Kurt Dresel grew up in Berlin. He studied medicine in Berlin and Freiburg and received his license to practice medicine in Berlin in 1917.1 He worked as an assistant at the II Medical Clinic of the Charité Hospital in Berlin under Friedrich Kraus (1858-1936) and Gustav von Bergmann (1878-1955) from 1919 to 1930.2 He was appointed chief physician at the Britz Municipal Hospital in Berlin in 1930.3 He habilitated and was appointed associate professor in 1923 and non-tenured Associate Professor of Internal Medicine in 1927.4 As a member of the medical faculty, he lectured at the II Medical Clinic of the Charité on "Die Bedeutung des vegetativen Nervensystems insbesondere für die Innere Medizin" (The Significance of the Vegetative Nervous System, Particularly for Internal Medicine).5
Dresel's teaching license was revoked in 1935, due to the "Reichsbürgergesetz" (Reich Citize Law).6 He had been dismissed as chief physician even prior to this.7
Emigration to New York
Dresel emigrated to New York with his family in 1938.8 There he continued to practice medicine, as documented by a trichinosis warning he published in the New York Times.9 He served a physician in the U.S. Army from February 1944.10
Kurt Dresel died from a heart attack in New York.11 He was survived by his wife Mathilde and his son Peter.
Scientifically, Dresel was primarily concerned with experimental pathology and the study of the autonomic nervous system. Thus, he published a total of 68 papers,12 including studies on the determination of heart beat volume and hemoglobin value13 as well as the overall presentation "Erkrankungen des vegetativen Nervensystems" (Diseases of the Vegetative Nervous System).14