Ludwig Guttmann
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Sir Ludwig Guttmann CBE FRS |
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Ludwig Guttmann on a 2013 Russian stamp from the series "Sports Legends"
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| Born |
3 July 1899 Tost, Prussia, German Empire |
| Died | 18 March 1980 (aged 80) Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, UK |
| Known for | Founding the Paralympic Games |
| Medical career | |
| Profession | Neurologist |
| Notable prizes | Fellow of the Royal Society |
Sir Ludwig "Poppa" Guttmann CBE FRS (3 July 1899 – 18 March 1980) was a German-born Britishneurologist who established the Paralympic Games in England. The Jewish doctor, who had fled Nazi Germany just before the start of the Second World War, is considered to be one of the founding fathers of organized physical activities for people with a disability.
Ludwig Guttmann, the eldest child of the family, was born in Tost, within Upper Silesia, Germany (now Toszek, Poland) on 3 July 1899. His family moved when he was three years old to the Silesia city of Königshütte (today Chorzów, Poland).
Guttman first encountered a patient with a spinal cord injury in 1917, while he was volunteering at the Accident Hospital in Konigshutte. The patient was a coal miner who later died of sepsis. Guttman started his medical studies in April 1918 at the University of Breslau. He transferred to the University of Freiburg in 1919 and received his Doctorate of Medicine in 1924.
By 1933, Guttmann was considered the top neurosurgeon in Germany. With the arrival of the Nazis in power, Jews were banned from practising medicine professionally and he was allowed to work only at the Jewish Hospital in Breslau, where he became director of the hospital. Following the violent attacks on Jewish people and properties during Kristallnacht on 9 November 1938, Guttmann ordered his staff to admit anyone without question. The following day he justified his decision on a case-by-case basis with the Gestapo. Out of 64 admissions, 60 patients were saved from arrest and deportation to concentration camps.
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