- Hans Reiter
Dr. Hans Conrad Julius Reiter (
February 26 ,1881 –1969) was a German physician convicted ofwar crime s for his medical experiments at the concentration camp atBuchenwald . He wrote a book on "racial hygiene " called "Deutsches Gold, Gesundes Leben - Frohes Schaffen".Reiter was born in Reudnitz near Hessen in
Germany . He studied medicine atLeipzig , Wroclaw and received a doctorate from Tübingen on the subject oftuberculosis . After receiving his doctorate, he went on to study at the hygiene institute in Berlin, thePasteur Institute in Paris and St. Mary's Hospital in London where he worked with SirAlmroth Wright for two years.First World War
During the First World War, Hans Reiter worked as a military physician on the
Western Front and in theBalkans , where he served in the 1st Hungarian Army. It was here in 1916 that he reported a German Lieutenant with non-Gonococcal urethritis, arthritis and uveitis. He was not the first person to describe this syndrome, which would later become known asreactive arthritis . In the same year, and quite separately, the triad was reported by Feissinger & Leroy. However, the triad was first reported by Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie (English surgeon 1783-1862), but 2 elements together (arthritis + urethritis) had been known much before then in the 16th century. Reiter erroneously thought the triad to be due to a spirochaete, related to, but distinct from the causative agent of Syphilis. This error probably was influenced by his discovery of the spirochaete cause of Leptospirosis, and a non-pathogenic strain of Treponema related to T. pallidum (the cause of Syphilis). This "Reiter Strain" of treponema enabled drug companies to later develop the "Reiter Complement Fixation Test" for Syphilis.1918 - 1939
After the war ended, Reiter became chief of the hygiene department at
Rostock . Hans Reiter was a political man, and an enthusiastic supporter of the Nazi regime. His career was further boosted when, in 1932, he signed an oath of allegiance toAdolf Hitler . In 1933 he was made department director of theKaiser Wilhelm Institute of Experimental Therapy. In 1936, his meteoric rise continued when he was made director of the health department of Mecklenberg-Schwerin and received an honorary professorship in Berlin. WithJohann Breger he wrote a book on racial hygiene - "Deutsches Gold, Gesundes Leben - Frohes Schaffen" ("German Gold, Healthy Life - Glad Work"). He was also a strong supporter of Hitler's anti-smoking campaign, medically progressive at the time. Reiter was a talented teacher who was popular with his students. He was also lauded abroad with an honorary membership of theRoyal Society of Medicine in London.Second World War
As a member of the
SS during the Second World War, Hans Reiter designedtyphoid inoculation experiments that killed more than 250 prisoners at concentration camps likeBuchenwald . He was an enthusiastic supporter of and participant in enforced racial sterilization andeuthanasia . After the Nazis were defeated, he was arrested by theRed Army inSoviet Union occupied Germany and tried atNuremberg where he was found guilty of his involvement of the deaths of hundreds of inmates atBuchenwald . He was interned at an American prisoner of war camp.Late Life
After his release, Reiter went back to work in the field of medicine and research in
rheumatology . He died, aged 88, in 1969 at his country estate near Hessen.Controversy
In 1977, appalled by his war crimes, a group of doctors began a campaign for the term "Reiter's Syndrome" to be abandoned and renamed "Reactive Arthritis". Now, in 2008, this campaign is beginning to pay off and the term "Reiter's Syndrome" is increasingly anachronistic.
References
Panush, RS, Wallace, DJ, Dorff, RE, Engleman, EP. Retraction of the suggestion to use the term "Reiter's syndrome" sixty-five years later: the legacy of Reiter, a war criminal, should not be eponymic honor but rather condemnation. Arthritis Rheum 2007; 56:693.
External links
* [http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=119458 Biography and photograph]
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