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On A Meaningful Award-the Margarete Blank Award
Arın NAMAL*
* Dr., İstanbul Üniversitesi İstanbul Tıp Fakültesi Deontoloji ve Tıp Tarihi AD, İSTANBUL
In the course of the symposium "Deutschrussische Beziehungen in der Medizin und den Naturwissenschaften des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts (German-Russian Relations in 18th and 19th Century's Medicine and Sciences)" in Leipzig beginning of July 2001 the Dr.Margarete Blank Award for an excellent thesis on history of medicine has been awarded for the second time. The award has been given to Dr. Kristin Ziegler, a young oculist, for her thesis "Die Bedeutung der deutschen Ärztevereine für das wissenschaftliche Leben, die medizinische Versorgung und soziale Belange der Stadt St.Petersburg von 1819 bis 1914 (The Importance of the German Medical Association for Scientific Life, Medical Care and Social Affairs of St.Petersburg 1819-1914)" supervised by Prof.Dr.Ingrid Kästner at the Karl-Sudhoff-Institut for the History of Medicine and Sciences at the Medicine Faculty of the Leipzig University.The meaningful and sad story of the Dr.Margarete Blank Award should especially known and being remembered by historians of medicine. Born in 1901 at Kiev, Blank studied medicine at Leipzig. Then she was graduated on the history of medicine at the same place, supervised by the famous medical historian Henry Ernst Sigerist. In 1927 she started practicing surgery at Panitzsch near Leipzig. Because of her affectionate approach and careful attitude towards her patients she became a very popular and famous doctor. At the time Hitler rose to power, she refused to obey the Hitler-salutation and to participate in the National Socialist Doctors'Union, but got in contact to members of the anti-Hitler resistance movement. Her surgery became a meeting place for the opponents of Hitler's regime. Dr.Blank, who never had lost her sympathy for Russia, the place she was born, was arrested in July 1944 by the Nazis, accused to be a "Soviet agent". On February 8th 1945, i.e. very short time before the Nazis had been finally defeated, she was hanged in front of the Dresden court-house.The award had been founded in the middle of the 1980s by Prof.Siegfried Behrsing, a sinologist of Berlin, in remembrance of his sister-in-law. It has been awarded for the first time in 1988. The award is given to graduates and young scientists studying at the same faculty, Blank had graduated from, the Medical Faculty of the Leipzig University, for scientific publications of superior quality in the field of history of medicine.Keywords: Dr.Margarete Blank AwardTurkiye Klinikleri J Med Ethics-Hukuku-Tarihi 2002, 10:64-67
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