Clemens August Alertz
Clemens August Alertz (born January 30, 1800 in Aachen , † November 10, 1866 in Rome ) was a German physician and personal physician to Pope Gregory XVI. and Pius IX.
Live and act
He was born the son of a doctor; his uncle Theodor Alertz (1764–1814) was the Catholic pastor of Haaren (Aachen) from 1797 until his death .
After attending grammar school in Aachen and Maastricht , Alertz was trained at the Institut Pépinière in Berlin and studied at the university there and in Bonn. He then worked at the Charité in Berlin , before moving to Bonn as a surgeon and military doctor in 1821 , where he became a doctor of medicine on August 12, 1822 a year later. med. PhD.
Alertz then held a position as a military doctor in Stralsund , then as a district physician in Malmedy, then Prussia (now Belgium ), and finally in his home town of Aachen. In Aachen he also planned to start a family by proposing marriage to the religious poet Luise Hensel . But this refused because of her vow to virginity.
Alertz was recommended by his patient and friend David Ferdinand Koreff to the sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen , who had good contacts to the Vatican through his work in Rome . This connection led to the appointment of Clemens August Alertz as personal physician to Pope Gregory XVI in 1836. and then from his successor Pius IX. According to an obituary in the Münchner Allgemeine Zeitung , Alertz had cured General Friedrich Wilhelm von Lepel (1774–1840), adjutant of Prince Heinrich of Prussia , who permanently resided in Rome , of a "cancerous condition". One had then become aware of him in the Pope's environment, since Gregory XVI. suffered from a similar illness.
In the case of Pope Gregory, Alertz also campaigned for his compatriot from Aachen, Wilhelm Smets, to be appointed canon at Aachen Cathedral with a papal recommendation . In Rome, Alertz, who had meanwhile been promoted to the Secret Medical Council, was a member of the board of directors of the Arch Brotherhood " Campo Santo Teutonico " alongside Johann Michael Wittmer , Friedrich Overbeck and others . Here he died at the end of 1866 and the Berliner Nationalzeitung paid tribute to him in its December 11, 1866 issue with a detailed obituary .
Literature and Sources
- Egon Schmitz-Cliever : Clemens August Alertz (1800–1866) , in: Rheinische Lebensbilder , Düsseldorf, 3.1968, pp. 159–172
- Johann Friedrich Cotta (editor): Obituary in: Münchner Allgemeine Zeitung , Supplement No. 343, of December 9, 1866; Digital scan
- Adolph Carl Peter Callisen: Medical Writer's Lexicon of Doctors Now Living , Vol. 1, Copenhagen, 1830, p. 90
Web links
- Website with a scan of the death image
- Letter of recommendation, The Thorvaldsens Museum Archives by David Ferdinand Koreff
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Alertz, Clemens August |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German physician and personal physician to Popes Gregory XVI. and Pius IX. |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 30, 1800 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Aachen |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 10, 1866 |
| Place of death | Rome |