Wilhelm Schulthess
Wilhelm Schulthess was a Swiss internist and paediatrician who worked in orthopaedics. In 1883 he co-founded the Orthopaedic Institute in Zürich, later known as the Schulthess Klinik. His research focused on scoliosis, where he developed methods for diagnosis and measurement. He also served as president of the German Society of Orthopaedic Surgery in 1908 and helped establish the Swiss Association for Crippled Children in 1909.
Biography
He was born on 18 May 1855 in Villnachern to Edmund Schulthess and wife Cornelia Brigitta Marth. He was the brother of politician Edmund Schulthess at the Rüdenplatz in Zürich.In 1883 he co-founded a private clinic in Zürich, later known as the Orthopaedic Institute and eventually the Schulthess Klinik. In 1889 he obtained his habilitation, and in 1912 became an associate professor at the University of Zürich.
In 1908 he was appointed president of the Deutschen Gesellschaft für Orthopädische Chirurgie. He contributed to the founding of the Schweizerischen Vereins für krüppelhafte Kinder. The wording of the name reflects the terminology of the time.
He specialised in scoliosis research and developed methods for measuring and recording the degree and different types of the disorder.
In 1917, Schulthess died of a sudden heart attack during a consultation at the Orthopaedic Institute in Zürich. After his death, his colleague and co-founder August Lüning continued to run the institute, supported by Schulthess’s son-in-law Eugen Hallauer. Hallauer later assumed leadership during the war and postwar years, while maintaining many of Schulthess’s therapeutic approaches.
Orthopaedic Institute
The Orthopaedic Institute was founded in 1883 by Wilhelm Schulthess and August Lüning at Löwenstrasse 16 in Zürich. At the time, orthopaedics was a relatively new and little-known field, and theirs was the only such institution in the city. With no university-level programs in orthopaedics available, Schulthess and Lüning developed their expertise through independent research and documentation. Their early treatments addressed various skeletal deformities, but scoliosis soon became their main focus. Before the advent of X-ray imaging in 1895, diagnoses were made through external observation, supported by measuring and drawing instruments that allowed precise and regular documentation of spinal curvatures.In 1896, the institute relocated to Neumünsterallee 3 to accommodate its growing work. By the early 20th century, it had gained recognition beyond Zürich and was visited by physicians from abroad.