Medizin, Gesellschaft, und Geschichte : Jahrbuch des Instituts fur Geschichte der Medizin der Robert Bosch Stiftung最新文献

This essay tries to show that, in the Berlin of the Weimar Republic, Protestant hospitals were built not only to relieve the suffering of the population, but also out of a sense of inferiority to a reinvigorated Catholicism. Hospitals were consequently not only places of care and healing but also of denominational self-assertion. Based on Olaf Blaschke's thesis of a "second denominational age," this contribution tries to demonstrate that the responsible Protestant agents did not make anti-Catholic proclamations at every occasion and in all the media. The founders of the "Protestant Hospital Building Association," which this essay investigates, made deliberate use of anti-Catholic resentment, expressing it boldly when approaching the Protestant elites, while playing it down deliberately when addressing the people of Berlin. With a view to the severe economic crisis and mass unemployment prevailing from 1930, they justified the building of new hospitals with the need to create work places, without making recourse to the denomination argument. The political situation, the addressees and the hope for economic success seem to have informed the representation of denominational resentments decisively. Confessionalism therefore seemed to have been not as much a question of ideology as one of strategy.

This essay explains the nomination and evaluation procedure for the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. Its research is based on original files and on the example of August Karl Gustav Bier (1861-1949). It discusses the minutes of the Nobel Committee for physiology or medicine, which are kept in the Nobel Archives, as well as the unusually high number of nominations of August Bier and the nominations submitted by him; it also describes the reasons why August Bier, in the end, never received the Nobel Prize. The essay focuses mainly on the reception of Bier's homeopathic theses by the Nobel Prize Committee and his nominators.

The fact that, due to demographic changes, gerontology and geriatrics are gaining ever more importance gives rise to more questions regarding the history of the science of aging. Based on unpublished sources and relevant publications by Max Bürger, the doyen of gerontological research in Germany, our contributions trace the beginnings of age research in Germany. Our results confirm Bürger as the dominant expert in this field in the first decades of its emergence. Bürger was primarily interested in basic medical-scientific research, and less in clinical geriatrics. His scientific goal was not to establish a medicine for the elderly but a theory of life changes ("biomorphosis"). From the start, he saw aging as a physiological process--a view that is still valid today. His concept of "biomorphosis", however, did not catch on and reveals a constriction in Bürger's thinking, which was to some extent influenced by Hans Driesch's vitalism. Interdisciplinary approaches are noticeable in the natural sciences rather than the humanities or social sciences. Bürger's research was also influenced by the political system he lived in. During National Socialism, which Bürger joined--at least formally--in 1937, his research into labour economics and aging met with considerable interest in connection with the general mobilisation of resources. East Germany also had an interest in questions of labour productivity in old age and the extension of the working life, which meant that Bürger remained a sought-after physician and scientist up into the 1960s. As he grew older himself, Bürger's initially deficit-oriented view of old age gave way to a more positive presentation that attached greater weight to the resources of old age.

Nosodes and sarcodes (homeopathic remedies gained primarily from disease products respectively organs of human or animal origin) are groups of drugs which were added to the homeopathic Materia Medica in the 1830s. Most substances used in nosode or sarcode therapy have a long medical tradition, with some even going back to the pre-Christian period. My contribution first describes therapeutic practices that use these substances and then juxtaposes them with their use in the early days of homeopathic nosode and sarcode therapy. The investigation shows, on the one hand, that there are aspects common to both approaches that go far beyond the mere choice of substances. On the other hand, it demonstrates the effect the inclusion of human or animal body substances in the homeopathic Materia Medica has had on homeopathy, as their use is no longer in line with what is considered rational.

Once it had become apparent that tuberculosis sanatoriums were unable to stop this widespread disease, out-patient tuberculosis clinics were established for patients and their relatives in the German Reich. These clinics, which started in the late nineteenth century, employed physicians and tuberculosis nurses. The nurses were generally community or parish nurses, specialized carers not being trained until later. On the one hand, their tasks included the work at these clinics, where they assisted the physician, admitted patients and carried out x-rays and lab tests. On the other hand--and this was their main task--they visited the sick and their families at home, informed them about tuberculosis, instructed them on questions of hygiene and the appropriate behaviour and made sure these instructions were adhered to. If they were able to offer material help as well, they were received more willingly--and they could only make their visits with a patient's consent. Due to the lack of tuberculosis medicines, the work of the tuberculosis nurses was a mainstay in the fight against this highly infectious disease. They often had to overcome the resistance of general practitioners and also of some patients and their families. But they loved doing their job because they were appreciated by the tuberculosis doctors, had a relatively high degree of freedom, authority and responsibility as health visitors and achieved visible results through personal commitment.

This contribution first introduces the factors that supported the development of parish nursing before going on to explain the diverse organizational concepts involved and their development over time. It looks at the various Catholic and Protestant as well as secular institutions active in this field. The article then discusses the manifold tasks, fields of work and approaches to problem-solving that were characteristic of parish nursing. The various cultural, social and religious problems that the parish nurses had to contend with on a daily basis are also presented, including the increasing competition with other professional groups. The article concludes by looking at the standing of parish nurses in society and the advantages and disadvantages of parish nursing as opposed to hospital nursing from the point of view of the parish nurses themselves.

The problem of anonymous or confidential deliveries, a subject of current controversy, has a long history. Some maternity hospitals offered the possibility for "clandestine" births as early as the 18th and 19th century. A recently emerged source about the maternity clinic of Göttingen University allows insight into the motives that led to keeping a birth secret and the consequences of such a clandestine birth for mother, father and child. The director of the institution, a professor of obstetrics, wrote case reports on the women, who paid a handsome sum for his help and the in-patient care they received. In return, these women could be admitted under a pseudonym, and thus falsify their child's birth certificate; moreover they were not used as teaching material for medical students and midwife apprentices, whereas "regular" patients had to give their names and, in return for being treated free of charge, be available for teaching purposes. The ten cases that have been painstakingly investigated reveal that the reasons that led the women and men to opt for an anonymous birth were manifold, that they used this offer in different ways and with different consequences. All of these pregnancies were illegitimate, of course. In one case the expectant mother was married. In several cases it would be the father who was married. Most of the women who gave birth secretly seem to have given the professor their actual details and he kept quiet about them--with the exception of one case where he revealed the contents of the case report many years later in an alimony suit. Only one of the men admitted paternity openly, but many revealed their identity implicitly by registering the pregnant woman or by accompanying her to the clinic. If the birth was to be kept secret the child needed to be handed over to foster parents. By paying a lump sum that covered the usual fourteen years of parenting, one mother was able to avoid any later contact with her son. In most cases contact seems to have been limited to the payment of this boarding money. One of the couples married later and took in the twins that had been born clandestinely out of wedlock. One mother kept close contact with her son through intermediaries. All of the women who gave birth in this clandestine fashion received practical as well as financial support, often from the child's father or from a relative. Few of them came by themselves. In those days, only women who used the maternity hospital free of charge would have been as isolated in the difficult perinatal period as are women today who choose to deliver their babies anonymously.

In 1908, in collaboration with the Bnei Briss, the German Association of Israelite Communities founded an institution for intellectually disabled Jewish children in Beelitz with the aim of educating 7-14-year-olds, using therapeutic pedagogy. The institution was part of the philanthropic efforts undertaken by German Jewry in that period. It was set up in the wake of the German Kaiser's call to found more philanthropic institutions, and its establishment is indicative of the efforts at integration being made by German Jewry. In their fund-raising material, the German Association of Israelite Communities stressed the "loyalty and patriotism" of German Jewry and described the establishment of the institution as "a humanitarian duty" and "a matter of honour for German Jewry". It was, therefore, demands from the non-Jewish world that led to the foundation of a Jewish institution; however, its establishment was also symbolic of the struggle against anti-Semitism and indicative both of German Jewry's dissimilation and their efforts at integration. The article investigates the struggle of Jewish parents to have their children admitted to the institution, the philosophy and teaching methods of the director Sally Bein (1881-1942) and his wife Friederike Rebeka Bein (1883-1942), the background of the students, the causes of intellectual disability, as well as the disagreements that occurred between parents, teachers and the director. The article also discusses the successes and failures of therapeutic pedagogy.

The "Spanish Flu" began in 1918 and was the most devastating pandemic in human history that had ever been, claiming more lives than World War I. The flu virus had not yet been discovered, and the usual therapy measures were merely symptomatic. In many parts of the world the pandemic was treated by homeopaths. At the time, homeopathic medical practices, out-patient clinics and hospitals existed in various countries. To this day homeopaths refer to the successful homeopathic treatment of the "Spanish Flu". The following paper looks at what this treatment consisted in and whether it was based on a particular concept. It also examines contemporary evaluations and figures, as well as the question as to whether homeopathy experienced a rise in demand as a consequence of its success during the pandemic.