German surgery at a turning point—between tradition and internationalization (Leopoldina Lecture)

A state of constant change and new beginnings is a truism for all surgery, worldwide. Billroth, again and again, regarded surgery as an international matter. The strength of tradition in the field of surgery lies in the preservation of principles of medicine and ethics, and in the basic rules of the teachings of indication. A wide-ranging academic and medical territory was being developed with the amicable and hegemonial spread of English. The concept of globalisation dominates the imagination at the moment, but also political and economic thinking and discussion. This is not quite true of medicine, as medical science is not globally uniform, owing to the many different conditions for work, in particular for surgery.