Walter Brendel was born on 6 November 1922 in Karlsruhe. From 1941 to 1944 he served in the 98th Alpine Regiment of the German Army, in Russia, where he was severely injured in 1942. Upon his release he went to medical school at the University of Heidelberg in the summer of 1942, graduating in the summer of 1948. This was followed by internship in surgery, ophthalmology and internal medicine from 1948 to 1951. He was promoted to “doctor of medicine” by the University of Heidelberg in 1949. …