[The Eppendorf University Hospital, Hamburg--a cradle of German- speaking anesthesia?]

"The time will come when German medicine, too, will have to concern itself with the issue of a professional narcotiseur. Until then it will be our duty to keep the interest in narcosis, which has increased satisfactorily in the past years, alive." With this statement the editors of the journal "Der Schmerz" substantiated the publication og a German-speaking anestesiological journal in 1928. Ernst von der Porten, a professional anesthesist working in Hamburg was the chief initiator for the appearance of the new journal. Possible he was incited by his former teacher, the Eppendorf surgeon Paul Sudeck, to delve deeper into our special field. Very early Sudeck himself began to concern himself with anesthesiological questions and he found an ardent supporter of the idea of specialisation in anesthesiology (quite unheard of in Germany at that time) in Helmut Schmidt, a staff member. Schmidt habilitated on an anesthesiological theme and that again was reason enough for the editors to write an editorial about. Schmidt who one of the chief organizers of the "90. Tagung Deutscher Naturforscher und Arzte" in the late summer of 1928 was hindered by the surgeons on founding the Deutsche Narkosege-sellschaft (German Narcosis Society) with colleagues. After World War II German surgeons rethought their position, mainly influenced by Anglo-American narcosis specialists. After the foundation of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Anaesthesiein the year 1953, the first professorate for the special field of anesthesiology was given to Karl Horatz--one of the founding members--10 years later. Not surprisingly the professorate was instituted at the university hospital in Eppendorf which could be called the cradle of German-speaking anesthesia. The following concerns itself with some of the impulses that were given by the "Neues Allgemeines Krankenhaus Eppendorf" and became important stepping stones in our special field through the decades.