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Ludwig Guttmann and the birth of the Paralympics

As this year’s Paralympics return to Tokyo, the city where they were first held in 1964, Lalita Kaplish and Christy Henshaw explore the remarkable life and legacy of neurosurgeon Ludwig Guttmann, who organised the first “paraplegic games” in 1948.

Words by Lalita Kaplishwords by Christy Henshaw

  • In pictures
Black and white photographic print of Stoke Mandeville Hospital, showing a boxy concrete building with lots of rectangular windows. There are rose bushes in front of the building and a woman in a dress holding a bag is standing on the path that leads towards the open glass double doors.
Photographs of Stoke Mandeville. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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The first official Paralympic Games were held in Tokyo in 1964, with an opening ceremony in front of 5,000 people. But the story of the Paralympian movement began at a provincial hospital in England in July 1948, on the same day as the opening of the Olympic Games in London. A small gathering of patients from Stoke Mandeville Hospital and a nearby veterans' centre competed in an archery tournament, organised by a visionary neurosurgeon with his own remarkable story.

Sepia photographic print of Ludwig Guttmann in his medical practice in the 1930s. Guttmann has wavy dark hair, glasses and a moustache just above his top lip. He is wearing a white, short-sleeved shirt and braces. He is wiping his hands on a light coloured cloth and appears to be smiling and looking away to the left of the image. Behind Guttman are lots of wall-mounted mirrors, taps and baskets on a tiled wall.
Early years: Ludwig Guttman alone. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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The man responsible for the Stoke Mandeville Games, as they became, was Ludwig Guttmann, who arrived in the UK as a refugee in 1939. Guttmann had trained as a neurosurgeon in Germany and had a successful career at Breslau University until the rise of the Nazis. In the UK, he initially worked at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, before he was asked to set up the National Spinal Injuries Centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, primarily to treat the injured from World War II. It was the first such specialist unit and is now one of the largest in the world.

Historic papers showing typewritten words on dull background with fold marks bisecting the paper vertically and horizontally. There are two official stamps on the document, one with the Nazi Reich eagle and swastika, and one with numbers that reads "fee stamp". The contents of the documents are as follows: Nr. 14154. Vorstehende Unterschrift des Ministerialrats Dr. A. Jung und das beigesetzte frühere Dienst= siegel des Ministeriums des Jnnern wird als echt be= stätigt. Die Approbation als Arzt ist aufgrund des § 1 der 4. Verordnung zum Reichsbürgergesetz vom 25.Juli 1938 - RGB1. I S. 969 - am 30. September 1938 erloschen. Karlsruhe, den 6. Februar 1939. Der Minister des Jnnern Jm Auftrag German Reich State of Wurttemberg Consulate of the United States of America at Stuttgart I, A. John Cope, Jr., Vice Consul of the United States of America at Stuttgart, German, duly commissioned and qualified, do hereby certify that Dr Sprauer, whose true signature and official seal are, respectively, subscribed and affixed to the foregoing certificate, was on the 6th day of February 1939 an Official of the Baden Ministry of the Interior at Karlsruhe, Germany, duly commissioned and qualified to whose official acts and faith and credit are due. For the contents of the annexed document to the Consulate assumes no responsibility. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and the deal of this Consulate this 15th day of February 1939. Vice Consul of the United States of America A. John Cope, Jr.
Leaving Germany. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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As a Jew in 1930s Germany, Guttmann contended with oppressive and discriminatory Nazi rule. His medical practice was restricted to the Jewish hospital in Breslau, where in November 1938, during the terror of Kristallnacht, he was able to save 60 Jewish people from detention by admitting them as patients to the hospital. In 1939 he and his family managed to escape Nazi Germany during an official trip to Portugal. On the return journey they stopped in England, where he obtained visas that allowed him and his family to leave Germany.

Black and white photograph showing two men playing wheelchair skittles. On the left, a white man leans down, gripping his wheelchair for balance using his left arm and reaching forward with a black skittle in his right hand, about to throw it. To his right sits a black man with his wheelchair pointing away from the throwing man, who is leaning around in his chair to watch. Behind are benches for spectators, one of whom is a bearded man in a Dallas Cowboys shirt holding a cigarette, and the other of which is a teenage boy in a dark tracksuit with white stripes running down the sleeves and front. A scoreboard in the background appears to indicate the score is 19:16.
Loose photographs of para-sports. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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At Stoke Mandeville, Guttmann promoted different methods of rehabilitation, including sport. He observed that, “Sport, complementary to work therapy, has proved invaluable in developing mental attitudes that are essential for any successful social reintegration, such as restoring activity of mind, self-confidence, self-dignity, comradeship and self-discipline…” With his colleague, he introduced darts, snooker, table tennis, skittles and archery into rehabilitation. They also developed a form of wheelchair polo and basketball.

Black and white photographic print showing a wheelchair basketball match. Lots of players are clustered close together in the photograph, looking up into the air. In the centre, a man wearing a dark number 8 shirt has his arms flung upwards as though he has just released the ball for a shot at the net. In the background, spectators seated in front of the brickwork walls look towards the action.
Loose photographs of para-sports. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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In the early days, people with paraplegia played against able-bodied competitors, both in wheelchairs. Participants with paraplegia had the upper hand in these games, according to Guttmann, “owing to the fact that his dexterity and co-ordination, due to the paralysis of his legs, is shifted into the trunk and arms, whilst the able-bodied had great difficulty in correlating the position of his legs with movements of arms and trunk”. From 1948, the “paraplegic games” became an annual event at Stoke Mandeville.

Black and white photographic print showing a black man on a weightlifting bench holding a large barbell above him with straight arms and clenched fists. A leg of a spotter or observer is just visible to the right, and behind the barbell and the weightlifter are an audience whose blurred faces lean forward, focusing on the competitor.
13th International Stoke Mandeville Games for the Paralysed, Tokyo, 1964: photograph album. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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In 1952 a team from the Netherlands attended the Games, making this the inaugural international event, and one of the first ever international sports competitions for disabled people. By 1956, 18 different nations participated, including the USA, Australia, Israel, South Africa, Malaya and Pakistan. In 1960 the International Olympic Committee took notice, and the 9th International Stoke Mandeville Games were held in Rome that year, following the Olympics. Although not an official Olympic event, they are considered by most to be the first Paralympic Games.

Photograph of a colour photographic print showing a man in a wheelchair competing in a Paralympic event. He is dressed in athletic clothes with a competitor number pinned to his front and back. His arms are raised behind him, caught mid action as he propels his wheelchair forwards. He has an expression of determination on his face. The background of the image and his arm are blurred in motion which gives the image an active, dynamic feeling.
Photograph album of Paralympic Games, Tokyo, 1964. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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At the 1964 Summer Paralympics (the 13th International Stoke Mandeville Games) in Tokyo, many more athletes took part than in the Rome games. They were the first to use the name ‘Paralympics’ too, although the term was not officially approved by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) until 1984. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the Stoke Mandeville tradition, Great Britain topped the medals table with 61 medals.

Black and white photographic print of a man skiing. He has one leg and one stump. He leans forward, gripping his poles, and snow sprays up from under his ski, indicating speed. His expression indicates concentration as he gazes off toward the bottom right of the image.
Loose photographs of para-sports. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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The first Winter Paralympics were held in 1976 in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden, with 198 participants from 16 countries. They competed in Alpine and Nordic skiing for amputees and visually impaired athletes, but there were no events for people with paraplegia. The link between the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games was firmly established in 1989 by the foundation of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) as the governing body of the Games.

Black and white photographic print of a parade. A woman in a kimono and a man in a dark blazer and white trousers lead the parade, and behind them follow row upon row of people in wheelchairs wearing tracksuits or suits. The front row of people in wheelchairs carries a banner that says SMG with a globe above the letter G. The street is lined with people in 1950s clothing, who watch the parading athletes. One man in the front left of the photograph is wearing a tracksuit and Converse sneakers and is taking photographs.
10th Anniversary of the International Stoke Mandeville Games: photograph album. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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While the Paralympic Games evolved to include athletes from all disability groups, the International Stoke Mandeville Games remained a multi-sport annual event primarily for wheelchair athletes. The name changed in 1997 to the World Wheelchair Games and is currently known as the International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports (IWAS) World Games. They are held every two years (except in years when there are Paralympic Games) in locations around the world.

Black and white photographic print of Sir Ludwig Guttmann, on the right of the photograph, meeting with four athletes sitting in wheelchairs. Guttman wears a dark suit and shoes and faces away from the camera and toward the athletes but you can see from his profile that the bespectacled man with light hair is smiling. The athletes hold sporting equipment. The woman on the left has a beaming smile and medal and wears her hair in a bun. She holds a bow across her lap. The woman who is second from left is also smiling and has two medals around her neck. She holds a fencing foil, as does Guttmann, who appears to be speaking with her and chuckling at the moment the photograph was taken. Next is a grinning man with dark hair wearing a medal and a shirt and tie. He has straps on his wrists and holds a bow. Slightly behind Guttmann in the photograph, there is another smiling woman who also appears to have a medal ribbon around her neck.
Sir Ludwig Guttmann with people affected by paraplegia. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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Guttmann continued to champion disability sports alongside a distinguished medical career. As well as being President of the International Stoke Mandeville Games, he founded the British Sports Association for the Disabled. In 1971 he welcomed the Queen to the opening of a new Sports Stadium at Stoke Mandeville, the home of the Games. Sir Ludwig Guttmann died in 1980, leaving a phenomenal legacy in both medicine and disability sports. In his memory, IWAS developed the Guttmann Games, which “only feature sports and events not currently on the Paralympic Games programme... to honour his incredible legacy in growing Para sports”.

All the images in this gallery are from the Ludwig Guttmann archive collection at Wellcome Collection. We are grateful to the Guttmann family for donating his archive, which contains documents and photographs spanning his life from his early career in Germany to his death in 1980, and for allowing us to make this collection publicly available online.

About the authors

Black and white headshot of Lalita Kaplish, digital editor.

Lalita Kaplish

(she/her)

Lalita is a digital content editor at Wellcome Collection with particular interests in the history of science and medicine and discovering hidden stories in our collections.

Black and white photograph of Christy Henshaw.

Christy Henshaw

Christy Henshaw manages Wellcome Collection’s digitisation programme. She is constantly amused and mystified by the collections and works with her team to make them available freely to all.