Annals of Medicine Research and Public Health (ISSN: 2995-5955) | Volume , Issue 5 | Editorial Article | Open Access DOI
Manuel Torres Fernandez*
PhD Student at University of Salamanca, Spain
*Correspondence to: Manuel Torres Fernandez
Fulltext PDFAt the initiative of Gómez Ulla, inspector of surgical services for the Spanish army, a commission was sent to Germany to study the country's military healthcare system. This initiative was not unique to Spain; many other countries were also seeking to understand the developments in this field during the Third Reich.
For our study, however, we will begin in the early years of the 20th century, specifically with the major advances that took place during World War I, both on the side of the Allies and the Central Powers. As Virginia Casanova (2025) points out, this war marked the first time millions of men had been mobilized for combat, a shift in tactics with the use of highly destructive weaponry, and consequently, a true turning point in the field of military healthcare, especially in civilian and military surgery, with particular emphasis on plastic surgery. In this regard, Gómez Durán notes that the German defeat, the political and social upheavals, and the virtual disappearance of its army meant that the enormous progress made during this conflict, with its static fronts, in both organizational matters and medical practice, went unrecognized. In this respect, it is significant that, in the field of military medicine, of the 8,000 doctors Germany had in 1914, only 500 remained in 1933, the year Adolf Hitler came to power. The Rif War and the Spanish Civil War had also provided a foundation for new knowledge that would be applied in World War II.
Manuel Torres Fernandez. Health Organization of the German Army during the First Half of the 20th Century. Ann Med Res Pub Health. 2026;5(1):1-2.