Piero Martinello
Piero Martinello

THE WEIGHT OF THE WORD, chapter eight of eight: Eduard Pernkopf, Pernkopf’s Atlas

Eduard Pernkopf, an Austrian anatomist and committed Nazi, created one of the most technically precise anatomical atlases of the 20th century, The Pernkopf Atlas of Topographical and Applied Human Anatomy. Beginning publication in 1937, the atlas gained global acclaim for its exceptional detail and artistic quality, created by a team of illustrators under Pernkopf’s direction.

However, the work’s scientific achievement is deeply entangled with Nazi ideology. As dean and later rector of the University of Vienna during the Nazi regime, Pernkopf enforced racial hygiene doctrines, dismissed Jewish faculty and students, and incorporated Nazi values into medical education.

Piero Martinello –

Thousands of bodies—paupers, children, and political prisoners executed under Nazi laws—were used for dissections to create the atlas illustrations. Between 1939 and 1945 alone, 1,377 corpses of executed individuals, many for “high treason” (often meaning political dissent), were dissected at the Vienna Institute of Anatomy under his authority.

Piero Martinello –
Piero Martinello –

Despite its scientific value, the atlas has become the subject of intense ethical debate, particularly since the 1980s, when its origins and links to Nazi atrocities were more widely exposed. Investigations by the University of Vienna, prompted in part by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, could not identify specific victims, as archives had been destroyed during the war. Some modern surgeons still quietly use the atlas for its unparalleled anatomical detail, especially in complex nerve procedures.

Piero Martinello –
Piero Martinello –
Piero Martinello –

However, others—such as Harvard’s Dr. Sabine Hildebrandt—advocate for transparency and education about its dark history whenever it is referenced. The atlas stands today as a stark symbol of the intersection between medical brilliance and moral failure. In 2019, its original illustrations were donated to the Josephinum Museum in Vienna, where they serve as a lasting reminder of the ethical obligations of medical science.

Piero Martinello –