Sir Ludwig “Poppa” Guttmann

Sir Ludwig Guttmann, a neurologist at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire is widely regarded as the founding father of the Paralympic Games.

From 1928 he worked as a neurosurgeon in a 300 bed psychiatric clinic at Hamburg University. In 1930 he published a paper which made him a lecturer in Breslau University.In 1933 it was prohibited for Jews to practice medicine in public hospitals. Guttmann was fired from his public role but immediately took over as the director of the neurological and neurosurgical department of the Breslau Jewish hospital.

 

He arrived in Britain on the 14th March 1939, after he was invited by the "Society for the Protection of Science and Learning", with his wife, two children and no money. With the sponsorship of Hugh Cairns, one of the leading neurosurgeons of that period, he started his research in Oxford. This would have proved almost impossible without the help of CARA (Council for Assisting Refugee Academics).

 

In December 1941, Guttmann presented a review, required by the "Medical research council of England", with regards to the way patients suffering from spinal cord injuries were dealt with and rehabilitated. As a result of that presentation the Medical Research Council of England decided on the creation of a special centre for patients with spinal cord injuries.

 

In September 1943 the British government commissioned Guttmann as director of that Centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, in Aylesbury. Guttmann accepted under the condition that he would be totally independent and that he could apply his philosophy as far as the whole approach to the treatment of those patients was concerned.

 

Guttmann's goal was the integration of these patients into society as respectable and useful members despite their high degree of disability. The ever repeated question "Is it really worthwhile?" asked by all visitors during the first two years that the Centre operated was indicative as to how difficult it was to get over century old perceptions and prejudices. The defeatist attitude of the public was significantly expressed by one of Guttmann's early patients who wrote "One of the most difficult tasks for a paraplegic is to cheer up his visitors!”.

The Centre opened on the 1st of February 1944 with 26 beds and so a new era started for spinal injuries patients. Guttmann introduced a whole new approach to the way tetraplegic and paraplegic patients were treated from the initial stages of injury until final resettlement.

 

Although Guttmann did not think of himself as Psychologist, the whole structure of the rehabilitation programme shows deep understanding of the psychology of the patient with spinal cord injury.

Guttmann's involvement in sports activities during his youth in Germany played an important part in the inclusion of sport in the rehabilitation programme for the spinal injuries patients. Guttmann's programme aimed at reintegration into a normal life which especially in a society such as the one of Great Britain included sport.

The aims of sport are to develop self-discipline, self-respect, competitive spirit and comradeship - mental attitudes that are essential for the disabled person's integration into the community.

The team games that Guttmann incorporated in the rehabilitation programme soon developed into sports activities in which men, women and children could participate upon their discharge from The National Spinal Injuries Centre. Soon more patients from other units all over Great Britain started participating. A sports movement was developed that became known as the Stoke Mandeville Games. The first Games, with 14 ex--Servicemen and 2 Ex-Servicewomen competing in Archery on the grass outside the hospital ward, were held on the 28th July 1948, the same day that the London Olympic Games started. The date was not chosen by accident. Guttmann wanted his games to have a larger forum. He envisioned international Games. Since 1948 the Stoke Mandeville Games were held every year. In 1952 a team of Dutch paraplegic war veterans crossed the Channel to compete with their comrades at Stoke Mandeville in the first International Games for athletes with disabilities.

The term "Paralympic Games" was adopted later in 1984 by the International Olympic Committee.

It was decided that the games should be held in the country hosting the Olympic Games. This happened for the first time in 1960 in Rome right after the Olympic Games. 350 athletes with disabilities, men and women, from 24 countries, participated. At the 1964 Games in Tokyo, Mexican observers were present with the purpose of staging the Games together with the IXX Olympic Games in Mexico City. There was some surprise when two years prior to the 1968 event, the Mexican government backed out of the commitment to host the Paralympics because of technical difficulties.

Wanting to keep the tradition going, Sir Ludwig Guttmann accepted the invitation of the Israeli government to host the 1968 International Stoke Mandeville Games at Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv. A total of 750 athletes from 29 countries participated.

 

2012 will see the Paralympics in London return to their country of birth with Stoke Mandeville Stadium and the Guttmann Centre at Stoke Mandeville playing an important part welcoming many teams.

Guttmann directed the National Spinal Injuries Centre for 22 years during which time he became affectionately known as “Poppa” because, as his secretary Joan Scruton said, “He really was the father of the centre and everyone went to him when they were in trouble.” The question today is would a Stoke Mandeville Centre have been created without the events and consequences in Germany? Would rehabilitation of spinal cord injured people have been his lifetime's work without emigrating? Would the world's negative prejudices about the "incurable" paralysis have changed without the refugee Guttmann? Guttmann himself answered these questions by referring to Winston Churchill: "Since the Nazis drove out Jewish scientists, British science has got ahead of the Germans".

Today Guttmann is internationally recognised as a pioneer in the field of rehabilitation of spinal injury patients. Since 1948 he was council for many governments in the world in matters of paraplegic rehabilitation and he promoted the creation of many Paraplegic Centres. The Stoke Mandeville Centre became an example for 40 other rehabilitation centres around the world. In 1966 the 1st Paraplegic Centre in a German University in Heidelberg was set up bearing the name "Ludwig Guttmann's home”

A life size bronze statue of “Poppa” has been commissioned and will be unveiled in June 2012 to stand outside his National Spinal Injuries Centre in recognition and celebration of his groundbreaking and vital work for all those with what he described as having“Of the many forms of disability which can beset mankind, a severe injury or disease of the spinal cord undoubtedly constitutes one of the most devastating calamities of human life”.

If you want to know more about Ludwig Guttmann and what is being done to keep his legacy alive then visit the Poppa Guttmann site.