Hans Kraus

Hans Kraus (1905 to 1996) was an Austrian-born physician who built his career in New York City as a specialist in fracture care, back pain and therapeutic exercise. He studied medicine in Vienna, qualified as an orthopedic surgeon, and developed a philosophy of treatment he called immediate mobilization, which he applied to all kinds of athletes and became especially well known for among skiers. With Sonja Weber he devised the Kraus-Weber test and a set of exercises meant to relieve back pain. His warnings about children getting too little exercise led to the creation of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports under Eisenhower, and in 1961 he became President Kennedy's back doctor. He is counted among the fathers of sports medicine and of physical medicine and rehabilitation, and he was also a pioneer of modern rock climbing.