Purpose <p>To investigate the relationship between ethics, history, and National Socialism on a&#xa0;fundamental level, this article examines the argumentative use of the concepts of “ethos” and “ethics” in debates concerning the Nazi past within West German medical journals after 1945.</p> Method <p>Methodologically, the analysis is based on an expanded history of concepts (“Begriffsgeschichte”), which focuses on the use of language in specific historical communicative situations.</p> Results <p>The analysis shows that “ärztliche Ethik” and “ärztliches Ethos” (often used synonymously at the time) were widely invoked to fend off criticism of medical malpractice during the Nazi era and deflect criticism from the medical profession. This occurred within a&#xa0;mode of argumentation, the focal points of which were psychologizing perspectives and notions of an unalterable, timeless ethos, that was therefore considered untainted by the crimes committed. The study reveals that speaking and writing about ethics fulfilled distinct social and (professional) political functions.</p> Conclusion <p>For the history of ethics and medicine, it is central to recognize not only the historicity of both but also to understand their sociopolitical situatedness and the dynamics of temporalized modes of argumentation. This includes both processes of historicization and claims of timelessness. With regard to the present, the article proposes a&#xa0;systematic focus on the linguistic–pragmatic dimension and the temporal structure of medical ethical discourses in the sense of interdisciplinary conceptual research.</p>