Petr Svobodný:
Lothar Gottlieb Tirala: Závratná kariéra brněnského gynekologa ve „třetí říši“

Abstract

A Breathtaking Career of a Moravian Gynaecologist in the Third Reich

During the time of Nazi rule, racial hygiene and related research was one of the most politicised and misused academic subjects at German universities (including the German Charles University in Prague). Aside from Karl Thums, Prague professor and director of the ‘model’ Institute of Racial Hygiene at the German Charles University, another ‘prominent’ champion of this discipline worked in the Czech Lands. This was Lothar Tirala (1886–1974), a native of Brno.
After graduating from the University of Vienna, Tirala became an assistant lecturer of the Institute of Physiology of the German University in Prague (1923–1924). His plan was to receive habilitation in Prague, but after an unsuccessful attempt Tirala returned to Brno as a doctor specialised in gynaecology and urology. In 1933, he became full professor and director of the Institute for Racial Hygiene at the medical faculty in Munich, one of the most important institutions of its kind in Germany. He was appointed despite the opposition of experts (Alfred Ploetz, Fritz Lenz and Ernst Rüdin all thought him to be an ambitious ideologist poorly qualified in requisite fields) at the insistence of Bavarian political and Party circles (members of the Wagnerian circle in Bayreuth and Julius Streicher intervened on his behalf). An exemplary ‘German mentality’ probably played a key role in the appointment of this man, then still a Czechoslovak citizen allegedly “persecuted by the ‘democratic’ regime as well as socialist, Masonic, and Judeo-Bolshevik circles”.
After his minimal scientific and pedagogical qualification as well as several cases of medical malpractice, old and new, came to light, Tirala had to leave the University of Munich in the spring of 1936. He lost the right to use the title ‘professor’ but kept fighting this decision until the 1950s and 1960s, claiming he was a ‘victim of political persecution.’ After the war, he worked at various places in Germany and Austria. Tirala’s career has been described in foreign academic press. The aim of the present article is to emphasise its Czech connections.

Language: czech

Keywords: Lothar Tirala; gynaecology; racial hygiene; Czechoslovakia; Third Reich; poor qualification; political intervention