Franz Volhard shaped the Wiesbaden congress of the DGIM over decades and chaired it in 1930.1After his death in 1950, the words of a colleague made the rounds who "no longer wanted to go to Wiesbaden for the congress if Volhard was no longer there": "Wiesbaden and Volhard have been an inseparable concept for me for years. When he took the floor, it was always sensational."2
Franz Volhard first grew up in Giessen,3 where his father Jacob Volhard – who later became a member of the Leopoldina – taught chemistry. The latter was married to Josephine Backofen, daughter of the court painter Franz Backofen. The couple had seven children; Franz Volhard was the fourth. The family moved to Erlangen in 1879. Here he briefly attended the fifth grade of highschool before another move brought him to the highschool in Halle/Saale (Franckesche Stiftungen) in 1882. He passed his school-leaving examination in 1892 in Schulpforta. He completed his medical studies in Halle/Saale in 1897 with a state examination and doctorate after having spent some time in Bonn (preliminary examinations in 1894) and in Strasbourg. His dissertation dealt with eclampsia occurring in pregnant women and investigated the toxicity of urine and blood of pregnant women in rabbits. Nearly 200 other publications followed.
He married his wife, Else Toennies in 1899. The couple had six sons and four daughters.
Franz Volhard became acquainted with numerous hospitals in many parts of Germany during the first twenty years in the profession. He worked with David von Hansemann at the pathology department in Berlin-Friedrichshain in 1897/98, then with Franz Riegel at the Medizinischen Universitätsklinik in Giessen. He habilitated in Giessen in 1901 with his research on fat splitting in the stomach and became deputy director in 1904/05. His attention increasingly turned to the heart and hepatic vein pulses; he was not afraid to contradict Riegel's theses.
Renovator of the Mannheimer Krankenanstalten
After a brief period at the Medical Polyclinic, he joined the municipal Luisenhospital in Dortmund at the beginning of 1906 as head physician of the Department of Internal and Nervous Diseases, where he also turned his attention to pneumology and the development of respiratory apparatuses. He began to build a collection of hearts coated with paraffin wax, which was later shown worldwide. He moved to the Städtische Krankenanstalten in Mannheim on October 1, 1908. As its director, he oversaw the renovation of the dilapidated old hospital and the construction of the new 1,200-bed hospital, which was completed in 1922.
Focus on Renal Research
Volhard's most important colleague was the pathologist Theodor Fahr, who had been brought to Mannheim in 1909 and with whom he studied Bright's disease, a renal condition, and came up with a new classification of renal diseases. Volhard was considered an expert on the circulatory system, but had been increasingly concerned with the kidney since 1905. During the First World War, in which he only briefly worked as a staff physician in Wilhelmshaven, he set up a 150-bed special hospital for kidney patients at a Mannheim school. By propagating a radical thirst-and-starvation diet, he was able to save numerous soldiers suffering from nephritis from death. Volhard's therapy also became routine during World War II and among wartime opponents.
Move to Halle and Call to Frankfurt am Main
On October 1, 1918 Volhard was appointed full professor of internal medicine in Halle, which he was already alfamiliar with, exactly ten years after he began his service in Mannheim. He was entrusted with the duties of dean in 1922. Uremia, hypertension and the "armored heart" now formed his main areas of research. Like his father, he was admitted to the Leopoldina in 1924. Encouraged by his wartime experiences with renal patients, he became even more devoted to nephrology in Halle. Under his leadership, Halle became one of the most important nephrological centers. After having turned down several calls, he accepted a call to the University of Frankfurt am Main, where he was appointed director of the Medical Clinic on March 1, 1927. He completed his two-volume "Nierenbibel" in Frankfurt am Main, which appeared as volume VI of the Handbuch der Medizin in 1931.4
Between Distance and Adaptation During the Nazi Era
Volhard was dean when the National Socialists came to power. He adapted as much as he thought was necessary for his career and to prevent National Socialists from holding important positions. In April/May 1933, he repeatedly advised the Swiss anatomist and pacifist Hans Bluntschli, who later moved from Frankfurt to Bern, to take a leave of absence. After Bluntschli had requested a dignified departure, Volhard specified on May 5, 1933: "I do indeed believe that it would be in the interest of the faculty and university, respectively, if you were to refrain from lecturing under the present circumstances and take a leave of absence, at least for the time being. I would therefore ask you to render this service to the faculty."5 Bluntschli moved to Bern for the winter semester 1933/34.6
Volhard's obliging behavior was not enough for the new rulers. Although still confirmed as dean on April 26, 1933, by a vote of 12 to 1, he was defeated on November 9, 1933, by surgeon and National Socialist Hans Holfelder, who had most recently been SS-Oberführer.
Volhard continued to act as if National Socialism could be given a human face. Unsuccessfully, he argued in favor of "non-Aryan" doctoral students being able to issue them "a provisional certificate" upon passing the doctoral examination, as had been the case before.7
A little later, he considered a chair in hereditary biology in Frankfurt "more urgent", than one in physical-dietary therapy and naturopathy. This attitude, seemingly pointing in the direction of Nazi crimes, was de facto directed against Heinrich Lampert, then appointed full professor of physical therapy and naturopathy at the end of 1934, who was considered a fanatical National Socialist.8
Vis-á-vis the pharmacologist Werner Lipschitz, who was considered a "full Jew," Volhard did, however, take steps leading to his dismissal and emigration to Istanbul, despite urgent pleas for solidarity.9
He avoided joining the NSDAP, but became a supporting member of the SS (1933-1939) and a member of the SA Reserve II. In addition, he joined the NS-Altherrenbund, the NS-Bund der Kinderreichen, the NS-Volkswohlfahrt, and the Volksbund für das Deutschtum im Ausland.10 This kind of commitment to the National Socialist state remained insufficient in the eyes of the regime. Volhard was given emeritus status against his will on October 1, 1938, although a further extension of his tenure would have been possible.11 Although the Nazi Gauleitung did not consider him "politically suspect in the actual sense," they saw in him the danger of unwelcome political statements abroad. 12 In fact, news of his retirement reached him in South America.13
He was not even allwoed to stay in office until replacement was found, so until his successor – the strapping National Socialist Wilhelm Nonnenbruch – was appointed, first a senior physician, then the director of the polyclinic took over the clinic's management.14
Threat to Volhard's Family
The regime's skepticism toward Volhard was related to the fate of his second-born son Hans. The latter had married Hilde Seelig, a Jewish woman, in 1927. Their daughter Nana was deaf and threatened with forced sterilization. Not least because of a cooperation with his Jewish family-in-law, Hans Volhard was imprisoned for nine months in 1938/39.15 In order to ease the situation of his son's family, according to his later explanation, Franz Volhard now applied for NSDAP membership after all. But since he stated that he was a Master Mason, the NSDAP grew even more suspicious.16
As professor emeritus, Volhard remained an influential advisor, for example when it came to the succession of Richard Siebeck in 1941 at the Charité in Berlin, or Nikolaus Jagic in Vienna in 1944. He was now even less hesitant with clear assessments. Vis-à-vis Gustav von Bergmann, for example, he blamed "the perfidy of Achelis" for the fact that he had not been able to transfer to the Charité. "We," Volhard told von Bergmann, "would have gotten along wonderfully."17 As a ministerial councilor in the Prussian Ministry of Culture in 1933/34, the physician Johann Daniel Achelis was "the architect of the 'cleansing' of German universities."18
It fits the mold that Volhard wrote a private letter criticizing rapproachements by colleagues to the regime. Thus, although he wanted to see Nonnenbruch on an important chair, he criticized his approach to de Crinis or even to the minister. Volhard still wanted to maintain the chimera of university autonomy in 1944: "The [minister] should abide by the faculty's proposals."19
Reinstatement, Justifying the Salt Water Drinking Experiment and Support for Werner Catel
Volhard was reinstated by the U.S. military government in 1945 and by the Hessian Ministry of Culture as clinic director and full professor in 1948.20 During the Nuremberg medical trial in 1947, he exonerated Wilhelm Beiglböck, who had been responsible for human experiments. Volhard seems not to have "realized the fundamental difference" between the Dachau human experiments to make seawater drinkable, and the thirst-and-starvation diet he advocated for soldiers suffering from nephritis.21 He was of the opinion "that there can be no question of a crime against humanity in such experiments."22 In 1950, Volhard and the physiologist Ernst Schütte published an essay in the Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift about “replicating” the Dachau seawater drinking experiment, but this time with healthy, non-malnourished medical students and assistant doctors. 23Without addressing the criminal abuse of the Dachau test subjects, Volhard and Schütte came to the conclusion that “very exaggerated ideas” were “spread about the danger and ‘cruelty’” of the experiment.24
In another case, Volhard justified experiments carried out after 1945 by Werner Catel, who had played a decisive role in the Nazi era in child “euthanasia”. Catel, who had been the medical director of the "Landeskinderheilstätte" (State Children's Sanatorium) Mammolshöhe near Kronberg in the Taunus region since 1947, had tested the new tuberculosis drug TB I 698 on children at the sanatorium without any risk assessment or informed consent, even on children who could be expected to recover. At least two children died from brain and spinal cord damage caused by the drug. A senior physician who worked for Catel reported the incident to the Medical Association in Frankfurt am Main through her husband, Dr. med. habil. Erwin Santo.25 After the Ministry of the Interior of the State of Hesse was called in, Franz Volhard provided an expert opinion for the Ministry, stating: “If there is any chance at all that a drug might prove successful, then it must be tried, even if it means accepting the risk of adverse effects and it has to be studied, just as was the case with tuberculin."26 After this report, neither the Ministry nor the Medical Association saw any reason to further investigate Catel's approach and experiments with TB I 698 continued at Mammolshöhe.27
When Franz Volhard was celebrated at an academic ceremony in Frankfurt on May 2, 1947, on the occasion of his 75th birthday, he accepted Louis R. Grote, a proponent of the "Neue Deutsche Heilkunde" (New German Medicine) that had been promoted for a time by the National Socialists, as keynote speaker.28
Death in an accident on the way to the Swiss Congress of Internal Medicine
The post-war years were also extremely eventful in Volhard personal life. He went through life referring to people in his surroundings by their first name. His son Rolf lived at his house for a long time with his family, including the later Nobel Prize winner Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, who was born in 1942. Volhard lacked the patience to deal with guests such as his deaf granddaughter Nana – unlike Christiane, referred to as Janni, a cousin of Nana's.29His wife died in 1949. Volhard, who was still considered high-spirited, had a car accident on May 4, 1950, while driving to the Swiss Congress of Internists. His secretary – who was sitting in the passenger seat – died at the scene of the accident, while Volhard died twenty days later.30 Gustav von Bergmann was able to see something positive in the accident: "Let us be grateful that this misfortune, to which he was always predestined due to his temper, struck him at such late a stage, after having organized and explained nephrology."31
Honorary Member of the DGIM
The number of awards and honors is large. When Volhard became honorary member of the DGIM in 1938, he was already honorary doctor of the Sorbonne (1933) and a recipient of the Billroth Medal of the Vienna Medical Association (1937), the Cothenius Medal of the Leopoldina (1937), the Grand Commander's Cross of the Royal Greek Order of George I (1937), among others. Other honorary doctorates followed (Freiburg and Göttingen 1947) and he was made an honorary citizen of the University of Frankfurt am Main (1947). He was honored with a bust in Halle in 1947, and posthumously in Frankfurt am Main (1952). Several clinics, wards, lectures, and awards have been named after him, such as the Volhard Vorlesungen of the University of Frankfurt am Main (since 1952), the Volhard Lectures of the International Society of Hypertension (since 1971), the Franz Volhard Medal of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nierenforschung (1976 to 2023), and the Franz Volhard Award of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nierenforschung (1980 to 2023).
Dissociation
Volhard's post-war behavior with the exculaption attempts in favor of Wilhelm Beiglböck (salt water drinking experiments at Dachau concentration camp) and Werner Catel (fatal drug experiments on children in Mammolshöhe) prompted the German Society for Nephrologie (DGfN) to rename the Franz-Volhard prize and the Franz-Volhard medal in 2023, two prizes it had been awarding for decades.32
