Erwin Villain

German physician, a prominent "party doctor" of the NSDAP (Nazi Party), remembered infamously as a sadistic Sturmabteilung (SA) leader who viciously tortured political opponents.

Villain actively participated in the First World War with the Reserve Infantry Regiment 202 from May 1917. In August that year, he was seriously injured by a shell so that he had to remain in hospital for treatment for the rest of the war. In the summer semester of 1918, Villain enrolled at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin to study medicine. His fellow students at the university included Villain's later rival Leonardo Conti.

Villain passed the preliminary medical examination in Easter 1920 and passed the state medical examination in December 1923. He received his licence to practise medicine on 23 December 1924.

In the spring of 1925 Villain concluded his studies with a M.D. at the Friedrich Wilhelm University. In his dissertation, completed on 30 March 1925, Villain dealt with the question of pigment excretion in the stomach.

After completing his studies, Villain practised in Berlin, joining the NSDAP (Nazi party) there in the late 1920s and also the NSDAP party army, the so-called Sturmabteilung (SA). As a member of the National Socialist Medical Association (NSDÄB), Villain endeavoured to implement National Socialist ideas in the professional network of the Berlin medical profession.

In November 1931 Villain was elected to the Berlin Medical Association together with Conti, now also a prominent "party doctor" of the NSDAP.

In 1933-1934, Villain participated in the elimination of political opponents of National Socialism and in particular in measures against Jewish doctors in his area of ​​responsibility (Köpenick, Treptow and Lichtenberg). Villain was also associated with the Reichstag fire in February 1933, rumoured to have been the leader of a raiding party said to have started the fire.