Hans Kraus Explained

Hans Kraus (November 28, 1905 in Austria-Hungary – March 6, 1996, in New York City) was a physician, physical therapist, mountaineer, and alpinist. A pioneer of modern rock climbing, he was also one of the fathers of sports medicine and physical medicine and rehabilitation and was elected to the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame in 1974.[1]

Career

Born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kraus attended medical school in Vienna in the 1920s, against his father's wishes, becoming an orthopedic surgeon. Through his subsequent practice, he developed a philosophy of treatment at odds with traditional medicine of the time. He would evolve this method, called "immediate mobilization," over his entire medical career. Passing his medical exams in New York, Kraus continued developing unique methods of fracture treatment, applying them to all kinds of athletes. He became especially well known in skiing circles.[2]

Kraus warned Americans that children were not getting enough exercise and were watching too much television. Along with Bonnie Prudden, he campaigned for better physical exercise programs for children, and authored several books on exercise, sports medicine, and physical therapy. Eisenhower championed Kraus and his campaign to get Americans to exercise. However, by 1957, it was clear that Kraus was unsuccessful. Kraus was broadly opposed by the AMA and gym teachers (who felt Kraus was disparaging to their leadership) and many Americans, as Sports Illustrated reported in 1957, who worried that mandatory exercise programs for children would "Hitlerize American youth."[3]

Kraus also continued to develop a unique approach to treating back pain in collaboration with another doctor, Sonja Weber. They developed an understanding of the underlying causes of back pain and devised the Kraus–Weber test (also called K–W test) and exercises to alleviate it.

Kraus was an associate professor at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center College of Medicine. His studies on children led to President Dwight D. Eisenhower establishing the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. In October 1961, Kraus became President Kennedy's secret White House back doctor.[4]

The story of Kennedy's back had never prior been reported, although there was much speculation; but Kraus and Kennedy's two other White House doctors had sworn confidentiality.

In April 2006, over ten years after Kraus's death, Kraus's widow donated Kraus's White House medical records on Kennedy to the Kennedy Library.[5] Kraus's medical records purported to show that by the time of Kennedy's death in Dallas, Kraus's therapy had nearly cured Kennedy of his lifelong back pain.[6]

Kraus's White House medical records also contain several entries about Kennedy's back corset, which he had worn since Harvard. Kraus recorded that he had grown convinced that the corset was impeding Kennedy's recovery and that Kennedy needed to permanently stop wearing it. In October 1963, Kennedy told Kraus that he would stop wearing his corset indefinitely starting in January 1964. Several leading presidential historians, including James Reston and Robert Dallek, theorized that Kennedy might have survived Dallas if he was not wearing the corset.[7] [8]

Climbing

Among his friends and climbing partners were Emilio Comici and Gino Soldà. He would later bring the Dolomite techniques of high-angle face climbing to the United States

In 1940, he met Fritz Wiessner, who would become a lifelong friend and climbing partner. Wiessner had discovered the Shawangunks in 1935, and together Kraus and Wiessner spent every spare day developing routes in the area. Wiessner was known for his outstanding free climbing technique; Kraus's specialty was aid climbing. Thus, the two men's climbing skills complemented each other. While both men enjoyed climbing with women (notably with Bonnie Prudden, an accomplished climber in her own right), they continued to climb together, with often spectacular results. One of Kraus's and Wiessner's most significant efforts at the Gunks was High Exposure, a bold 5.6 that involves a blind reach around an overhung corner 150 feet up in the air; the route still confounds novice climbers. Done in 1941, with a hemp rope and three soft-iron pitons for protection, High Exposure was a world-class accomplishment. The route remains a rite of passage for aspiring rock climbers.[9]

In November 1975, Kraus reclimbed the route – his favorite – to celebrate his 70th birthday. Other significant Kraus's first ascents in the Gunks included: Northern Pillar 5.2 (The first technical rock climb in The Trapps; Three Pines 5.3; Horseman 5.5; Madame Grunnebaum's Wulst 5.6; Easy Overhang 5.2; Bitchy Virgin 5.7R (the first "R" rated climb in the Shawangunks); and Emilio 5.7 (the first aid climb in the Gunks – Kraus and Wiessner employed a shoulder stand).

By the end of the 1940s, the Shawangunks had 58 documented climbing routes. Twenty-six of these were first ascents by Kraus; 23 were by Wiessner.

In the 1950s, Kraus was behind a push by the Appalachian Mountain Club to regulate climbing in the Shawangunks and to install a safety code to prevent climbing accidents. This safety code led to conflicts with Lester Germer and The Vulgarians, a raucous group of rock climbers led by Dick Williams, who occasionally climbed in the nude. Kraus's effort was later abandoned.

Kraus's U.S. climbing was not limited to the East Coast. He also scaled cliffs in the Wind River Range, the Teton Range, and the Bugaboos. In 1945, in the Wind Rivers, Kraus pioneered a new route on Mount Helen's Tower Ridge and lodged the first ascent of Skyline Peak and the first west-to-east traverse of the Triple Traverse. He also completed new routes on Mount Gannett's East Buttress, Mount Woodrow Wilson's South Face, and the Sphinx's South Ridge.

Personal life

Kraus was born in what is now Trieste, Italy, which at the time was part of the 1867–1918 Austro-Hungarian Empire, he was taught English as a youth by James Joyce. In 1938, the Kraus family fled Europe, just ahead of World War II, this time to the United States. They settled in New York City. Kraus was not allowed to enlist in the U.S. military because he had been born in Trieste, which had belonged to the Habsburg Empire at the time of Kraus's birth. Therefore, he was technically considered an "enemy alien", even though he was a legal immigrant, and a Jew. He became a U.S. citizen in 1945.

Sometime in the late 1930s (precise date unknown; pre-1938), Kraus married Susanne Simon. The marriage was apparently not a happy one, and they separated in 1944 and were divorced in the 1950s. In 1959, Kraus remarried, to Madi Springer-Miller, a champion skier and the first woman to ski the "Lip" of Tuckerman's Ravine on Mount Washington. They had two daughters, Ann and Mary.

In 1984, at the age of 79, Kraus stopped climbing completely, due to arthritis, and the cumulative effects of various injuries. His last climb was Easy Overhang, a route he had done the first ascent of in 1941.

In 1995, Kraus was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He died peacefully on the morning of March 6, 1996, aged 90, in his New York City apartment, holding his daughter's hand. His ashes were carried up the High Exposure buttress by an old friend and scattered into the air at the top.

List of works

Books

Journal publications

References

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Dr. Hans Kraus . 2023-11-07 . U.S. Ski & Snowboard Hall of Fame . en-US.
  2. Web site: AAC Publications - Hans Kraus, 1906-1996 . 2023-11-07 . publications.americanalpineclub.org.
  3. Dorthy Stull,"A Measure of Fitness", Sports Illustrated, August 5, 1957.
  4. http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/04/21/an_exercise_guru_helped_ease_jfks_back_pain/ "An exercise guru helped ease JFK's back pain"
  5. http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/HKPP.aspx John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum
  6. https://web.archive.org/web/20110711004804/http://www.fitcommerce.com/Blueprint/WebControls/Announcements/ViewAnnouncement.aspx?ItemID=1018&mid=112&portalId=2&cid=112 New Finding Reveals President John F. Kennedy's New Exercise Routine Was Healing His Back Pain
  7. http://www.thestandard.com.hk/stdn/std/Opinion/FK27Df02.html How steel back brace made JFK a sitting duck in Dallas
  8. https://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2002/12/dallek.htm "The Medical Ordeals of JFK"
  9. Web site: Valley . Hudson . 2008-08-04 . A Real Cliff-Hanger . 2023-11-07 . Hudson Valley Magazine . en-US.

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