Encounters and Conversations - National Socialism and the Tübingen Anatomy Department

Encounters and Conversations - National Socialism and the Tübingen Anatomy Department National Socialism and the Tübingen Anatomy Department It wasn’t until 1990 (!) that, under pressure from students and the State of Israel, all cadaver specimens dating back to the Nazi era were removed from the display cases and basements of the Tübingen Anatomy Department and buried in the so-called Graveyard X of the Tübingen City Cemetery. A grave marker was installed there; just a few days later, it was smashed with great force by right-wing extremists. The fragments are on display in a small exhibition in Tübingen titled “Unbounded Anatomy.” History and medical students have joined forces with their professors to compile documents, visual material, and, where possible, biographies of the victims of this inhuman racial madness, in order to come to terms with the Tübingen Anatomy Department’s entanglement with National Socialism. Dorothee Schlunk reports on how cadavers (referred to as “material” during the Nazi era) were procured before 1933 and then during the years 1933–45, and how procedures are handled today to obtain voluntary body donations for research and teaching while preserving the dignity of the donors. Speaker: Dr. Dorothee Schlunk, Tübingen