Ludwig Guttmann was born on July 3, 1899, into a Jewish family living in Tost, now known as Toszek, in Upper Silesia. The birth certificate was issued three days later at the Tost City Council registry office. According to his birth certificate, on 3 July Guttmann had a son, Bernhard Guttmann, a merchant and hotel owner, and his wife Dorothe, née Weissenberg, and the boy was named Ludwig.

In 1902 the Guttmann family moved from the small settlement of Tost to Königshütte, now known as Chorzow, in the coal-mining region of Upper Silesia. Ludwig Guttmann was educated in a primary and high school with a humanist profile, successfully graduating in 1917.

At his graduation in 1917, he volunteered at a hospital used in accident situations for coal miners. During this period, he took care of a coal miner whose spine was broken. When he started taking his notes, the following sentences were said to him by his advisor; “Don’t bother, he’ll die in a few weeks”.

And exactly what happened was that Ludwig Guttman always remembered that patient for the rest of his life. In an article written by Cobus Rademayer, the following quote was recalled about this event; “That moment was the photograph of the young man that has stuck in my memory.”

In 1918, Guttmann began studying Medicine in Breslau, now known as Wrocław, and later continued his education in Freiburg. There he became an active member of a Jewish congregation aimed at spreading knowledge and awareness of anti-Semitism in universities. Over time, the Union developed into a physical education and sports center that promoted physical strength, skill, confidence and self-esteem, with their motto “Nobody needs to be ashamed to be Jewish”.

In 1924, he earned his doctorate with a work on tracheal (Lung) cancer research. Guttmann originally wanted to specialize in pediatrics but returned to Breslau for economic reasons. At the time, there was a vacant position in the Neurology department led by the well-known Professor Otfrid Foerster, which Guttmann gladly accepted.

Working Period in Breslau, Hamburg and Breslau again

By the time Guttmann returned to Breslau, Professor Foerster was already a well-known and internationally known neurologist and neurosurgeon. He was also known for treating Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. The Soviet government invited Foerster to deal with Lenin as an expert during his illness and appointed him as Lenin’s personal doctor.

After returning to Breslau, Guttmann worked at the hospital under Otfrid Foerster and gained experience in neurology and neurosurgery. In 1927, Ludwig Guttmann married his girlfriend, Elsa Samuel, whom he met during his education. Two years later, their son Denis and in 1933 their daughter Eva were born. In 1928 he became a general neurosurgeon at a 300-bed psychiatric clinic at the University of Hamburg, and again became Foerster’s assistant in 1929.

In 1930, Ludwig Guttmann earned his doctorate in medicine and became a lecturer in neurology at the University of Breslau. He also began working as the chief physician of the Wenzel-Hancke Hospital in Breslau. Apart from his teaching at the university and his job at the hospital, Guttmann has also published articles in respected scientific journals. In 1936, Guttmann’s famous book, Handbuch der Neurologie, was published. By the mid-1930s, Professor Ludwig Guttmann was already well known and often qualified as a specialist in the medical community, mainly in the fields of neurology and neurosurgery.

In January 1933, Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany and introduced new regulations against Jews. According to the so-called Berufsverbot – (Occupational Prohibition) – Jews are prohibited from practicing medicine in public hospitals. Dr. Guttmann was fired from his job at Wenzel-Hancke Hospital and soon after became director of the neurology and neurosurgery departments of the Jewish Hospital Breslau. In September 1938, he was ordered by the Gestapo to discharge all non-Jewish patients from the Jewish Hospital he managed.

On the night of November 9-10, 1938, so-called Kristalnacht, a massacre of Jews was carried out by SA (Storm Troops) paramilitary forces and German civilians. Jewish synagogues, homes, shops, even hospitals and schools were looted. Residents of Breslau sought refuge in hospitals. Guttmann, director of the Jewish Hospital, ordered that every person entering the hospital be admitted, regardless of race laws, which stated that Jewish doctors could only treat Jewish patients. In an interview with Guttmann’s daughter Eva Loeffler in April 2011, she described the horrific events of those years with the following words;

“In 1938, during the ‘Crystal Nacht’ period, when Jewish homes and businesses were attacked, over 60 Jewish men fled to Breslau Hospital during the night (she took refuge). My father said that they should be allowed inside, sick or not, and they were all admitted to the beds in the ward. The next day, the Gestapo stopped by to see my father, wanting to know why there were so many admissions in one night. My father was adamant that all comers were sick and said that many suffered from stress. He took the Gestapo with them to verify the health status of each.”

After the 1938 massacre, many doctors were arrested and Guttmann was forbidden to leave Breslau. Like all other Jews, Guttmann’s passport was confiscated and he was not allowed to travel. But Dr. Because Guttmann was a respected expert in neurology, Nazi regime officials secretly used his services for their own needs. Immediately after the tragic November events, Guttmann was ordered by German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop to travel to Portugal to treat a close friend of the dictator Salazar. Let’s listen to these events again from Eva Loeffler’s memories:

“In 1939, the German government ordered my father to go to Lisbon. He was going to treat the Portuguese dictator’s close friend, who was thought to be suffering from a brain tumor. This was part of the Nazis’ attempts to build close relations with Portugal. My father turned to the person in charge and said, “But how can I travel since you took my passport away from me?” said. The next day everything was arranged and flown to Lisbon. On the way back, he stopped in London and met people from an organization called the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning, which helps Jewish academics obtain visas. He was told that our visas had already been sent to Berlin and was offered a research post at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford. He returned to Breslau and told my mother to start packing his things.”

On March 14, 1939, Dr. Guttmann left Germany with his wife Elsa and their children Denis, 10, and Eva, 6 years old. Eva Loeffler’s recollections shed light on the situation the family was in just before they left their homeland:

“I remember being abnormally scared at that time; I used to cry a lot. Even as a small child, I would pick up on the fear and sadness felt by my parents. Although Jews were allowed to buy some furniture, clothes and linen; They were not allowed to take money, gold, silver and jewellery. But the official who supervised us stopped by us the day before and said to my mother, “Tomorrow I will be an hour late.” It was a clear implication that we could collect the items we wanted, but my mother was terrified of taking anything prohibited as she thought it might be a trap.”

Life in the New Country

The Guttmann family arrived in Dover on March 14, 1939. Unfortunately, Guttmann did not have permission to practice medicine in Britain, so he was working at the British Medical Research Council in Oxford. In December 1941, Guttmann presented a review deemed necessary by the council on the ways in which patients suffering from spinal cord injury could be treated and cured. As a result of this presentation, the UK Medical Research Council has decided to establish a dedicated center for patients suffering from spinal cord injuries.

In September 1943 the British Government appointed Guttmann as the central director of Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury. Guttmann accepted this task as far as the approach to treatment was concerned, on the condition of being completely independent. Guttmann aimed to reintegrate patients into society as respected and useful members, despite their high degree of disability. The center was opened on February 1, 1944, with a capacity of 26 beds. Within 6 months, the number of patients had increased to approximately 50.

Dr. The innovative method put forward by Guttmann for the treatment of people suffering from spinal cord injury consisted of 3 main principles. patients;

1- They should not be sentenced to isolation from society and slow death.

2- They should be reintegrated into society despite their disabilities; work, pay taxes and enjoy life.

3- They should do sports and compete with others.

He always told his patients; “Compassion is your worst enemy.” This was a real revolution. This new method, Dr. It was first presented by Guttmann in 1945 in an article entitled New Hope for Spinal Cord Sufferers. He not only presented this new idea, but applied it with great passion.

Treatment, Research and Dissemination of Knowledge and Education

In the early 1950s, Stoke Mandeville Hospital was already a highly respected, well-known medical institution. Numerous articles have been published in highly respected medical journals showing the results of the research conducted at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. In 1973, Ludwig Guttmann published a very important and useful article entitled Sport and Recreation for the Mentally and Physically Handicapped in The Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health.

Apart from publishing articles, Guttmann has also proven to be good at teaching and public relations. He has traveled a lot and many doctors from countries such as France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States, primarily the United Kingdom, visited Stoke Mandeville Hospital and were well received. Many of the visiting doctors have established similar centers for spinal cord injury when they return to their countries. In the mid-1960s Guttmann was invited by the Federal Republic of Germany’s Minister of Labor as a medical adviser. He was particularly interested in the establishment of a new spinal cord injury center in Murnau, close to Heidelberg.

In 1961 Guttmann founded the British Disabled Sports Association, later known as the British Disabled Sports Federation. In the same year, he became the inaugural president of the International Medical Society for Paraplegia and was its president until 1970.