Heinrich Johannes Schoeneich (born January 2, 1948) is a German plastic surgeon and humanitarian activist, who founded and heads the Munich section of Interplast-Germany e.V.[1]

Heinrich Schoeneich
Dr. Heinrich Schoeneich, 2011
Born (1948-01-02) 2 January 1948 (age 76)
Datteln, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
NationalityGerman
OccupationPlastic Surgeon
Years active1984 - present
OrganizationINTERPLAST-Germany e.V. / Munich Section
Known forHumanitarian Activist
Board member ofINTERPLAST-Germany e.V. Foundation; INTERPLAST-Germany e.V. / Munich Section; Children's Right Foundation; Myanmar Foundation
SpouseSima Schoeneich
Children2
AwardsBambi Charity Award, 2001
HonoursCross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, 2006
WebsiteINTERPLAST-Munich

Life and work

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In 1984, Schoeneich joined Interplast-Germany e.V., a non-profit medical aid organisation. In 1994, he founded the Munich section of Interplast-Germany e.V. and since then carries out 3 to 4 humanitarian missions a year in (South-East-)Asia, Africa and the Middle-East. In 2004, he co-founded the Interplast Foundation for Humanitarian Plastic Surgery to promote long-term projects.[2]

Since 2012, he is lecturing on medical and ethical aspects of medical humanitarian work at the Technical University of Munich.[3][4][5]

In 2001 Schoeneich was awarded the Charity Bambi of the Hubert Burda Media Group for his many years of medical aid in Afghanistan.[6][7][8] The award was presented to him by actress and physician Maria Furtwängler on November 15, 2001 in Berlin.[9][10][8] In 2003, his work was showcased in a documentary titled "Unter der Haut - Das zweite Leben von Dr. Schoeneich" ("Under the skin - The second life of Dr. Schoeneich").[11] In 2006, he received the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany[12] for his humanitarian work.[13][14][15]

First war surgery mission - Thailand | Cambodia (1980)

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For six weeks in Spring 1980, he assisted in war surgery missions in refugee camps Khao-I-Dang and Nong Mak Mun between Thailand and Cambodia. He was a member of a medical team of the Soforthilfe e.V., a German non-governmental organization, privately established in Munich at the end of 1979 in response to the Cambodian refugee crisis. Initially in cooperation with Rupert Neudeck's committee "Ein Schiff für Vietnam" ("A Ship for Vietnam"), Soforthilfe e.V. provided large-scale medical help on the ground during the Emergency Period 1979-1981.[16][17][18]

War surgery missions - Pakistan and Afghanistan (1991-2004)

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Responding to an appeal launched by the European Union in 1991, he flew to Peshawar to treat refugees injured during the Afghan civil war.[19] In 1994, with the Interplast section Frankfurt and the help of the German Embassy, he financed the reconstruction and conversion of a destroyed building into a hospital in Jalalabad.[20] The hospital was inaugurated in September 1995 and throughout its existence the only free-of-charge facility for reconstructive surgery in the region,[19] confiscated by the Taliban at the end of September 1999.[21]

Burma / Republic of the Union of Myanmar (since 1997)

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In 1997 he was authorized by the Burmese Ministry of Health to conduct his first surgical mission in its then capital Yangon in 1997.[22] Up to and including 2020, he and his medical teams have carried out 68 surgical missions throughout the country.

Cyclone Nargis

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The night of May 2 to 3, 2008 he witnessed Cyclone Nargis, one of the most severe tropical cyclones in the history of weather records.[23][24] In the early morning hours, a state of emergency was declared in Yangon.[25] Due to a news embargo and the travel ban on foreign media representatives, they became of interest to German journalists on their return.[26][27][28][29][30] In cooperation with the Amara Health Foundation and the Stiftunglife, he initiated the clinic ship project "Swimming Doctors" in April 2009, which is still operating today in the Irrawaddy-delta, the region worst hit by the storm.[31]

China (2006)

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In 2004, he performed surgery on the 15-year-old Chinese Xiao Liewen as a team member with his former professor, reconstructing the burnt right half of her face.[32] For the first time in medical history, the preformation of a nose on the lower abdomen and its transplantation into the face succeeded.[33][34] A German TV channel filmed the process and aired a documentary in the German TV show Galileo on March 23, 2006. In 2008 and 2013, Galileo aired a follow-up on Liewen's health and professional development.[35][36] During a mission in China in June 2006, Schoeneich performed a follow-up surgery on her.[37]

Peace Missions (Palestine and Irak, 2011)

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Inspired by the documentary "The Heart of Jenin" and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, he assembled a surgical team of Christian, Muslim and Jewish colleagues. Their mission was to take place in Summer 2011 in Jenin, West Bank. On April 4, 2011 Juliano Mer-Khamis, Jewish-Palestinian director, activist and founder of "The Freedom Theater" in Jenin, was shot dead. Since Interplast local associates had also been threatened, the Palestinian Minister of Health moved the planned mission to Nablus, West Bank, where Schoeneich and his interreligious team performed free plastic surgery on 118 Palestinian patients from 23 June to 8 July.

A camera crew from Bayerischer Rundfunk accompanied the mission. The 30-minute documentary "Operation Peace" was broadcast on September 5, 2011, in Das Erste (ARD).[38] "Operation Peace" was mentioned again in Richard C. Schneider's 2018 book on the Middle East conflict.[39]

TV and Radio (selection)

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  • 1993 Zeil um Zehn, guest of Alice Schwarzer, subject: Transsexuality; HR.[40]
  • 2001 Die Zwei - Maischberger and Schmidbauer, subject: Deviators; BR.[41]
  • 2002 Johannes B. Kerner, guest of Johannes B. Kerner; ZDF.[42]
  • 2003 Unter der Haut - Das zweite Leben von Dr. Schoeneich, documentary film; ARD, Phoenix, BR.[43]
  • 2003 alpha-Forum, in conversation with Silke Yeomans; BR.[19]
  • 2006 Bavarian of the Year, Abendschau; BR.[44]
  • 2008 People of the week, guest of Frank Elstner; SWR.[45]
  • 2010 One to one. The talk - private conversations; Bayern 2.[46]
  • 2011 Operation Peace, documentary; ARD.[47]
  • 2012 Plastic Surgery: Between Beauty Mania and Reality; SPIEGEL TV THEMA.[48]

Press (selection)

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References

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  1. ^ Interplast-Germany e.V. was founded in Frankfurt am Main in 1980 inspired by the basic concept of Interplast USA (the latter now called ReSurge International). Further Interplast organizations followed worldwide, e.g. in Australia, France and Italy. However, Interplast-Germany as a non-profit aid organization is neither formally, financially nor legally linked to those and acts independently in all matters. (This should be covered in more detail in the corresponding Wikipedia articles, but is also evident from e.g. the website of Interplast-Germany e.V. and other sources such as PDF p. 50, in German).
  2. ^ "Establishing the INTERPLAST-Foundation" (in German). INTERPLAST-Foundation. 2019. Retrieved 2018-10-08.
  3. ^ "International Exchange". Technical University of Munich, Medical Education Center (TUM MEC) (in German). Archived from the original on 2019-10-01. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
  4. ^ Kargl, Lukas. "Humanitarian Missions - INTERPLAST-Germany e.V." (PDF). Technical University of Munich, Faculty of Medicine (in German). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-10-01. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
  5. ^ Schoeneich, H. (2019). "Help, the helpers are coming! Humanitarian missions of Interplast-Germany e.V. in developing countries and crisis areas. A critical inventory" (PDF). TUM Medical Education Center (in German). Technical University Munich, Faculty of Medicine. Retrieved 2019-10-01.[permanent dead link]
  6. ^ "Bambi Gala – Amidst stars, glamour and contemplation" (PDF). Chak Hospital.org (in German). Stuttgarter Zeitung Online. 2001. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-09-01. Retrieved 2017-09-12.
  7. ^ "Dr. Heinrich Schoeneich - A new face for Yussuf". Talk Im Bock - People with a Story (in German). VHS Leutkirch e.V. 2001-12-10. Archived from the original on 2018-12-21.
  8. ^ a b Klausmann, Rüdiger (2001). "Four BAMBIS for Gottschalk". BAMBI – Germany's Most Important Media Award (in German). Hubert Burda Media. Archived from the original on 2017-08-23. Retrieved 2017-07-07.
  9. ^ "Charity-BAMBI 2001 for INTERPLAST" (PDF). INTERPLAST-Germany, Annual Report 2001, Issue 16 (in German). p. 4. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-01-23. Retrieved 2017-11-06.
  10. ^ "Bambi Awards - Applause for the usual suspects". SPIEGEL Online (in German). Der SPIEGEL. 2001-11-16. Retrieved 2018-09-24.
  11. ^ Schramm, Andrea. "Under the skin - The second life of Dr. Schoeneich" [The double life of Dr. Schoeneich]. Portfolio (in German). Schramm Matthes Film. Retrieved 2017-10-29.
  12. ^ "Classes of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany with their official French, English, Spanish and Russian translations" (PDF). Federal Foreign Office of Germany. Retrieved 2019-10-04.
  13. ^ Information dated July 10, 2019: "Our database indicates that Dr. Schoeneich was awarded the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in December 2006"., Ordenskanzlei, Bundespräsidialamt, Spreeweg 1, 10557 Berlin
  14. ^ "Cross of the Order of Merit" (PDF). Bayerisches Ärzteblatt. 2007. Retrieved 2017-11-04.
  15. ^ Klitzke, Kristina; Lüttenberg, Beate; Ferrari, Arianna; Ach, Johann S. (2011), Serving beauty? Interdisciplinary perspectives on aesthetic surgery. (in German), vol. Aesthetic Surgery: A critical approach from an ethical point of view, Berlin-Münster-Vienna-Zürich-London: LIT Verlag, p. 128
  16. ^ Suenobu, Yumiko; Co-Autor: UNESCO Principal Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (Thailand) (1995). "Management of education systems in zones of conflict-relief operations: a case-study in Thailand". UNESCO. Retrieved 2019-01-10.
  17. ^ Berdel, Wolfgang E.; Schoeneich, Heinrich; Wangerin, Konrad; Schüller, Paul (1980-12-20). ""Soforthilfe" in Cambodian refugee camps". Issue 51/52 (in German). Deutsches Ärzteblatt. Retrieved 2017-06-22.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) Caution: The linked article contains pictures that can be disturbing.
  18. ^ Beisel, Karoline Meta (2013-12-27), Plastic surgery is my passion (in German), vol. Süddeutsche Zeitung, Print Edition, Munich: Süddeutscher Verlag. Online version no longer available.
  19. ^ a b c Yeomans, Silke (2003-05-21). "Silke Yeomans talks to Heinrich Schoeneich". ARD Alpha Educational Channel (in German). Bavarian Broadcasting. Retrieved 2017-07-18.
  20. ^ Joch, Ortwin (2000). "Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery for Afghans" (PDF). Annual Report, Issue 15 (in German). INTERPLAST-Germany e.V. pp. 14 ff. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-01-23. Retrieved 2018-07-23.
  21. ^ Etzold, Sabine (2001-09-27). "Children suffer the most" (PDF). Wissen, Issue 40 (in German). Die ZEIT. Retrieved 2018-06-24.
  22. ^ Schoeneich, H. (2018-06-26). "My personal way of helping with Interplast". Passion Surgery 07/2018. Focus: Humanitarian Missions Abroad. Association of German Surgeons E.V. (in German). Retrieved 2018-11-24.
  23. ^ Koophamel, Anne Kathrin (2008-05-06). "It's the Apocalypse". Abendzeitung München (in German). Abendzeitung München Verlags-GmbH.
  24. ^ Kremb, Jürgen; Thielke, Thilo (2008-05-10). "Burma – As if the world was ending". Spiegel Online (in German). Der SPIEGEL. Retrieved 2018-08-12.
  25. ^ "Burma-Crisis. Thousands of corpses decaying in the disaster zone". Spiegel Online (in German). Der SPIEGEL. 2008-05-07. Retrieved 2018-08-11.
  26. ^ Tafazoli, Schabnam (2008-05-06). "Eyewitness of the cyclone - "People were left to their fate"". Spiegel Online, Panorama (in German). Der SPIEGEL. Retrieved 2018-07-23. Interview
  27. ^ "Cyclone-Disaster – Streets full of corpses". Der Tagesspiegel Online. Der Tagesspiegel, Berlin. 2008-05-06. Retrieved 2018-11-11.
  28. ^ W., B. (2008-05-07). "High barriers to disaster relief in Burma". Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Nr. 105, 229. Jahrgang, Internationale Ausgabe (in German). NZZ Mediengruppe Zürich. Archived from the original on 2019-04-02. Retrieved 2019-04-02. Titelbild: H. Schoeneich
  29. ^ König, Wilfried (2008-05-07). "Deadly calm in Birma". DIE WELT – Ausland, S. 7 (in German). Axel Springer Verlag. Archived from the original on 2019-04-02. Retrieved 2019-04-02. Artikelbild: H. Schoeneich
  30. ^ Gessner, Jürgen (2018-05-02). "Wednesday, May 2, 2018 - Today 10 years ago". Stiftunglife. Health: News on Swimming Doctors and Eye Surgeries (in German). Stiftunglife.
  31. ^ Schreiber, Kalayar; Schoeneich, Heinrich; Gessner, Jürgen (2009-04-01). ""Swimming Doctors" in the Burmese delta region". Current Reports (in German). INTERPLAST-Germany e.V. Munich Section. Archived from the original on 2021-05-14. Retrieved 2018-05-18.
  32. ^ Kovacs, L.; Zimmermann, A.; Wawrzin, H.; Seitz, H.; Schwenzer, K.; Papadopulos, N.A.; Brockmann, G.; Zeilhofer, H. F.; Biemer, E.; Schoeneich, H. (2004). "Possibilities of computer-assisted surgery planning for complex reconstructions after deep facial burns. - A case report" (PDF) (in German). INTERPLAST Germany e.V. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-01-23. Retrieved 2017-11-22.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  33. ^ Preuk, Monika (2006-03-21). "Facial reconstruction - World's first nose built with human tissue". FOCUS Online (in German). Retrieved 2018-08-29.
  34. ^ zm online (2006-07-16). "A new face molded from patients' own abdominal tissue. Surgeons boost quality of life. - Microsurgeons at TU Munich reshape the disfigured face of a Chinese girl". Issue 14/2006 (in German). zm – Zahnärztliche Mitteilungen. Retrieved 2017-05-28.[permanent dead link]
  35. ^ ProSieben (2008-11-24). "10 years 10 heroes: New face for Xiao". Gallileo (in German). ProSieben. Retrieved 2017-05-29.
  36. ^ ProSieben (2013-11-22). "The girl with the new face". Gallileo (in German). ProSieben. Retrieved 2017-05-29.
  37. ^ Alamuti, Nuri (2006). "Xuzhou China, Northern Jiangsu Province" (PDF). Annual Report 2006, Issue 21 (in German). INTERPLAST-Germany e.V. pp. 75 ff. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-01-23. Retrieved 2018-08-28.
  38. ^ ARD (2011-09-05). "Program Overview - Operation Peace". ARD TV-Program (in German). Richard C. Schneider. Retrieved 2017-09-09.
  39. ^ Schneider, Richard C. (2018), Everyday Life in a State of Emergency - My View of Israel; chapter: Filming with Plastic Surgeon Heinz Schoeneich: pp. 185 f. (in German), Deutsche Verlagsanstalt München, ISBN 978-3-641-16321-1
  40. ^ "Zeil um Zehn", Being Alice Schwarzer's guest, topic: Transsexuality. Hesse Broadcasting, January 15, 1993. hr-recording service, telephone information from November 3, 2017.
  41. ^ Talkshow, Bavarian Broadcasting, First aired 16 November 2001. BR-recording service, telephone information from November 16, 2017.
  42. ^ "Johannes B. Kerner – Episode dated 15 March 2002". IMDb – Movie/TV/Celebrity-Database. Amazon.com. 2002-03-15. Retrieved 2017-11-05.
  43. ^ Schramm, Andrea. "Under the Skin – The second life of Dr. Schoeneich". Portfolio (in German). Schramm Matthes Film. Retrieved 2017-10-29.
  44. ^ Die Abendschau, Heinrich Schoeneich – Bavarian of the Year, December 21, 2006, Bayerischer Rundfunk. BR-recording service, telephone information from November 16, 2017.
  45. ^ "Program information" (in German). Südwestrundfunk. 2008-05-17. Retrieved 2017-11-05.
  46. ^ Podcast, First broadcast September 12, 2010, rerun January 1, 2011. Listener service BR-Radio, telephone information from November 17, 2017.
  47. ^ ARD (2011-09-05). "Program information – Operation Peace". ARD TV-Program (in German). Richard C. Schneider. Retrieved 2017-09-09.
  48. ^ "Plastic Surgery: Between Beauty Mania and Reality". SPIEGEL TV – Excerpt (in German). Der SPIEGEL. 2012-05-12. Retrieved 2017-11-06. Broadcast on May 16, 2012, 8:15pm, SPIEGEL TV THEMA
  49. ^ Miketta, Gaby (1996-11-25). "Plastic surgery - victim of the killer bacillus". Focus Online News - Health (in German). FOCUS Online Group. Archived from the original on 2018-12-21. Retrieved 2017-02-09.
  50. ^ Loerzer, Sven (2017-08-24). "Emergency medicine - When non-EU nationals are denied access to the healthcare system". Munich – Healthcare (in German). Süddeutsche Zeitung. Retrieved 2019-09-20.
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