Alfred Leopold

Alfred Leopold (born September 16, 1852 in Klagenfurt am Wörthersee , † September 21, 1933 there ) was an Austrian physician .

Alfred Leopold is one of the founders of the health resort Pörtschach am Wörther See in the last quarter of the 19th century. Since the 1850s, a paddle steamer has been running on the lake according to the schedule, which also called at Pörtschach, the 1860s brought the connection to the monarchy's railway network , in 1882 Ernst Wahliss bought the property of the troubled Wörtherseebad AG and began to design the peninsula by mooring of parks and promenade paths. The construction of villas and the establishment of a large restaurant turned the fishing village into a spa, while the Klagenfurt doctor Leopold created special spa facilities and took care of the medical care of the spa and summer guests.

Alfred Leopold was born on September 16, 1852 in Klein-Freyenthurn near Klagenfurt, graduated from high school at the age of 17 , studied medicine in Graz and got a job as a secondary doctor at the general hospital in Klagenfurt. Serious lung disease forced him to quit his job. In an almost hopeless condition, he let himself be carried on a stretcher to Pörtschach am Wörther Seebringen , where, contrary to all expectations, his condition improved and he finally made it towards recovery. The young doctor stayed in the village, built a health resort, a hot bathing facility and a villa. In 1897 he also set up a pharmacy . In order to collect ideas, he had looked around Merano , Bozen , the Riviera and Lake Garda . Before buying the cure aid, he had consulted doctors in Paris , Rome and Vienna . Leopold was the first to own an X-ray machine . In his institution he treated nervous and metabolic diseases. To offer medical treatment were sunlamps , blue light baths, ozone inhalation, massage and electrical obesity treatments. Outside the season, the “larynx and ear doctor” ordained in the mezzanine of the Rainerhof in Klagenfurt. The new spa methods could also be used in his city practice.

Rainerhof on Neuer Platz in Klagenfurt

In 1908 he wrote the brochure 50 Years of Pörtschach , in which he describes the development into a modern health resort.

During the First World War, Leopold headed the electrical healing department in the Marianum military hospital for several years. For his services, the physician received the title of Imperial Councilor and the Knight's Cross of the Franz Joseph Order .

Since tourism collapsed as a result of the war and Leopold himself had grown old, he sold the Pörtschach health resort and limited himself to his practice in Klagenfurt, where he looked after the patients until 1930.

In Pörtschach he was on the municipal council from 1878 to 1917 . He also worked in the regional association for tourism . He was a committee member of the music association for Carinthia. Leopold was a great music lover and a good piano player. His wife Anna was the school director and died in May 1925. He died at the age of 81 on September 21, 1933. The funeral took place in Annabichl.

Publications

• 50 years of Pörtschach. Klagenfurt 1908.