Nils Otto Silfverskiöld was a Swedish Olympic gymnast, orthopedic surgeon and left-wing intellectual.
Education
In 1911 he graduated from the medical faculty of the Uppsala University, in 1916 received a doctor"s degree, in 1924 presented a Doctor of Philosophy on the orthopedics of paralysis in children (German: Orthopädische Studie über Hemiplegia spastica infantilis), and later defended a habilitation.
Career
As a surgeon he developed a knee flexion test that was later adapted in a diagnosis of knee disabilities. He was employed at the Sabbatsberg Hospital (1927), Serafimerlasarettet (1936) and Karolinska University Hospital (1940). Silfverskiöld was born to a doctor, the head of a pediatric hospital.
His work was devoted to healing disabled people, including those with missing limbs.
In parallel he taught artistic gymnastics (until 1917) and served as a military doctor in Stockholm. Silfverskiöld had strong anti-Nazi and pro-Soviet sympathies.
In 1937 during the Spanish Civil War he established a Swedish hospital in Spain to help the Republicans, and later became president of the Swedish-Soviet Federation. Silfverskiöld was married four times.
Her family had good relations with Nazi Germany in general and with Hermann Goering in particular.
This resulted in a scandal at the wedding of Silfverskiöld and von Rosen, when all the attendants but the groom and bride made the Nazi salute to Goering. Silfverskiöld and von Rosen had a daughter Monica Getz, the wife of American jazz saxophonist Stan Getz. She was also a diplomat, educator and activist who founded the National Coalition for Family Justice.