Introduction: The biography of the German urologist Dr. Paul Rosenstein is unique as he documented and recorded the history of eminent urologists like James Israel and describes his own career in German urology following Israel. The life of Paul Rosenstein reflected the tumultuous times for European Jewish physicians, struggling to maintain a successful academic practice in the emerging sub-specialty of urology and the rise of Nazi Regime. Methods: James Israel was his predecessor at the Jewish Hospital in Berlin. Israel was Chief of Urology a position that Dr Rosenstein later held. Israel was considered one of the founders of European Urology. Rosenstein referred to Israel as a genius in the clinical palpation of the kidney. Rosenstein described Israel’s ability to train and mentor 5 professors of surgery. This was especially significant since the hospital was a non-teaching hospital. While most articles about Israel are full of admiration, Rosenstein describes a very reserved aristocratic man, who had difficulties accepting new techniques such as ureteroscopy into his practice. Results: Rosenstein’s description of his own the education is quite telling. He first trained as a general surgeon, under the supervision of the eminent Anton Freiherr von Eiselsberg who later became head of surgery in Vienna. Rosenberg describes how after the First World War he and Dr Lichtenstein invented Pneumoradiography whereby the contours of the kidneys were imaged by injecting oxygen around them. Moreover, Rosenstein later pioneered with others the injection of iodine for the imaging of the renal position, form and excretion. Paul Rosenstein often reported antisemitic events in a straight forward, unemotional tone attempting to remain objective. One of the most interesting portraits he paints is his description of his time during the Frist World War where he served as a general surgeon and received the first and second Federal Cross of Merit (Bundesverdienstkreuz). While many Jewish physicians of his time had to convert to be named professor by the government, he obtained this title in 1919, without needing to convert. Astonishingly, in his description of his military service and the difficult visceral, neurosurgical, and facial operations that he performed. In 1933, with the coming to power of the Nazi-Party and the immediate discrimination against Jewish doctors, he immediately relinquished his position as head of the Urological Society of Berlin. Conclusions: In 1938 he was able to emigrate to Brazil but was unable to practice. In 1953 he received an honorary membership from the German Urological Society. SOURCE OF Funding: none
