Medicine doctors and military service

[Angel Farré]

I wonder if someone can put some light in a couple of ask I have.

1.- Were all medicine graduated men enlisted in the Wehrmacht given a comisioned rank and put into service as military doctors?

2.-In the 30s how long was a medicine career studies in Germany?

3.- I have read that there were military medicine faculties in Germany, it's true? has the same duration and qualification level as civil ones? students were civilians or military personal meanwhile atending the curses?

Thanks for all

Angel

[Rick Research]

I can answer these for the Imperial period, and believe not much changed for the Third Reich.

Regular army medical officers began as cadets, serving aa brief (3 to 6 months) "military" training, and then went to the Military Medical Academy for 4 years, being commissioned as medical 2nd Lts after 4 years, at about age 23. They were rated as soldiers and NCOs while at the MMA. They then continued medical training, while officers, and most, after 4 more years, received the degree of Dr. med and were promoted to medical 1st Lts at about age 27. (Some men, for some reason, NEVER received the "Dr. med." degree, but that did NOT affect their careers... some rising in both time periods to be "medical generals" even though NOT "Doctors!").

Civilian medical studies took exactly the same time-- 4 years of college, then four more years usually to civilian Dr. med.


I know of many individual cases in both wars where civilians who did NOT have prior military service, but were already Dr. med. in civil life, were called up as medical corps sergeant majors before being commissioned as reserve 2nd Lts.

During WW1 some civilian doctors were "Contract surgeons" and DID have higher ranks the minute they signed up, but wore special insignia of "rank" on their collars and no shoulder boards. They were like WW2 "Sonderführer," who held the same sort of "temporary" positions.