Bernhard Christoph Faust

Bernhard Christoph Faust

Bernhard Christoph Faust (born May 23, 1755 in Rotenburg an der Fulda ; † January 25, 1842 in Bückeburg ) was a German doctor, obstetrician and health educator. He wrote the first health catechism for use in schools and in home teaching , a medical education pamphlet. In addition, he dealt with the improvement of obstetrics, the medical system during the war and the introduction of the smallpox vaccination . He founded a new conception of architecture , the theory of solar construction , which deals with the relationship between the state of health and living conditions.

Life

origin

His father Otto Christoph Faust came from a traditional family of doctors and was a physician in the city and office of Rotenburg an der Fulda , his mother Sophie Elise was the daughter of the local office director Hilchen.

Medical career

After studying in Kassel and Göttingen , Faust received his doctorate in Rinteln on July 19, 1777 as Doctor Medicinae. He then received an intensive six-month obstetric training at the Kassel Accouchier- und Findelhaus with Georg Wilhelm Stein the Elder (1737-1803). After returning to his hometown Rotenburg, he took over the practice of his father, who died young. The first publications on obstetrics followed. In autumn 1785 Faust moved to Altmorschen on the Fulda. During these years he made formative experiences on “the poverty and misery of the people”. In 1786 he became a rural physician in Vacha .

After a first meeting in 1787 with Princess Juliane zu Schaumburg-Lippe , a born princess of Hesse-Philippsthal, the Princess appointed him her personal physician and Graflich-Schaumburg-Lippische Hofrat in Bückeburg in 1788, when Faust met him on a trip to Switzerland Doctor Simon Auguste André Tissot . From 1792–1794 he wrote the health catechism, which was later translated into many European languages, on “orders and in lively exchange with the princess”. In the autumn of 1794 Faust traveled to Arnheim / Holland, where a position had been taken against the French. At the sight of the suffering of the inadequately cared for war wounded, he was shocked. In 1798 he met the famous doctor Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland .

On a trip to Hanover in September 1800 there was a lively exchange of expertise with the German pioneers of cowpox vaccination , Christian Friedrich Stromeyer and Georg Friedrich Ballhorn . In 1802 Faust made an educational trip to England, where he attended the largest London maternity hospital, the Lying-in Hospital, St Thomas' Hospital and lectures by the famous surgeon Henry Cline (1750-1827).

Prince educator and gymnastics father from Lower Saxony

As Counts-Schaumburg-Lippscher educator he built in Bückeburg in 1817 the first gymnasium in Lower Saxony . Even if this was forbidden for free gymnastics in Germany by the gymnastics lock , he could have it built for gymnastics and the education of princes. He wanted to combat the lack of exercise in the noble classes. Since he used antiquity as a model for this in galenic medicine (and here especially the summary of Mercurialis De Arte gymnastica ), he mainly resorted to the practice material of antiquity. In the development of movement therapy , Faust did not bring about any major innovations, but he did bring together the knowledge of antiquity and modern times. For his services to the development of physical exercises in Lower Saxony, he was accepted into the gallery of honor of the Lower Saxony Institute for Sports History in 1988.

Architectural theory

Through his medical work, he looked for ways to alleviate the suffering of his fellow human beings. Inspired by the writings of ancient thinkers like Plato or Vitruvius , who had already dealt with questions of architectural theory, he developed his theory of solar construction . The focus was on planning cities and villages. A clever arrangement, better building materials, the supply of light and air by means of a south-facing orientation should enable healthy living. Aesthetic and social aspects, such as moving the houses back from the street, creating lawns and supervised children's playgrounds , were also taken into account. The Faustian solar construction theory was implemented by the Munich architect Gustav Vorherr , as the two were also friendly. The Sonnenstrasse in the center of Munich was created according to these rules and named after them.

The key phrase for this was formulated by Faust in the spring of 1825 as a dedication in a copy of the solar building theory from the possession of Gustav Vorherr in the Munich City Archives as follows: “He helps promote and increase solar building all over the world; teach in every house - that it should become a temple for man - receive the sun; help, as an architect, as in the oldest and Roman and Edwin's in York times, to combine cubes and brotherly love, help and loyalty freely and firmly in one; Establish, as he began in Germany and in part has already done, a large, orderly connection between master builders from all over the world and that public associations for building and national beautification are formed everywhere. "

The Bernhard Christoph Faust Medal

Every two years the Bernhard-Christoph-Faust-Medal is awarded to a maximum of three people by the Ministry for Family, Youth and Health of the State of Hesse. It is intended as an award for people who, in particular in practical health promotion with exemplary commitment, have been active in health promotion for many years in addition to their professional duties or part-time and who sustain the health of both individuals and the general public in accordance with the goals of the World Health Organization ( WHO ) have promoted.

Publications

• Investigation of the defense of the separation of the pelvic legs in difficult births . - Gotha: Ettinger, 1780. Digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf
• Health Catechism for use in schools and home teaching . With woodcuts, Bückeburg 1794
• About the cattle plague (cattle disease, solvent drought), which is caused solely by infection. Leipzig 1797. Digitized in the digital library Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
• Public institutions: eradicate the leaves by inoculating the cowpox. In addition to the oldest document from the cowpox and an accompanying folk script: Call to the people . Buckeburg 1804
• Dr. Faust's broken leg machine for the use of field lazareths . With a copper, Bückeburg, June 1815
• All man's houses should be directed towards the sun after noon . Fragments printed as handwriting
• Contribution to construction . Buckeburg 1830
• About healing cholera . Bückeburg, November 25, 1831
• Across water, railways and new cities to the sun . Bückeburg, Oct. 1833 (2nd edition)

literature

• Helene Dihle: Bernhard Christoph Faust and his time. In: Sudhoff's archive. Volume 24, 1963, pp. 283-311.
• Hans Dollinger : The Munich street names . Ludwig Verlag, 1999
• Reinhild Fuhrmann: The sex res non naturales. On the role of an ancient pattern of justification for physical exercises in the educational and medical discourse of the 18th century with special consideration of the "Lower Saxony gymnastics father" Dr. Bernhard Christoph Faust. 2004. ISBN 978-3-932423-17-8
• Hans Plessner: The solar theory of Dr. Bernhard Christoph Faust; a contribution to the history of hygiene in urban development . Dissertation from TH Berlin 1933
• Irmtraut Sahmland: Bernhard Christoph Faust 1755–1842. The catalog for the exhibition on the occasion of the 150th year of his death . Bückeburg 1992
• Irmtraut Sahmland: Faust, Bernhard Christoph. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 393
• Hans Schadewaldt :  Faust, Bernhard Christoph. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 33 f. ( Digitized version ).
• New nekrolog der Deutschen 1842, volume 20, part 1, p.117ff

Web links

• Portrait on aerzteblatt.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Werner Gottwald: On the life performance and personality of the Görlitz doctor Christian August Struve (1767–1807). In: Würzburg medical history reports. Volume 18, 1999, pp. 305-334; here: p. 316 f.
2. ^ Arnd Krüger : History of movement therapy, in: Preventive medicine . Heidelberg: Springer Loseblatt Collection 1999, 07.06, 1 - 22.