[2] As a Jew, he was fired from his position as the University of Freiburg's Clinical Department of Neurology during the Nazi regime.
[1][7] He authored more than 150 papers and four books and made many significant discoveries in the area of clinical signs of neurological conditions.
[6] He was removed from the position at the University of Freiburg's Clinical Department of Neurology due to the Nazi Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service.
[3][1] Wartenberg helped found the American Academy of Neurology,[2] and served on the editorial boards of Confina Neurologica and The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease.
[2][11][4] One of his colleagues stated of him that "The perfectionist drive led him at times into trouble, for he became notorious as a trenchant and hypercritical reviewer whose strictures often caused serious offence.
[2][1][4][11] Wartenberg was an honorary member of neurological societies in Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Brazil, and Argentina.
[13][1][4] These included such signs as: He was also the first person to identify Cheiralgia paresthetica, also known as handcuff neuropathy or as Wartenberg’s syndrome.
[15] While he did not invent it, he found it "an indispensable part of the outfit for everyday neurologic practice," and recommended its use to his colleagues in the US.
[2][3] Following a period of poor health in his final years,[2] Wartenberg died of a "heart ailment" at Herbert C. Moffitt Hospital on Nov. 16, 1956 at age 69.