Christoph Friedrich Hellwag

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Christoph Friedrich Hellwag (born March 6, 1754 in Calw , † October 16, 1835 in Eutin ) was a German doctor and physicist . He is considered to be the first to represent vowels in a vowel triangle .

Life

Hellwag was the son of the deacon and later Göppingen city ​​pastor Eberhard Friedrich Hellwag (1722–1780) and his wife Catharine Margarete nee. Bengel (1730–1788), the daughter of the well-known Pietist theologian Johann Albrecht Bengel (1687–1752). After attending school in Sulz am Neckar , he came to the Evangelical Monastery in Tübingen in 1772 , where he entered the university register on October 26th. He first studied theology and philosophy and completed his studies with a master's degree in 1774 . In the summer semester of 1774 he changed the subject and began studying medicine , which he continued in 1779 at the University of Göttingen . He returned to Tübingen in January 1781 for his medical dissertation and the required exams. On November 30, 1784 he was awarded the title of Doctor of Medicine by the Medical Faculty of the University of Tübingen . He had already passed the medical exam in Stuttgart in 1781 and was appointed doctor in Gaildorf on January 1, 1782 .

In 1782 he was the personal physician of Friederike of Württemberg and moved in 1782 after her marriage to the ruler of Oldenburg provided Prince Friedrich Ludwig with her to Oldenburg (Oldenburg). There he also became the Duke's personal physician. In Oldenburg, Hellwag quickly joined the small circle of leadership in the duchy around Gerhard Anton von Halem , whose sister he married, and also joined the Literary Society founded by him . In addition to looking after the ducal family, Hellwag also ran an extensive private practice in Oldenburg and founded a hospital for the poor , based on the Hamburg model. At the request of Peter Friedrich Ludwig, he and his family moved in May 1788 to Eutin, the royal seat of the Principality of Lübeck , which belongs to Oldenburg , because Heinrich Matthias Marcard had been appointed to Oldenburg as personal physician. Hellwag was appointed court advisor and in 1791 acquired a house in the immediate vicinity of the rector Johann Heinrich Voss , with whom he became close friends. The neighborhood had a positive effect on the classes at the grammar school, as Hellwag provided drawings for the classics and helped out in mathematics classes. He was also active in the Eutin Literary Society founded in 1804 and gave lectures on magnetism , midwifery, poor studies, optics and acoustics .

In 1799 he was appointed Physicist of the Principality of Lübeck and, as such, was responsible for public health care in the Principality. Numerous publications show Hellwag's versatile education and his lively scientific activity. He was an important physicist and is among other things the discoverer of the so-called clinking tones . His astute work on optics aroused Goethe's interest .

Hellwag's greatest achievement was the introduction of the smallpox vaccination in 1801, first in Eutin itself and then in the Principality of Lübeck. In June 1800 Hellwag first vaccinated his youngest daughter and fifteen other children against smallpox with a serum that he had obtained by vaccinating a cow. He resorted to attempts by the English doctor Edward Jenner with his vaccinations against cowpox . This smallpox vaccination became compulsory a few years later and Hellwag published several essays about his method, which was officially introduced in the Principality of Lübeck and also imitated by other doctors. Vaccinations against leafing followed.

In 1808 the first public bathing establishment was opened on his initiative. Hellwag was also seen as the inventor of the cranesbill , a device that allowed drawings to be enlarged or reduced in size. However, a description of this device was published as early as 1631:. In 1811 he triggered the Eutin corset dispute with an article in the Eutin weekly advertisements on the subject of the harmfulness of the lace - up body.

When a cholera wave reached northern Germany in 1831 , he prompted the formation of health commissions that were able to prevent the epidemic from spreading. Hellwag's health deteriorated with increasing age, but in 1832 he celebrated his 50th anniversary as a doctor. He died three years later after a stroke and was buried in the Eutin cemetery.

From 1790 until his death he lived at Riemannstraße 2 in Eutin, the building has been preserved as a so-called “Hellwag House”.

family

Hellwag had been married to Susanna Sophia Henrietta von Halem (1759–1823), the daughter of the Oldenburg City Syndic Anton Wilhelm von Halem (1711–1771) and sister of the Oldenburg administrative clerk and writer Gerhard Anton von Halem (1752–1819 ) , since August 17, 1784 ). This marriage had four daughters and three sons. Among them the pedagogue and pastor Bernhard Wilhelm Friedrich (1787–1838) and the lawyer and councilor Ernst Ludwig (1790–1862), deputy district president in Eutin and head of education in the Principality of Lübeck. His son Konrad Wilhelm Hellwag (1827–1882) became a well-known railway technician.

Works

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hellwag's book about the cranesbill appeared 145 years after it was first published: Christoph Scheiner : Pantographice seu ars delineandi (Rome 1631) digitized version
  2. ^ Henry A. Smith (Ed.): Eutin - Heidelberg 1811 , pp. 137-143
personal data
SURNAME Hellwag, Christoph Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German doctor
DATE OF BIRTH March 6, 1754
PLACE OF BIRTH Calw
DATE OF DEATH October 16, 1835
Place of death Eutin