Hellmuth Unger came from Nordhausen in Thuringia. After graduating from high school in 1911, he studied medicine in Würzburg, Rostock, Halle and Leipzig. He became an ophthalmologist and worked in Leipzig and Berlin. In 1933, he worked in the »Information Office for Population Policy and Racial Care«. In 1935, he became press spokesman for the Reich Medical Association and the Reich Medical Guide as well as head of various medical journals. He became famous not only for »Sendung und Gewissen«, but also for his biography of Robert Koch, which sold 300,000 copies. Despite his fame and contacts, he was called up for military service in 1942. The Führer’s Chancellery’s request to award him the title of professor was rejected. After a short period as a prisoner of war, Unger opened an ophthalmological practice in Bad Harzburg. He published many plays and novels under the false names Fritz Herrmann, Hans Holm and Peter Moy. He gave up his practice in 1953 and died in Freiburg in the same year.
