Berthold von Kern

Berthold Kern , von Kern since 1913 (born December 5, 1848 in Münsterberg , † April 12, 1940 in Berlin ) was a German medical officer , university professor and philosopher .

Berthold von Kern - with the rank of lieutenant general

Life

He was the eldest son of the Prussian government secretary Gustav Kern. His grandfather Heinrich Wilhelm Gustav core was mayor in Lobsens .

After graduating from the Elisabet-Gymnasium , Kern first studied philosophy at the Silesian Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Breslau . However, he soon switched to medicine and was accepted as a trainee in the Medicinisch-Surgical Friedrich Wilhelm Institute . In 1907 he became active in the Pépinière Corps Franconia . In the Franco-Prussian War he took part in the siege of Metz as a subordinate hospital assistant . He graduated in 1872, the medical state examination and attained a doctorate to Dr. med. In the same year he became active in the Pépinière-Corps Suevo-Borussia .

Before his license to practice medicine in 1874, Kern worked as a junior doctor at the Royal Charité Hospital and in the Fusilier Regiment No. 38 . This was followed by the appointment as assistant doctor, then as staff and battalion doctor with the 5th Brandenburg Infantry Regiment No. 48 in Küstrin and the Infantry Regiment No. 76 in Lübeck , where Kern passed the regimental medical examination in 1886 and with Elsbeth von Roques- Maumont got married. In this year and in the previous year, Kern published the first treatises on ophthalmic topics.

From 1889, Kern was a regimental doctor with the 1st Badische Leib-Dragoons-Regiment No. 20 in Karlsruhe , where he received the patent as a first class medical officer in 1897 . In 1898 he became a division physician of the 28th Division of the XIV Army Corps , commanded by Paul von Hindenburg , was promoted to senior physician general (today's senior field physician) and served as chief physician of the Karlsruhe garrison hospital. The appointment as corps doctor of the II Army Corps in 1901 necessitated a move to Stettin . There the Kern adopted their previous foster children Helene (Ella) and Curt.

With Kern's appointment as sub-director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Academy for military medical education , the family moved to Berlin in 1903 , where Kern was awarded the rank of major general and he was appointed full professor of state medicine . During this time his first publications of philosophical content appeared. In 1909 he was relieved from the post of sub-director and appointed inspector of the 2nd Sanitary Inspection in Berlin. Kern, who in the meantime had become a senior general physician, took part in the imperial maneuvers as an army doctor in the army commands blue and red.

1910 he had the Friedrich-Wilhelms University in Berlin , the honorary doctorate of Dr. phil. hc awarded.

On June 16, 1913, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm II , Kern was elevated to the hereditary Prussian nobility . At its own request, the Prussian Army put it at disposal ; because he only wanted to devote himself to philosophical studies and publications. However, the outbreak of World War I brought reactivation with it. Kern was assigned to the 8th and later the 9th Army in East Prussia as an army doctor . In his capacity as field medical officer east, he was responsible for the entire medical system, including military medical care on the eastern front and the hinterland. Most recently he was awarded the rank of lieutenant general .

In the inter-war period , Kern emerged with further publications, among other things in defense of the humanistic grammar school . He devoted himself to a large part of his much-acclaimed lecturing in the Wednesday company . On the occasion of his 90th birthday in 1938 he received the Goethe Medal for Art and Science , an award with which around 600 people were honored for their life's work on behalf of the Reich President between 1932 and 1944. In addition, in 1939 he was given the status of General Oberstabsarzt .

Publications

• War surgery of the organ of vision. Berlin 1890.
• Eye test boards; with special consideration of military medical use. Berlin 1904., 5th edition 1920.
• The essence of the human soul and spiritual life as the outline of a philosophy of thought. Berlin 1905. 2nd edition 1907.
• Beyond the limits of the forensic medical judgment on questions of sanity. Berlin 1906.
• The problem of life in critical treatment. Berlin 1909.
• The knowledge problem and its critical solution. Berlin 1910. 2nd edition 1911.
• Mental health treatment in its scientific basis. Berlin 1910.
• World views and knowledge of the world. Berlin 1911.
• About the origin of man's mental faculties. Berlin 1912.
• Ethics, knowledge, world views. Leipzig 1913.
• Introduction to the basic questions of aesthetics. Berlin 1913.
• Humanistic education and medical profession. Berlin 1913.
• Free will. Berlin 1914.
• Religion in its becoming and essence. Berlin 1919.
• The basic and final problems of knowledge. Berlin 1938.

literature

• Degener: who is it? 10th edition, Berlin 1935, p. 345.
• Dansauer: Berthold von Kern. In: The German military doctor 5. 256 (1940).
• Brandenburg: Obituary. Med Klin 36 (1940), p. 470.
• Obituary. In: Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift 90 (1940), p. 434.
• Fischer: Berthold von Kern. (Men from our ranks). Military Medical Monthly 21 (1977), 349.
• Voswinckel (ed.): Biographical lexicon of the outstanding doctors of the last fifty years. Hildesheim 2002, Volume 3, p. 776.
• Sachs (edit.): Historical medical dictionary for Silesia. Frankfurt am Main 2002, Volume 3, p. 231.

Web links

• Text introduction to the basics of aesthetics.
• Contribution to: Zeitschrift für Heereskunde. Issue 420.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1960, 60 , 444.
2. ↑ Dissertation: On the physiological influence of elevation .
3. ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1930, 68 , 68.
4. ^ Military weekly paper . No. 81 of June 19, 1913, p. 1865.