Out on a Limb: Military Medicine, Heinrich von Kleist, and the Disarticulated Body Stefani Engelstein University of Chicago "Nichts kan natiirlicher als die allgemein herrschende Neigung seyn, lieber zu sterben, als dasAbschneiden groBer Glieder geme und willig ausstehen zu wollen," Johann Ulrich Bilguer, a surgeongeneral in the Prussian army, wrote in his 1761 Abhandlung von dem sehr seltenen Gebrauch, oder, der beynahe gdnzlichen Vermeidung des Ablosens der menschlichen Glieder.1 The abhorrence of this operation,according to his description, extended beyond the individual patient throughout society, affecting, or even infecting,anyone who "solche wahmimmt, die sich nur mehraufihre Stelzen lehnen, als damit fortschreiten k6nnen" (19). By 1812, however, KarlFerdinand Graefe, a professor of surgery at the University of Berlin and instructor at the Royal Medical-Surgical Academy for the Military, insisted that boththevisualand functional impact of amputation had beeneliminated with the replacement of the rickety and conspicuous peg-leg by a prosthesis so advanced that"dasverlohrene Glied durch ihn vollkommenzu ersetzenist. Alle, denen ich den Unterschenkel abnahm, gebrauchen den kiinstlichen so, dafB man in den Bewegungen zwischen dem natiirlichen undjenem, keinen Unterschied auffinden kann."2 Therefore "Den gutgefertigten kiinstlichen Unterschenkel gebrauchen die Amputirten so, daBsie den Verlust des Gliedes gar nicht vermissen" (18). Hidden within the startling alteration inmedical opinion which thejuxtaposition of these two comments, issued a mere fifty years apart, reveals, lie implications which reachfar beyond this particular operation and beyond the medical field as a whole. The prosthesis is a symptom of and a catalyst for the shiftingperceptions and evaluations of the "natural" in general and the human body specifically. Simultaneously it occupies a uniquemediating position both between the medical and militarycommunities, and between these institutions and the culture at large. The most visible and lasting remnant of battle, the amputee is also a testament to both the prowess andthe limitations of medical technology. Fluctuating between German Studies Review, Vol. 23, No. 2 (May, 2000), pp. 225-244