Adolf Gottstein

Who is Adolf Gottstein?

Adolf Gottstein was a German social hygienist and epidemiologist.

He studied in medicine at the Universities of Breslau, Strasbourg and Leipzig, obtaining his doctorate with a dissertation on marasmic thrombosis. In 1886 he relocated to Berlin, where he worked at a private medical practice until 1911, spending his free time performing research in the laboratories of pathologist Carl Friedländer, pharmacologist Oskar Liebreich and bacteriologist Robert Koch. Gottstein was deeply interested in epidemiological and statistical studies, as well as social hygiene issues from a medical standpoint.

In 1906 he became a municipal councillor in Berlin-Charlottenburg, followed by an appointment as Stadtmedizinalrat. In 1914 he was Geheimer Sanitätsrat, and from 1919 to 1924 served as Ministerialdirektor. In this capacity he took a progressive stance in regards to public health, being associated with initiatives that included establishment of the Landesgesundheitsrates, the Krüppelfürsorgegesetz and the creation of three academies of social hygiene.