Rüdiger Döhler


Rüdiger Döhler FRCSEd is a German professor of orthopedic surgery.

Life

Döhler grew up in Rochlitz and East Berlin. In 1958, his family fled from the GDR to Bremerhaven. After graduating from a classic-languages school he joined the German Navy and from 1968 through 1974 studied medicine in Kiel with a break in Hamburg and Heidelberg.

Clinical career

In 1976, Döhler was awarded his doctoral degree at the University of Kiel. He was trained in pathology, surgery and orthopedics and achieved the acknowledgement as orthopedic surgeon in 1983.
In March 1984, he went to Edinburgh and did clinical work at the Princess Margaret Rose Orthopaedic Hospital and, with a grant of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, performed basic research at the University of Edinburgh.
In August 1985 he returned to Kiel, and three years later he moved to the University of Münster for spinal surgery . In 1990, he quit cold orthopedics and re-embarked on surgery in Hamburg-Altona. There, he achieved his second acknowledgement as general surgeon and finished his habilitation with the neuroanatomist Werner Lierse.
After German unification in 1995, he was appointed head of the then new hospital in Plau am See, Mecklenburg.
Döhler operated on children from Africa and Central Asia for the Friedensdorf International and, on behalf of the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future, on former Nazi slave laborers from Poland and Ukraine.

Military

For becoming a reserve officer Döhler joined the German Navy in October 1967. While studying medicine he had his military training in the Territorials.

Publications (selected)