Professor Holger Maehle, Dr.med, Dr.med.habil., Ph.D.

Contact Professor Holger Maehle

Biography

Andreas-Holger Maehle was born on 9 April 1957 in Siegen, Germany. He studied Medicine at the University of Bonn (1976-83), was awarded a Dr. med. (Bonn, 1983), served as a military medical officer (1983-84) and was an assistant at the Institute for the History of Medicine, University of Göttingen (1984-1990). He received his habilitation and venia legendi in History of Medicine with the Medical Faculty, Göttingen (1990) and served as Lecturer in History of Medicine, University of Göttingen (1990-91). Moving to England, he was a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, University College London (1991-94) and a Wellcome Trust University Award Holder and Research Fellow at Durham University (1994-96). He received his Ph.D. from University College London in 1996 and went on to be Reader in History of Medicine, Durham University (1996-2000). Since 2000 he has been Professor of History of Medicine and Medical Ethics, Department of Philosophy, Durham University, and since 2001 in addition Director of the Centre for the History of Medicine and Disease, Wolfson Research Institute, Durham University. He serves on the advisory board of the journal Gesnerus and was until 2018 a member of the editorial board of the journal Medical History. He is a Member of the American Association for the History of Medicine and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine. He is the author of 5 monographs: 'Johann Jakob Wepfer (1620-1695) als Toxikologe' (Verlag Sauerlaender 1987), 'Kritik und Verteidigung des Tierversuchs: Die Anfaenge der Diskussion im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert' (Franz Steiner Verlag 1992), 'Drugs on Trial: Experimental Pharmacology and Therapeutic Innovation in the Eighteenth Century' (Rodopi 1999), 'Doctors, Honour and the Law: Medical Ethics in Imperial Germany (Palgrave Macmillan 2009), and 'Contesting Medical Confidentiality: Origins of the Debate in the United States, Britain, and Germany' (University of Chicago Press 2016). With Cay Pruell and Robert Halliwell he co-authored 'A Short History of the Drug Receptor Concept' (Palgrave Macmillan 2009). With Lutz Sauerteig he edited a special issue of Medical History (vol. 56/2, 2012) on Albert Moll, and with Heather Wolffram a special issue of the Royal Society journal Notes and Records on the history of hypnotism (vol. 71/2, 2017).

His current research is on 19th- and 20th-century medical ethics, especially in Britain, with a new monograph expected to come out in 2020. 

He is happy to supervise new PhD students who would like to do research on topics in the history of medicine and medical ethics.

OFFICE HOURS: Mondays, 10.30 - 13.30, or by appointment.

Indicators of Esteem

• 2018: AAHM: Member of the American Association for the History of Medicine
• 2018: Gesnerus:

  Member of Scientific Committee of Gesnerus: Swiss Journal of the History of Medicine and Sciences

• 2018: Medical History:

  Member of the Editorial Board of Medical History

• 2018: Royal Society of Medicine: Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine
• 2016: Notes and Records Royal Society:

  Member of the Editorial Board of Notes and Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science

Research Groups

• History of Philosophy
• Science, Medicine and Society

Research Projects

Centre for the History of Medicine and Disease

• Law and Ethics in the Issue of Medical Confidentiality in England and Germany, 1871-1933
• The Impact of the Receptor Concept

Research Interests

• Ethical issues in the history of medicine
• History of medicine and the life sciences
• History of pharmacology
• History of stem cell research

Teaching Areas

• Biomedical Ethics Past and Present (33 hours/year.)
• Ethics, Medicine & History (14 hours/year.)
• History & Theory of Medicine (22 hours/year.)

Selected Publications

Authored book

• Maehle, Andreas-Holger (2016). Contesting Medical Confidentiality: Origins of the Debate in the United States, Britain, and Germany. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
• Pruell, C.-R., Maehle, A.-H. & Halliwell, R. F. (2009). A Short History of the Drug Receptor Concept. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Maehle, Andreas-Holger (2009). Doctors, Honour and the Law: Medical Ethics in Imperial Germany. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Chapter in book

• Maehle, Andreas-Holger. (2011). Medical Ethics and the Law. In The Oxford Handbook of the History of Medicine. Jackson, Mark. Oxford University Press. 543-560.
• Maehle, A H (2010). Eine Kultur der Ehre: Ärztliche Berufsethik im Deutschen Kaiserreich zwischen Moral und Recht. In Ärztliches Ethos im Kontext: Historische, phänomenologische und didaktische Analysen. Bruchhausen, W & Hofer, H G Bonn: Bonn University Press. 59-73.
• Maehle, Andreas-Holger. & Troehler, Ulrich. (2009). The Discourses of Practitioners in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Germany. In The Cambridge World History of Medical Ethics. Baker, Robert B. & McCullough, Laurence B. Cambridge University Press. 432-438.
• Maehle, Andreas-Holger. (2009). The Ethics of Experimenting on Animal Subjects. In The Cambridge World History of Medical Ethics. Baker, Robert B. & McCullough, Laurence B. Cambridge University Press. 552-557.
• Maehle AH (2002). The Emergence of Medical Professional Ethics in Germany. In Historical and Philosophical Perspectives on Biomedical Ethics. From Paternalism to Autonomy?. Maehle AH & Geyer-Kordesch J Aldershot and Burlington: Ashgate. 37-48.
• Maehle, AH (2001). Zwischen medizinischem Paternalismus und Patientenautonomie: Albert Molls ‘Aerztliche Ethik’ (1902) im historischen Kontext. In Medizingeschichte und Medizinethik. Kontroversen und Begruendungsansaetze 1900-1950. Frewer, A & Neumann, JN Frankfurt and New York: Campus Verlag. 44-56.

Edited book

• Maehle AH & Geyer-Kordesch J (2002). Historical and Philosophical Perspectives on Biomedical Ethics. From Paternalism to Autonomy?. Ashgate Studies in Applied Ethics. Aldershot and Burlington: Ashgate.

Edited Journal

• Maehle, Andreas-Holger & Wolffram, Heather (2017). History of hypnotism in Europe. Notes and Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science, 71 (2): The Royal Society Publishing.
• Maehle, Andreas-Holger & Sauerteig, Lutz (2012). Sexology, Medical Ethics and Occultism: Albert Moll in Context. Medical History, 56 (2): Cambridge University Press.

Journal Article

• Maehle, Andreas-Holger (2020). Beyond Professional Self-Interest: Medical Ethics and the Disciplinary Function of the General Medical Council of the United Kingdom, 1858-1914. Social History of Medicine 33(1): 41-56.
• Maehle, Andreas-Holger (2017). A Dangerous Method? The German Discourse on Hypnotic Suggestion Therapy around 1900. Notes and Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science 71(2): 197-211.
• Maehle, Andreas-Holger (2015). Preserving Confidentiality or Obstructing Justice? Historical Perspectives on a Medical Privilege in Court. Journal of Medical Law and Ethics 3(1-2): 91-108.
• Maehle, Andreas-Holger (2014). The powers of suggestion: Albert Moll and the debate on hypnosis. History of Psychiatry 25(1): 3-19.
• Maehle, Andreas-Holger (2013). Four early clinical studies to assess the effects of Peruvian bark. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 106(4): 150-155.
• Maehle, Andreas-Holger (2012). 'God's Ethicist': Albert Moll and His Medical Ethics in Theory and Practice. Medical History 56(2): 217-236.
• Maehle, Andreas-Holger. (2011). Ambiguous cells: the emergence of the stem cell concept in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Notes and Records of the Royal Society 65(4): 359-378.
• Maehle, AH (2011). Doctors in Court, Honour, and Professional Ethics: Two Scandals in Imperial Germany. Gesnerus 68(1): 61-79.
• Maehle, A H (2010). 'Patient trade' in Germany: an ethical issue at the practitioner-clinician interface in 1909 and 2009. Medical Humanities 36(2): 84-87.
• Maehle, Andreas-Holger & Pranghofer, Sebastian (2010). Medical confidentiality in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: an Anglo-German comparison. Medizinhistorisches Journal 45(2): 189-221.
• Maehle, AH (2009). A binding question: the evolution of the receptor concept. Endeavour 33(4): 134-139.
• Pranghofer, S. & Maehle, A.-H. (2006). Limits of professional secrecy: medical confidentiality in England and Germany in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews 31(3): 231-244.
• Maehle AH (2005). The Quantification and Differentiation of the Drug Receptor Theory, c. 1910-1960. Annals of Science 62(4): 479-500.
• Maehle AH (2004). 'Receptive Substances': John Newport Langley (1852-1925) and his Path to a Receptor Theory of Drug Action *. Medical History 48(2): 153-174.
• Maehle AH (2004). Historische Grundlagen des Rezeptor-Konzepts in der Pharmakologie *. Gesnerus Swiss Journal of the History of Medicine and Sciences 61(1 / 2): 57-76.
• Maehle, AH (2003). Aerztlicher Eingriff und Koerperverletzung: Zu den historisch-rechtlichen Wurzelln des Informed Consent in der Chirurgie, 1892-1940. Würzburger medizinhistorische Mitteilungen 22: 178-187.
• Pruell, CR, Maehle, AH & Halliwell, RF (2003). Drugs and Cells – Pioneering the Concept of Receptors. Pharmacy in History 45(1): 18-30.
• Maehle, AH (2003). Protecting Patient Privacy or Serving Public Interests? Challenges to Medical Confidentiality in Imperial Germany. Social History of Medicine 16(3): 383-401.
• Maehle, AH, Pruell, CR & Halliwell, RF (2002). The Emergence of the Drug Receptor Theory. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 1(8): 637-641.

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Selected Grants