A- INTRODUCTION
29
Dr Meinecke (1968), who is in charge of the Spinal Injuries Centre, Bochum, has given
a comprehensive report about 615 patients with spinal cord lesions treated since the end
of the war at the Accident Hospital Bergmannsheil in Bochum. Five hundred and ninety-
five were traumatic lesions and 57-1 per cent of these had associated injuries.
In February 1967, the Spinal Injuries Centre in Heidelberg, Schlierbach, was opened.
This Centre, which was created by the late Professor K.Lindemann, represents the first
Spinal Injuries Centre in a German University and is part of the Orthopaedic University
Clinic. It consists of two magnificent buildings, the clinical department (Ludwig Gutt-
mann-Haus) with 60 beds and a department of 60 beds for vocational and social rehabili–
tation with a boarding-school and training workshops (Kurt Lindemann-Haus). This is
indeed the ideal model of a modern Spinal Injuries Centre, equipped with all facilities
to provide a comprehensive service for traumatic and non-traumatic spinal cord sufferers
(Fig. 9). Unhappily, Kurt Lindemann did not live to see the realization of his creation.
FIG. 9. The Spinal Injuries Centre in Heidelberg-Schlierbach.
The Centre is directed by Professor V.Paeslack, a general physician, who, with members
of his nursing and physiotherapy staff, received specialized training at Stoke Mandeville.
Recently, Professor Paeslack added a ward for spina bifida children as part of the Centre.
The most recent, specially built Spinal Centre of the Berufsgenossenschaften is
that in Murnau, Bavaria, opened in January 1969. It is part of an Accident Hospital and
was founded by its former director, Professor A.Lob. At present, it has a complement of
60 beds but will be enlarged to 100 beds. This Centre has its own operation theatres
and all facilities for a comprehensive paraplegia service and like the Heidelberg Centre
can serve as a model for other centres. It is directed by Dr E.Stoephasius who was
trained in this speciality at Bochum and Stoke Mandeville.
In Cologne, Professor Scheid founded in 1967 a Rehabilitation Centre as part of the
Neurological University Clinic for neurological disabilities, amongst them spinal cord
afflictions, and in recent years acute traumatic paraplegics and tetraplegics were admitted
