Hermann Stieve

In 1921, he became the youngest doctor to chair the medical department of a German university. He taught medicine at the Humboldt University of Berlin, and was Director of the Berlin Institute of Anatomy at the Charité teaching hospital in the later years of his life. Much of Stieve's research was conducted during the 1930s, after the Nazi Party had come to power in Germany. He did not join the party himself, but as an ardent German nationalist supported Adolf Hitler in the hope of restoring national pride. The Nazis imprisoned and executed many of their political opponents, and their corpses became Stieve's primary research material, with his full awareness of their origin. While much of his work is still considered valuable—among other things, he provided scientific evidence that the rhythm method was not effective in preventing pregnancy—it is considered tainted by his effective collaboration with the Nazi regime's political repression, especially in light of its later genocides. Born to a Protestant family in Munich in 1886, he was the son of historian Felix Stieve. His elder brother was future diplomat Friedrich Stieve and his younger sister was future social worker Hedwig Stieve.