Carl Heinrich Rösch

Carl Heinrich Rösch around 1850

Carl Heinrich Rösch , in various sources also Karl Heinrich Rösch and without a nickname just Carl or Karl Rösch - born on October 19, 1807 in Schorndorf , Kingdom of Württemberg ; died December 13, 1866 in St. Louis , Missouri - was a German doctor and social reformer .

He founded as a senior medical officer of Oberamts Urach 1847, the sanatorium Mariaberg Modern, one of the first complex facilities Behindertenhilfe in German-speaking countries, which today - as now relatively large providers of social services and with refined design - under the name Maria Berg eV is known.

As a supporter of the democratic movement in the states of the German Confederation , Rösch lost his reputation with the Württemberg royal house , his most important client until then, after the suppression of the revolution of 1848/49 , and emigrated with his family to the United States in 1853 .

Live and act

Career as a doctor, researcher and reformer in the field of disability assistance

Carl Heinrich Rösch was born the son of Johann Georg Rösch, the preceptor of the Latin school in Schorndorf. His mother Johanna Carolina was the daughter of the Winnender city ​​pastor Johann Heinrich Hiemer. Johann Georg Rösch became a Protestant pastor in Faurndau in 1814 . Carl Heinrich first attended the Latin School in Göppingen and from 1821 the Evangelical Seminary in Blaubeuren . He then studied medicine at the University of Tübingen and received his doctorate in 1833 with a thesis on "general indications for bloodletting" under the supervision of Hermann Friedrich Autenrieth under his father, Johann Heinrich Ferdinand Autenrieth . At Autenrieth, Rösch learned to work empirically .

While still studying, he married Karoline Amalie Geyser in Tuttlingen , a 22-year-old businessman's daughter at the time. The marriage had ten children between 1831 and 1846, but one of them died in infancy.

In 1832 he got a job as a subordinate doctor in Schwenningen , where, in addition to his medical practice, he was also socially and culturally committed by founding a "temperance association" and a "citizens' museum" as an adult education center . In 1842 Rösch was promoted to senior medical officer in Urach . Right from the start of his professional career he was interested in disadvantaged population groups. He not only treated them in his practice, but also devoted himself theoretically researching their living conditions with the aim of improving them. In the 1830s, Rösch was the first to conduct empirical research into the causes and effects of alcoholism in the Kingdom of Württemberg . He published the results of his investigations in 1839 in the report The Abuse of Spiritual Beverages investigated in pathological, therapeutic, medical, police and judicial terms . In 1841 he was commissioned by King Wilhelm I of Württemberg to “investigate cretinism throughout the country on the spot”. One result of this investigation, during which he got access to parish registers, was that cretinism occurred more frequently in poorer families and that living in damp valleys favored the occurrence of the disease. There were places with so many "cretan, mentally weak, bad-hearing, deformed, cranked people" that it was difficult to get the annual troop contingent together. Rösch also found that the mother's consumption of brandy during pregnancy could lead to the outbreak of the disease. He also found a hereditary disposition to cretinism.

He found confirmation of his hypotheses in an exchange with Pastor Karl Georg Haldenwang , who had already founded the first disabled educational institution in southern Germany in 1838 in the Württemberg Black Forest community of Wildberg with the "Rescue House for Insane Children" , and in particular with the Swiss doctor Johann Jakob Guggenbühl , who, on the basis of his own research, advocated the promotion and healing of Cretan people in 1840 and in 1841 founded a "sanatorium for cretins and stupid children" on the Abendberg near Interlaken . On the basis of his research, Rösch developed a comprehensive social policy program to remedy the grievances. For the treatment of cretan people, he recommended the establishment of a sanatorium to promote this group of people, as he had seen similarly in Guggenbühl's facility. He was of the opinion that there should be more institutions for cretins.

Mariaberg Monastery (lithograph from 1823), where Rösch founded the Mariaberg Sanatorium in 1847

In 1846, King Wilhelm I gave him the former Benedictine nuns - Mariaberg Monastery , a property of the state that had been vacant for ten years after the last sister of the order moved out, and which after the secularization of 1802 (in the course of the Napoleonic hegemony at the time ) had basically been exposed to decay, made available for his project. On May 1, 1847, Rösch and 13 mentally handicapped children as well as nursing and housekeeping staff moved into the new "Mariaberg Sanatorium", located about 25 km southwest of his official residence. Crown Princess Olga took over the patronage. Mariaberg was the first facility of its kind in Germany with the four elements “medical care, living, school and work”. Between 1850 and 1853, Rösch also published the magazine "Observations on Cretinism".

Rösch had a very broad concept of disability. His new holistic approach stipulated, among other things, that the nurses should be exposed to mountain air, be warm and ideally dressed in wool, and that they should exercise enough. Baths and rubs in with ointments were just as much part of the therapy concept as protein-rich food and good water. For the treatment of seizures and cramps, Rösch also envisaged treatment with home remedies. Rösch found that the children, who were often neglected at the time of admission , could improve their condition simply through attention and care. He found that if the children were treated lovingly, they could become very affectionate. He also saw it as an important task of upbringing to teach the children to speak or at least to stammer. He also came to the conclusion that cretan children could show strong religious feelings . He hoped that his therapy concept would help to cure the disease.

Rösch himself, who held a leading position on the board of directors of the Mariaberg sanatorium, never lived in Mariaberg. He only came there on weekends. He was of the opinion that an institution in which "stupid" or "feeble-minded" children lived had to be an educational and hospital at the same time, ie a " hospital " with a special school. Such an institution must therefore be run by a doctor, as only he can create the necessary conditions for the teacher and educator to be able to be adequately educational. The "guards" who were involved in looking after the children in Mariaberg should also be accompanied by a doctor, the institution's general practitioner , Dr. Albert Krais , instructed and familiarized with the special requirements. Rösch wanted the people in Mariaberg to live together like a family, but that the main responsibility lay with the doctors.

Political engagement, loss of reputation, emigration and a new beginning in the USA

From 1848 onwards there was a rift with the Württemberg royal family (for the general historical context of these years in Württemberg see subsection Strengthening of the democratic movement and liberalism from 1830 in the article Kingdom of Württemberg ). In the revolutionary turmoil of this time, Rösch supported the democratic movement through his involvement in the liberal Patriotic Association of Urach. His public appearance as a speaker at a revolutionary people's assembly on September 21, 1848 in front of several thousand people in Reutlingen (the same day on which Gustav Struve proclaimed a German republic in the unsuccessful so-called Struve Putsch in the western neighboring state of Baden ) displeased the king. Two years later - in 1850 - after the revolution had finally failed and a period of political restoration had been initiated by the ruling princes in all states of the German Confederation with the beginning of the era of reaction , Rösch was forcibly relocated to Gaildorf, about 100 km northeast of Urach . This cut him off from Mariaberg. In the Gaildorf region , the Limpurger Land , he was still a senior medical officer, but despite the unchanged basic salary, his income was lower, as there were already several doctors there and the rather poor local population could not afford medical treatment as much as in the more densely populated region in the Oberamt Urach. In Rösch, due to the politically restrictive conditions and the disadvantages to which he was personally exposed, the idea of ​​emigrating to the New World matured. In October 1852 he sent his three eldest children, who were between 16 and 19 years old at the time, to a family friend in Texas . The following year, Rösch decided to follow suit with his wife Amalie and their six other children. In order to secure a possible return (which, however, should no longer happen), he took leave of absence from his superior Württemberg authorities for a year.

In September 1853 Rösch began his “vacation”. He traveled with his family to the French port city of Le Havre . From there they had booked a ship passage to New Orleans . A cholera epidemic broke out on the 45-day crossing under problematic hygienic conditions , as emerges from a letter from Rösch to friends in Urach and the diary entries of his wife Amalie (" Thirst to die, the tongue stuck to the palate ... ") . 22 people have already died on the voyage. Berta, the youngest daughter of the Rösch family, and Mrs. Amalie also fell ill. Both died during the onward journey that led across the Mississippi River and overland after landing in New Orleans . Carl Heinrich Rösch arrived with his five remaining children in mid-December 1853 in the Texan settler town of Coleto, where he initially settled as a doctor and farmer. In the long run, however, the structural conditions on site were too insecure to ensure a livelihood for Rösch and his children. So he moved further north to Missouri . In St. Louis , at the time a stronghold of southern German immigrants in the American Midwest , he opened a doctor's office and, as a member of a committee of investigators and the advisory board of the city's pharmacy school, contributed to providing local health and poor care to expand. Rösch could hardly cope with the loss of his wife Amalie.

Rösch died on December 13, 1866 at the age of 59 in St. Louis. In an obituary of the German-language daily newspaper Westliche Post , he was honored as follows (obituary extract):

"... Dr. Rösch's passing leaves a gap in the German culture here that can only be filled with difficulty, if at all. As a doctor and scholar, as well as a writer and tireless advocate of radical principles, the immortalized stands equally high. Wherever a good work, where it was a humane idea, there was no word or pen from Dr. Never Rösch. ... "

Posthumous appreciation

• In the Mariaberg district of Gammerting , a bronze plaque on the outer wall of the former monastery with a bas-relief portrait of Rösch reminds of his work as the founder of the Mariaberg Heime (now Mariaberg eV). In addition, the "Rösch-Heim" on site (today the Mariabergs guest house ) is named after him.
• In Waldshut-Tiengen , Carl Heinrich Rösch is the namesake of an integrative school .

Publications (selection)

• The abuse of alcoholic beverages investigated in pathological, therapeutic, medical, police and judicial terms , Tübingen 1839
• The eighteenth gathering of German naturalists and doctors. Travel memories; with the author's lecture on cretinism and innate nonsense. Ebner & Seubert, Stuttgart 1841.
• The foundation for cretin children on the Abendberge near Interlachen in Switzerland. Ebner & Seubert, Stuttgart 1842 ( digitized version ).
• Investigations into cretinism in Württemberg. With comments by Johann Jakob Guggenbühl and a foreword by Georg Jäger (= new studies on cretinism or human degeneration in their various degrees and forms. Ed. By Karl Maffei, Karl Heinrich Rösch. Vol. 1). F. Enke, Erlangen 1844 ( digitized version ).
• About the healing and upbringing of undeveloped or Cretan children with special regard to the Guggenbühl Foundation on the Abendberge near Interlaken in the Swiss canton of Bern, and an institution of this kind to be established in Württemberg. FH Köhler, Stuttgart 1845 ( digitized version )
• with Albert Krais: Observations and experiences about nonsense in childhood and its treatment: Report on the mental health institution for mentally ill children in Mariaberg during the first two years of its existence. In: Observations on Cretinism. A magazine. Published by the doctors at the Mariaberg Sanatorium. Vol. 1 (1850), pp. 1-95 ( digitized version ).
• Observations on Cretinism. A magazine. Published by the doctors at the Mariaberg Sanatorium. 3 booklets. Tübingen 1850–1852 ( digitized first issue 1850 ).

literature

• Hans Heppenheimer: Biography Karl Heinrich Rösch (1807–1866) , in: Hubert Kolling (Hrsg.): Biographical lexicon for nursing history "Who was who in nursing history" , Volume 7, hps media Nidda 2015, ISBN 978-3-9815325- 5-5
• Gottfried Klemm (great-great-grandson of Rösch): The emigration of a Swabian family to America. Letters from the Carl Heinrich Rösch family between 1850 and 1885 , transcribed from handwritten documents into typescript, Mariaberg archive (also contains the family tree of the Rösch family)
• Gottfried Klemm: Dr. Karl Heinrich Rösch (1807–1866). Doctor - Democrat - Emigrant . In: Suevica 8 (1999/2000). Stuttgart 2000 [2001], pp. 217-224 ISBN 3-88099-395-5
• Hans König: pioneer in psychiatry - as a revolutionary transferred to Gaildorf as punishment: Karl Rösch (1807–1866), in: Hans König: People from the Limpurger Land , Volume 2, Horb am Neckar 2004, ISBN 3-89570-957-3 , Pp. 187-193
• Andreas Möckel : The Mariaberg sanatorium and nursing home in the 19th century between medicine and education , there on pages 25–30 a biographical treatise on “Karl Heinrich Rösch (1808–1866)” , in Karl Rudolf Eder (ed.): 150 Years of Mariaberg Homes. Contributions to the history of the mentally disabled . Gammertingen, Mariaberger Heime 1997
• Arndt Schalk: Karl Rösch. His socio-political work as senior medical officer in Urach (1842–1850) . Scientific homework for the first examination for the teaching post at special schools in spring 1973 at the Institute for Special Education of the PH Reutlingen in connection with the University of Tübingen, 1973 (unprinted)
• Otto Wurst: Dr. Karl Heinrich Rösch 1807–1866. A short biography , lecture March 6, 1997 on the occasion of a community college event in Mariaberg, published on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Mariaberger Heime, 20 pages and six annexes
• Martin Steffe: Rösch, Karl Heinrich , in: Hugo Maier (Ed.): Who is who of social work . Freiburg: Lambertus, 1998 ISBN 3-7841-1036-3 , p. 496f.

Web links

• Literature by and about Carl Heinrich Rösch in the catalog of the German National Library
• on the history of the facility founded by Rösch on the web domain of today's Mariaberg e. V.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hans König: People from the Limpurger Land , Volume II, p. 187.
2. ↑ google.books reference to Rösch's alcoholism study .
3. ↑ On the healing and upbringing of undeveloped or Cretan children with special regard to the Guggenbühl Foundation on the Abendberge near Interlaken in the Swiss canton of Bern, and an institution of this kind to be established in Württemberg. FH Köhler, Stuttgart 1845, p. 19 ( digital copy ) .
4. ↑ Johann Jakob Guggenbühl: Help call from the Alps, to combat the terrible cretinism. In: Malten's library of the latest world studies. Volume 1, Aarau 1840, p. 191 ff. (Online) .
5. ^ History of special education (www.sonderpaed-online.de) .
6. ↑ Hans Heppenheimer: Biography Karl Heinrich Rösch (1807–1866) in: Hubert Kolling (Hrsg.): Biographical Lexicon for Nursing History "Who was who in nursing history" , Volume 7, hps media Nidda 2015, p. 233. ISBN 978- 3-9815325-5-5
7. ↑ quoted in Hans König: Menschen aus dem Limpurger Land , Volume II, p. 192.
8. ↑ according to the short online biography of the Carl Heinrich Rösch School in Waldshut-Tiengen .
9. ^ Obituary excerpt, quoted in Hans König: Menschen aus dem Limpurger Land , Volume II, p. 193.
10. ↑ Presentation of the Carl Heinrich Rösch guest house on the Mariaberg website
11. ^ Short biography of Rösch on the website of the Carl Heinrich Rösch School in Waldshut-Tiengen