new methods for repairing torn ligaments of the elbow and the ankle joint. He was a close friend of Albert Einstein during his years in Berlin. Max Marcus was after the death of M. Katzenstein the youngest chief surgeon in Berlin--but only until April 1933. Then he was expelled by the Nazis, because he was a jew. In June 1933 he immigrated to Palestine and became the leading surgeon there in the later Israel. After the end of World War II he refused coming back to Germany, though F. Sauerbruch spoke about him as the "great hope for the German surgery".