Alfred Bielschowsky

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Alfred Bielschowsky

Alfred Bielschowsky (born December 11, 1871 in Namslau , Namslau district , † January 5, 1940 in New York ) was a German ophthalmologist , professor of ophthalmology and a secret medical councilor . He is one of the most important strabismus researchers of the 20th century, is the author of publications on the subject of " strabismus treatment " and co-founder of the German Institute for the Blind .

Life

Alfred Bielschowsky was born to Jewish parents. After attending the royal high school in Glatz , he studied medicine at the universities of Berlin , Heidelberg , Breslau and Leipzig . He received his doctorate in Berlin in 1893. Bielschowsky became a student and assistant to ophthalmology professor Hubert Sattler at the Leipzig Eye Clinic. During this time, Bielschowsky also worked in Ewald Hering's Physiological Institute , which among other things dealt with the physiology of vision, and developed a deep friendship with his colleague Emil Krückmann . In 1900 he completed his habilitation in Leipzig at the Medical Faculty for ophthalmology and was appointed private lecturer . He was appointed associate professor in 1906. In 1907 he wrote his main work "The Motility Disorders of the Eyes According to the State of the Latest Research" as a contribution to the "Handbook of Ophthalmology" by Graefe- Saemisch.

In 1912 he received the call of the medical faculty in Marburg to the chair of ophthalmology. During the First World War all his strength was required as a doctor for the many seriously wounded and blind soldiers. He accepted the challenge and set up courses for the war blind . In 1915 the reserve officer set up 36 beds there for soldiers who had been blinded by shrapnel or poison gas . It quickly became clear to him that medical rehabilitation alone was not enough. So he hired the young student Carl Strehl at which the Kriegsblinden in the - after the French pedagogue Louis Braille named - Braille instructed. Bielschowsky, Strehl and other notables in Berlin founded the “Association of Blind Academics in Germany” (today: German Association of the Blind and Visually Impaired in Study and Work ), the aim of which was to set up a study institute and library for the blind. After the establishment of the "University Library, Study Institute and Advice Center for Blind Students eV" ( German Study Institute for the Blind ) in 1916, Bielschowsky was its honorary director until April 1, 1923. Strehl took over the management. For his commitment, Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg honored him with the Iron Cross on a white ribbon and Kaiser Wilhelm II with the character of a secret medical advisor .

From 1923 to 1934 Bielschowsky was full professor and director of the eye clinic at the University of Breslau ; at his own request he was released from his official duties on September 30, 1934. The background was anti-Semitic student protests against him and the fact that his name was removed from the list of editors of Graefes Archiv für Ophthalmologie and the Zentralblatt der Complete Ophthalmologie. Political changes forced him to continue teaching and research in the United States of America .

In the USA, his scientific and didactic qualities were in great demand. Especially for him to set up in 1937 in Hanover (New Hampshire) at Dartmouth College , the Dartmouth Eye Institute , where he successfully conducted research and taught until his death.

Namesake

Web links

literature

  • Leo Norpoth:  Bielschowsky, Alfred. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1955, ISBN 3-428-00183-4 , p. 227 ( digitized version ).
  • Alfred Bielschowsky (1871 - 1940) A life for strabology . Inaugural dissertation from the human medicine department of the Justus Liebig University, Giessen (printing approved in October 1994), submitted by Angelika K. Kaufmann, German university publications ISBN 3-8267-1042-8 , Verlag Hänsel-Hohenhausen Egelsbach-Frankfurt-Washington
  • Werner E. Gerabek : Alfred Bielschowsky. In: Werner E. Gerabek, Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte . De Gruyter, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 176.
  • AK Kaufmann: Alfred Bielschowsky (1871–1940). A life for strabology. Egelsbach 1994.
  • Bielschowsky, Alfred , in: Werner Röder; Herbert A. Strauss (Ed.): International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Emigrés 1933-1945 . Volume 2.1. Munich: Saur, 1983 ISBN 3-598-10089-2 , p. 105

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A. Bielschowsky: The paralysis of the eye muscles. Berlin 1932.
personal data
SURNAME Bielschowsky, Alfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German squint researcher (ophthalmology)
DATE OF BIRTH December 11, 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH Namslau , Namslau district
DATE OF DEATH January 5, 1940
Place of death new York