Dr. Horst Frenkel, a renowned neurologist at a sanitarium in Königstein (Hesse, Germany), had been witnessing an increase of nerve damage on his patients. He was able to connect the nerve damage with regular Contergan (Thalidomide) intake. After alerting Grünenthal about his findings, Grünenthal’s Dr. Günther Sievers and Dr. Gotthold Werner visited Dr. Frenkel to try to prevent him from publishing a negative article about Contergan in a medical journal. According to an article in Germany’s news magazine “Der Spiegel” Werner and Sievers tried to change Frenkel’s by referring to the “spectacular” test results they were able to achieve through clinical trials and tests on animals.

Dr. Frenkel’s article was still published, in May 1961.

In the same month another article in another medical journal was published, this time by Prof. Werner Scheid, the director of the University Neurology Clinic in Cologne. Scheid wrote about the “side of effects on the nerve system”, that were directly connected to a regular Contergan intake.

Source: Der Spiegel: Zuckerplätzchen forte, August 16, 1961.