The Medical Student in Germany

CONSIDERABLE attention is beinig given at the present time to the medical curriculum and the question as to how the medical student can to best advantage occupy his undergraduate years. In this connection it is of interest to compare our own system of medical education with that used in other countries, and I propose, therefore, to give some account of the training of the medical student in Germany, where I have had an opportunity of seeing and taking part in the work of the medical school in the University of Gottingen. This university, which this year celebrated its two-hundredth anniversary, has acquired its reputation more in the domains of pure science and mathematics rather than in medicine, but can, nevertheless, claim among its former members such great contributors to medical science as W6hler, the synthetiser of urea, and Robert Koch, the discoverer of the bacillus tubercu-losits. It has a medical school, therefore, of some tradition, and with more than five hundred students in the medical faculty it presents a good opportunity for observing the general system of medical education in Germany. I shall describe first some general aspects of university education andl of the activities of the students in that country, and then in more detail refer to the subjects forming the medical course. The German universities are State institutions, but are to a large extent self-governing. Appointments to the professorial staff are made by the State, after recommendation by the university authorities. The dependence of the universities on the State is to some extent due to loss of endowments and funds during the inflation period of 1931. The administration of the university is carried out by a rector and senate elected by the university. The teaching staff consists of professors, associate professors, instructors, and assistants. There are five faculties-theology, law, medicine, philosophy, and science. In the year 1936, out of a total of 79,154 matriculated students in all faculties in the German universities, the medical faculties contained 20,204 medical students and 3,136 dental students, so that about one-quarter of the students are medical. Of these studlents, 3,918 are women students. These twenty-thousand medical students are divided over twenty-four centres. The largest medical schools are those of Berlin and Munich, which have each about 1,700 students. Of the smaller universities, the largest medical school is in Heidelberg, with about half this number of students. One of the great differences between …