Sauerbruch was born in Barmen, Germany. He studied medicine at the Philipps University of Marburg, the University of Greifswald, the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, and the University of Leipzig, from the last of which he graduated in 1902. He went to Breslau in 1903, where he developed the Sauerbruch chamber, a pressure chamber for operating on the open thorax, which he demonstrated in 1904. This invention was a breakthrough in thorax medicine and allowed heart and lung operations to take place at greatly reduced risk. As a battlefield surgeon during World War I, he developed several new types of limb prostheses, which for the first time enabled simple movements to be executed with the remaining muscle of the patient. Sauerbruch worked at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich from 1918 to 1927 on surgical techniques and diets for treating tuberculosis. From 1928 to 1949, he was the head of the surgical department at the Charité in Berlin, attaining international fame for his innovative operations. Because of his experience and extraordinary skills he quickly attained an international reputation and operated on many prominent patients. At the same time he was well known for his uncompromising and passionate dedication to all patients independent of their social, political or ethnic backgrounds. Before World War II, the Nazi Government awarded him the German National Prize for Art and Science. Sauerbruch's position towards the Nazi government is ambiguous and the subject of debate. In his position he was clearly in contact with the political elite but he was never a member of and did not support the political objectives of the NSDAP. He was, however, a fervent nationalist who wanted to undo the "humiliation of Versailles" and was keen to show off his country as an advanced and sophisticated society. While he had accepted the German Nationalpreis, a short-lived German alternative to the Nobel Prize, he also publicly spoke out for people who were prosecuted. He was part of the so-called Mittwochsgesellschaft , a group of scientists that included critical voices and was later arrested because his son Peter had ties to Claus von Stauffenberg. In 1937, he became a member of the newly-established Reich Research Council that supported "research projects" of the SS, including experiments on prisoners in the concentration camps. As head of the General Medicine Branch of the RRC, he personally approved the funds which financed August Hirt's experiments with mustard gas on prisoners at Natzweiler concentration camp from 1941 until 1944. However he was one of the few University professors who publicly spoke out against the NS-Euthanasia program T4. In 1942, he became Surgeon General to the army. In mid-September 1943, Sauerbruch was awarded the Knight's Cross of the War Merit Cross with Swords. On 12 October 1945, he was charged by the Allies for having contributed to the Nazi dictatorship, but not convicted for lack of evidence. Sauerbruch stayed at his hospital throughout the whole war; his operating theatre was literally taken by the Red Army in 1945. Late in life, he developed dementia and was dismissed from the Charité because he continued to perform surgeries on patients, some with uncertain results. His colleagues detected the errors but were unable to stop him because of his fame and power. Sauerbruch died in Berlin at the age of seventy-five. He is buried in Berlin-Wannsee. A high school in Grossröhrsdorf in Saxony in modern Germany bears his name.
Portrayals in Media
Sauerbruch's life was portrayed in the German 1954 filmSauerbruch – Das war mein Leben, which is based on his memoirs Das war mein Leben, although the validity of these memoirs is contested by Sauerbruch's disciple Rudolf Nissen. The second series of the German series Charité depicts the workings of the Charité under Sauerbruch's leadership during World War II, and the impact of the contemporary political climate on the hospital staff.
Children
His eldest son Hans Sauerbruch became a painter; he lived in Berlin, Rome and after the war in Konstanz where his son, the architectMatthias Sauerbruch, was born. Sauerbruch's second son, Friedrich Sauerbruch, was a surgeon as well. He assisted his father and was actually responsible for the termination of his father's activities at the Charité. He lived in Berlin and later in Moers. The third son Peter Sauerbruch was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 4 January 1943 as a Hauptmann in the general staff of the 14th Panzer Division and leader of a Kampfgruppe "Sauerbruch". He lived in Hamburg and Munich.
