The Evolution of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (German Society of Neurosurgery)

In Germany, an independent society of neurosurgical specialists was devised in 1937 and from the beginning it was contemplated as a European association. National Socialist's politics and the looming next World War shelved these plans. Only in 1948, at the first postwar meeting of German neurosurgeons, appropriate preparations toward a national neurosurgical society were made under the leadership of Wilhelm Tönnis. In 1949, seven founding members, almost all of them being former trainees of Tönnis, established this new medical society and named it "Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie," and also took care for registration after the third postwar meeting in Bonn. A total of 256 applicants signed in a list for membership, a minority of them being surgically active. Of 21 female applicants, none worked as neurosurgeons thereafter. All seven founding members were residents of the three western occupation zones, reflecting the upcoming Cold War, and de facto segregated those neurosurgeons living and working in East Germany under Soviet military control.