Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland

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Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland, lithograph by Adolf Kunike , 1819
Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland signum anno 1830.jpg

Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland (born August 12, 1762 in Langensalza ; † August 25, 1836 in Berlin ) was a German doctor, royal personal physician, social hygienist and "public educator" . Because of his life force theory, he is called a representative of vitalism (a concept that was diametrically opposed to the then fashionable Brownianism ). He is also seen as the founder of macrobiotics .

Life

Medical career

Education

Hufeland's father, Johann Friedrich Hufeland (1730–1787), and grandfather had already studied medicine and worked in Weimar (from 1765) as personal physician to Duchess Anna Amalia and court physician at the duke's court. Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland, who went to school in Weimar, followed this tradition from the spring of 1780 to study medicine in Jena , where he especially attended the lectures of the surgeon and anatomist Justus Christian Loder , and Göttingen , where Georg Christoph Lichtenberg was one of his teachers counted. In 1783 Hufeland received his doctorate in medicine in Göttingen and was a Freemason in the Göttingen Lodge "Augusta to the Three Flames".

Weimar

Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland

After completing his studies, Hufeland worked in the practice of his gradually blind father in Weimar from 1783 , which he took over after his death and ran it until 1793. In 1784 he was accepted into the League of Illuminati . In Weimar he lived in his father's house with four sisters and his brother Friedrich Hufeland, who was twelve years his junior . His responsibility included medical care for the city of Weimar, but also for the surrounding villages as a country doctor, whereby he sometimes had to prepare the medicines himself as a pharmacist. He was therefore constantly on the move and came home late at night, completely exhausted. Unlike his father, Hufeland was also the court doctor at the duke's court, but not his personal physician. His patients in Weimar also included Goethe (from 1783 to 1793), Schiller , Herder and Wieland .

Hufeland's father died in March 1787. In the same year, Hufeland married a “young, innocent, cheerful, extremely amiable country girl” who came “from far away mountains”, as he wrote in his memoirs. In 1790 he became a member of the Imperial Academy of Natural Scientists (Leopoldina). At the suggestion of Hufeland and according to his plans, Germany's first morgue was built in Weimar in 1791 . In 1795 he received the Cothenius Medal of the Leopoldina. His younger brother Friedrich also became a doctor in Weimar in 1799.

Jena

The Saxon Duke Karl August was able to engage Hufeland as an honorary professor from 1793 to 1801 at the University of Jena , where his lectures (where he already presented his life force concept) were enthusiastically received by up to 500 listeners. In 1793 he was accepted as an honorary member of the natural research society in Jena, which had just been founded by August Batsch . In Jena he came into contact with personalities such as Schiller, Fichte , Schelling , the doctor Justus Christian Loder and the theologians Johann Jakob Griesbach and Heinrich Eberhard Gottlob Paulus . In 1796 he was promoted from the council to the councilor with a higher pension. In 1798 he went blind in his right eye. He turned down lucrative offers from Kiel , Leipzig and Pavia to take on a professorship, as did an offer to become the personal physician of Emperor Paul of Russia . In 1801 he finally had himself called to the royal court in Berlin. His successor in Jena was Karl Gustav Himly .

Berlin

In Berlin, Hufeland looked after the family of Friedrich Wilhelm III as a royal personal physician . and headed the Collegium medico-chirurgicum as well as the first doctor and director of the Charité in Berlin. In the first years in Berlin, in addition to his teaching post, he made house calls for seven hours a day, caring for 30 to 40 patients a day. In May 1801 he joined the six- founded by Carl Ferdinand Sigismund Boehm († 1828), Georg Heinrich Boehr , Johann Goercke , Ernst Ludwig Heim , Abraham Wall († 1805) and Georg Adolph Welper (1762–1842) on January 15, 1799 Doctors' Association , which probably merged with the Medical-Surgical Society founded in 1810. The meetings took place in the doctors' private apartments.

In the summer of 1806 he accompanied Queen Luise to a cure in Pyrmont and took a cure himself in Nenndorf . This trip appeared to him in his memories as "a particularly happy" period.

On October 18, 1806, four days after the battle of Jena and Auerstedt , Hufeland was called early in the morning to Queen Luise, who was desperate and asked him to accompany her on the escape. He had only a few hours to sort out the most important things before he left at 10 a.m. Hufeland arrived with Queen Luise and her children in Königsberg , where Luise fell ill with typhus . When Napoleon threatened to invade Koenigsberg, the sick queen demanded to flee further to Memel despite the most adverse weather conditions . Friedrich Wilhelm III also escaped there. in other ways. Against Hufeland's will, his wife and six of their seven children had followed him to Koenigsberg. Finally, after 18 years of marriage, she separated from him and after the divorce married his former student and assistant Christoph Heinrich Ernst Bischoff . The pious Hufeland consoled himself by reading the Bible, which he read from cover to cover, and by writing poetry. The stay in Memel lasted a year, from January 1807 to January 1808. In mid-January 1808, Hufeland traveled back to Königsberg with the Prussian royal court. There he took part in the planning of the Prussian reforms as far as they concerned the health system and the establishment of the University of Berlin . After a total of three years in exile, the Prussian royal court returned to Berlin in December 1809.

Hufeland in old age

After his return in 1810, Hufeland took on a wide range of functions and offices in Berlin. He arranged for the establishment of the outpatient clinic for poor patients and taught special pathology and therapy as a full professor at the new university (until 1836). He became dean of the new medical faculty (first until 1811, then again in the years 1813-1814 and 1816-1817) and a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences (1810-1836). He fulfilled other tasks as a State Councilor in the Health Service Department in the Prussian Ministry of the Interior and in the Armendirektion as well as head of the Medical-Surgical Military Academy . Also in 1810 he became a member of the Society for Nature and Medicine in Berlin and founded the Hufelandsche Gesellschaft, a medical-surgical society for the advanced training of doctors.

The poor relief was Hufeland a particular concern - he who comes paradigmatic saying "The sick man alone is poor," which brings the Unterstützungwürdigkeit sick by public finances expressed. Hufeland published his views in the Poor Pharmacopoeia, drafted for Berlin, along with the news of the hospital for the poor in their homes that was built there . The need to strengthen their efforts to hygienic conditions in Berlin to worry, summed Hufeland as follows: "For the time being it stinks here yet." At the time, died in Berlin every year about 1,000 people 20 to 36 years of tuberculosis that primarily from the rubbish of the living area and the dirty drinking water directly from the Spree . Hufeland noted: "If consumed early, only the unknown poor died almost at all times, who in spite of the greatest achievements for the ruling classes even lacked their daily bread." He introduced the smallpox vaccination . He also called on the Prussian state to take measures to improve school health and working conditions, state hygiene laws and social security .

From 1833 the polyclinic was headed by Hufeland's nephew and son-in-law Emil Osann .

Writing career

The Art of Prolonging Human Life , first edition (1797)

Hufeland's intensive publication activity began in 1785 with Mesmer and his Magnetism , a work on Franz Anton Mesmer and his doctrine of "animal magnetism". The first book publication was a treatise on the eradication of smallpox (1787). This was followed by numerous publications on the subject of health care, including his main work The Art of Extending Human Life (1796), in which a special diet and a harmonious lifestyle are recommended. Personal health care and government health policy are combined here in accordance with the spirit of the Enlightenment. Hufeland's theses were very much in keeping with the views of the bourgeois Protestant population. So it happened that the title reached the third edition as early as 1805 (as macrobiotics ).

Hufeland also made significant contributions to magazine editions (including the publication of the Journal der practical Arzneykunde and Wundarzneykunst since 1795). In 1808 Hufeland brought out a lexicon on the subject of apparent death . The list of his writings includes a total of over 400 titles.

Medical theory

Hufeland's medical-theoretical approach is based on a life force that he further differentiated, but generally understood as the self-preservation principle of the organism. Through his plea for gentle treatment (as opposed to “heroic medicine”), the use of the healing powers of nature ( vis medicatrix naturae ) and the application of dietetics and physical therapy , he had a great influence on naturopathy from the 19th century. Hufeland (like his son-in-law, the balneologist Osann) was also active in the fields of hydrotherapy and hydrotherapy . In his journal der practical Arzneykunde he offered the medical currents of his time a forum for discussion. There appeared z. B. numerous articles by Samuel Hahnemann , the founder of homeopathy . Later, however, there was a rift between Hahnemann and Hufeland. Hufeland declared homeopathy as a healing system to be questionable and sharply criticized Hahnemann's strict approach.

posterity

Hufeland's grave in the Dorotheenstädtischer Friedhof in Berlin
Memorial plaque in Berlin

Hufeland was buried in the Dorotheenstadt cemetery in Berlin-Mitte . The grave is one of the honor graves of the State of Berlin. On June 4, 1904, a newly laid out Berliner Strasse was named Hufelandstrasse . A memorial plaque was attached to his home in Berlin-Mitte (Hegelplatz 1).

In the GDR , the Hufeland Medal was donated in 1958 and awarded annually as a state award for important services to health protection. The Hufeland Foundation has been awarding the Hufeland Prize every year since 1960 for the “best work in the field of preventive medicine ”; this award, donated by the Deutsche Ärzteversicherung , is endowed with 20,000 euros. In 1975 the Hufelandgesellschaft was founded, the umbrella organization for medical associations for naturopathy and complementary medicine. Since 2009, the Hufeland Society has been awarding a Hufeland Research Prize endowed with 1500 euros every two years for work on complementary or integrative medicine.

The Hufeland Klinikum , an academic teaching hospital of the University of Göttingen with locations in Bad Langensalza and Mühlhausen , also bears his name. Hufeland's constant motto, the Hippocrates quote “The doctor helps, nature heals”, together with his portrait, adorns the main entrance of the clinic in Mühlhausen. In 1998, when the Hufeland clinics in Weimar were merged with the hospital operations of the Sophienhaus Weimar Foundation, the Sophien and Hufeland Clinic Weimar ( Weimar Clinic for short ) was created in Weimar . There is also a Hufeland Clinic in Bad Ems.

In Bad Pyrmont, the Hufeland-Therme is reminiscent of Hufeland. The street leading to Steinberg in Bad Driburg and Hufelandgasse in Vienna - Meidling (12th district) have also been named after him .

Quotes

The main thing for me remained faith in God's word. I kept to this alone; Yes, I could feel a real joy inside myself when I saw others caught up in doubts and philosophical sophistries and felt in me the nice security of having something solid that I could hold onto, which resolved all doubts (Zöckler, 486 ff.)

Fonts

  • About the uncertainty of death and the only infallible means to convince oneself of its reality and to make it impossible to bury life, along with the news of the construction of a morgue in Weimar. Weimar 1791.
  • Complete presentation of the medical powers and the use of the hydrochloric heavy earth , Berlin 1794 * Charitable essays for the promotion of health, wellbeing and sensible medical education . Leipzig 1794 ( digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf ).
  • Ideas about pathogeny and the influence of life force on the development and form of diseases - as an introduction to pathological lectures. Jena 1795.
  • The art of extending human life . Jena 1796 ( digitized version ); 2 volumes. Haas, Vienna 1798 ( digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf ); later as macrobiotics or the art of extending human life.
  • Remarks on Brownian Practice . Tuebingen 1799.
  • System of practical medicine. A handbook for academic lectures and for practical use . Jena / Leipzig 1800, Vienna 1802–1806.
  • About the poisoning by brandy . Berlin 1802.
  • Sleep and the bedroom in relation to health . Weimar 1802.
  • A necessary addition to art to prolong human life . Weimar / Vienna 1803.
  • The apparent death, or collection of the most important facts and remarks about them, in alphabetical order with a preface. Berlin 1808 ( online ).
  • Conspectus Materiae medicae secundum Ordines naturales in Usum Auditorium . Berlin 1820 ( digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf ).
  • Pharmacopoeia for the poor drafted for Berlin, along with the news of the poor sick person's hospital set up there. Berlin 1810; 2nd increased edition 1812.
  • Enchiridion medicum or instructions for medical practice. Legacy of fifty years of experience. 1836; 3. Edition. Jonas, Berlin 1837.
Editing
  • with Christoph Himly: Journal of practical medicine. ( Journal der practischen Arzneykunde und Wundarzneykunst. 83 volumes, Berlin 1795–1836. With a different volume count: New Journal der practischen Arzneykunde und Wundarzneykunst , continued by E. Osann, 96 volumes plus index to volumes 1–80, Akademische Buchbuchhandlung, Jena 1975– 1843).

literature

(Chronologically)

Web links

Commons : Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland  - Sources and full texts
Wikiquote: Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Ursula Reinert: Do you know? Hufelandstrasse . Newspaper clipping from a Berlin daily newspaper (exact name and date not available)
  2. ↑ a b c d e Hufeland's autobiography, section Doctor in Weimar 1783–1793
  3. ^ H. Schüttler: The members of the Illuminati order
  4. ↑ Frank Nager: The healing poet. Goethe and medicine. Artemis, Zurich / Munich 1990; 4th edition ibid. 1992, ISBN 3-7608-1043-8 , p. 176.
  5. ↑ Almanac for doctors and Nichtaerzte. Vol. 1791 (1791), p. 272 ( Memento from January 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). The Leopoldina names 1790 as the year of admission, see Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland's member entry at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on April 11, 2015.
  6. ↑ a b Biography: Christoph Hufeland Scientific Collections at the Humboldt University in Berlin
  7. ↑ Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland: Ideas about pathogeny and influence of life force on the development and form of diseases - as an introduction to pathological lectures. Jena 1795.
  8. ↑ a b c Hufeland's autobiography, section Professor in Jena 1793–1801
  9. ↑ Almanac for doctors and Nichtaerzte. Jg. 1795 (1795) p. 246 ( Memento from January 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  10. ↑ Almanac for doctors and Nichtaerzte. Vol. 1797 (1797) p. 337 ( Memento from January 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ↑ Hufeland's autobiography, section doctor, director, personal physician and professor in Berlin until the war, 1801–1806
  12. ↑ Hufeland's autobiography, section Flight to Prussia / Exilium in Memel and Königsberg
  13. ↑ Hufeland's autobiography, section Stay in Memel from January 11, 1807 to January 15, 1808
  14. ↑ Hufeland's autobiography, section Stay in Königsberg from January 15, 1808 to December 10, 1809
  15. ↑ Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland: Ideas about pathogeny and influence of life force on the development and form of diseases - as an introduction to pathological lectures. Jena 1795.
  16. ↑ Arnd Krüger : History of movement therapy. In: Preventive Medicine. Springer Loseblatt Collection, Heidelberg 1999, 07.06, pp. 1–22.
  17. ↑ Hubertus Averbeck: From the cold water cure to physical therapy. Reflections on people and at the time of the most important developments in the 19th century . Europäische Hochschulverlag, Bremen 2012, ISBN 978-3-86741-782-2 , pp. 148–151.
  18. ↑ Hufelandstrasse. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
  19. ↑ establishing the Hufeland Society hufelandgesellschaft.de
  20. ↑ Hufeland Research Prize hufelandgesellschaft.de
  21. ^ History of the Hufeland Clinic in Bad Langensalza and Mühlhausen hufeland.de
  22. ^ Sophien- and Hufeland-Klinikum Weimar: Historie klinikum-weimar.de
  23. ^ Hufeland Clinic, Bad Ems
personal data
SURNAME Hufeland, Christoph Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German doctor, social hygienist and educator
DATE OF BIRTH August 12, 1762
PLACE OF BIRTH Langensalza
DATE OF DEATH August 25, 1836
Place of death Berlin