Vergleichende Völkerpathologie oder Rassenpathologie: Tagebuch einer Reise durch Rußland und Transkaukasien (review)

Ludwig Aschoff. Vergleichende Völkerpathologie oder Rassenpathologie: Tagebuch einer Reise durch Rußland und Transkaukasien. Edited by Susan Gross Solomon and Jochen Richter. Neuere Medizin- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Quellen und Studien, no. 7. Pfaffenweiler, Germany: Centaurus, 1998. xi + 215 pp. Ill. DM 59.00 (paperbound).

In 1930 Ludwig Aschoff (1866-1942), pathologist at the University of Freiburg between 1906 and 1936 and the leading figure of German pathology in the first half of the twentieth century, traveled through Russia for seven weeks. He recorded his impressions in a diary now presented to the public, in its original German version, by Susan Gross Solomon and Jochen Richter. This book is a useful resource not only for Aschoff's diary, but also for the forty-eight-page introduction and commentary by Gross Solomon, who is an expert on the medical history of the Soviet Union and its communications with Western Europe, especially with Germany. This is valuable not only because there are few good analytical books and papers on the history of pathology, but also because we have no biography of Aschoff at our disposal.

Gross Solomon's fascinating introduction, based above all on Russian and German archival material, including the Aschoff papers (now at the Archive of the University of Freiburg/Germany), deepens our knowledge of the difficult relations between German and Russian scientists in the Weimar period. She focuses on the foundation and development of the Laboratory for Geographical Pathology in Moscow, which opened in 1927 but was closed shortly thereafter (in 1930) due to political interference. Two competitive concepts were held by German pathologists as the guidelines for morphological research: Aschoff himself favored a differentiated program, combining hereditary and environmental factors when examining and comparing health conditions in specific geographic locations ("Voelkerpathologie"). In contrast, the brain researcher Oskar Vogt, who was head of the Brain Research Institute in Moscow as well as director of the Laboratory, advocated racially based research, for he considered racial predispositions to be the most important factor in the existence of diseases ("Rassenpathologie"). Aschoff's trip to Russia, which was supported by the German government, aimed at strengthening German-Russian cooperation which was in a phase of decline. Although there had been research done on Völkerpathologie in the Laboratory, Aschoff's trip failed because he was unable to defend his concept against the competitive approach, favored by German and Russian colleagues.

Solomon very carefully describes the difficult processes of decision-making and wielding of political influence by both the Germans and the Russians, but she only partially describes Aschoff's scientific activities and theory. Aschoff promoted racial hygienist attitudes in the First World War, and from at least the early 1930s he supported right-wing racial hygienist ideas, welcoming the seizure of power by the National Socialists in 1933. Therefore, his notions on racial hygiene and racial pathology were much more versatile than they would seem to be in the context of his trip to Russia. This does not diminish the overall value of the book, however, and it is worth reading his remarks on Russia with Solomon's background information. The diary is focused on the scientific purpose of Aschoff's trip, and it gives insights into the communications between Russian and German pathologists. As with other works of its kind, Aschoff's diary also includes everyday details; these are not always interesting to the reader, although his descriptions of landscape, and especially of the living conditions in interwar Russia, are well worth reading.

This edition contains pictures and an appendix with related documents. There are also short biographies of the persons mentioned, a short bibliography, and a well-made index of names, facilitating access to the detailed information in Aschoff's diary. The book is strongly recommended for every library with an interest in history of medicine, especially for those dealing with the history of pathology or...