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Review
. 2020;104(7-8):501-509.
doi: 10.1159/000506235. Epub 2020 Mar 13.

"He Gave Us the Cornerstone of Sexual Medicine": A Nobel Plan but No Nobel Prize for Eugen Steinach

Nils Hansson  1 , Matthis Krischel  1 , Per Södersten  2 , Friedrich H Moll  3 , Heiner Fangerau  1
Affiliations
Review

"He Gave Us the Cornerstone of Sexual Medicine": A Nobel Plan but No Nobel Prize for Eugen Steinach

Nils Hansson et al. Urol Int. 2020.

Abstract

This paper reviews the files in the archive of the Nobel Prize Committee for Physiology or Medicine on the Austrian physiologist and pioneering researcher in the emerging fields of urology and sexual medicine: Eugen Steinach (1861-1944). It reconstructs and analyzes why and by whom Steinach was nominated for the Nobel Prize between 1920 and 1938 and discusses the reasons why he never received the award, although the Nobel Committee judged him as prizeworthy. Steinach's Nobel nominee career is extraordinary - not only because of his strong support by renowned international nominators from different scientific and medical disciplines, but also because of the controversial discussions within the Nobel Committee on his achievements, colored by the debates in the international scientific community. The Nobel Prize story adds a new perspective on how contemporary international scholars evaluated Steinach's research on reproduction, "male-making" females, "female-making" males, homosexuality, and the concept of rejuvenation.

Keywords: Endocrinology; Eugen Steinach; History of medicine; Nobel Prize; Sexology; Urology.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Eugen Steinach (1861–1944), glass plate. Reproduced with permission from the Austrian National Library (ÖNB) (Picture Archives and Graphics Department, No. 222543B).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Announcement of the presentation of Steinach's research at the Charité Hospital, Berlin, by AeGeSe (Ärztliche Gesellschaft für Sexualmedizin und Eugenik), which was accompanied by the famous German urologist C. Posner (1854–1928) of Berlin and Hermann Rohleder (1866–1934) of Leipzig, Moll Collection (Rohleder files), Repro Keyn, with permission.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
“When he came back”: caricature of Olaf Gulbransson (1873–1958). German satiric paper Simplicissimus, 1920, August 18, p. 200.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
“Santa Claus meets Steinach”: caricature of Olaf Gulbransson. German Satiric paper Simplicissimus, 1927, December 26.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Benjamin H. Eugen Steinach, 1861-1944: A Life of Research. Sci Mon. 1945;61:427–42.
    1. Harms E. Forty-Four Years of Correspondence between Eugene Steinach and Harry Benjamin. Bull N Y Acad Med. 1969;45:761–6. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Schultheiss D, Denil J, Jonas U. Rejuvenation in the early 20th century. Andrologia. 1997 Nov-Dec;29((6)):351–5. - PubMed
    1. Stoff H. Ewige Jugend. Konzepte der Verjüngung vom späten 19. Jahrhundert bis ins Dritte Reich. Böhlau Verlag; 2004. p. p.34.
    1. Mildenberger F. Verjüngung und “Heilung” der Homosexualität. Eugen Steinach in seiner Zeit. Z Sexualforschung. 2002;15((4)):302–22.

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