George G. Eitel

George Gotthilf Eitel (September 28, 1858 – February 8, 1928) was an American surgeon who designed and built Eitel Hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1912. Eitel was its chief of staff for fifteen years until 1927, after which he was called proprietor.

Eitel sold books door-to-door for two years to finance his education in medicine. In 1885, he entered Minnesota Hospital College in Minneapolis and graduated three years later with honors. Then he studied at the University of Berlin for a year, and after his return to the U.S., he practiced surgery for two years in Centralia, Washington. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania medical school in 1891.

Eitel Hospital

The Minneapolis Journal first announced plans in 1906 and later published various renderings of his proposed hospital. Construction started in March 1911 and it opened in January 1912 with room for 100 patients. It cost $190,000 to build along with a training school for nurses. Sun porches had Navajo rugs and private rooms had brass beds and mahogany furniture. His wife Jeannette Eitel directed the nursing school.

The Eitels lived in an apartment accessible from the 14th Street entrance. As the hospital prospered, it expanded. To the south, an apartment building was renamed the Eitel Apartments. Next door at 1407–1409 Willow, Eitel built the six-story Eitel Clinic in 1926.

Persecution After the U.S. entered World War I, Eitel and his wife were the subject of anti-German persecution and wild rumors. According to The Medical Fortnightly, in one 24-hour period reports emerged that:

Eugenics Minnesota's eugenics law of 1925, targeting the institutionalized intellectually disabled and insane, sought to stop the births of children who might become public dependents. Eitel lobbied the Minnesota legislature in January 1925; his letter on Eitel Hospital stationery called the "feeble minded, epileptic or insane" a "most unfortunate and very expensive class of citizens...." Molly Ladd-Taylor writes that "the responsibilities of the [other] medical men were more professional and longer-lasting," noting that of course "a surgeon was necessary to perform" the sterilizations. in Faribault from 1926 until his death in 1928, amounting to 150 operations. His work was praised at the time. Eitel's nephew, Dr. George D. Eitel, succeeded him and with A. L. Herman and David Stern performed nearly a thousand sterilizations. Through 1945, 80 percent of those sterilized at the school were female. In actuality, the women diagnosed as "feeble minded" may have experienced disability, poverty, family violence, incest, or sexual abuse.

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