ABSTRACT
Resistance against autopsies became stronger from the 1880s and reached a peak in the 1930s. The most significant problem was that of 'information' and 'consent'. It is difficult to detect the reasons for surgeons' increasing interest in consent and information from the mid 1930s. Regarding surgery, likewise, no laws on patient 'information' or 'consent' pertained. As lay criticism of autopsy and surgical procedures had different causes and patterns, pathologists and surgeons tackled the problem of informed consent quite differently. Pathologists discussed the issue of consent and provided general information in the sense of educating the public. In Germany autopsy was not covered by any specific law. 'Information' and 'consent' depended on the attitude of the individual pathologist. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the decision on how to deal with the corpse of someone who had died in hospital was based on the regulations of the relevant institution.
