Daniel Schwabe

Operation successful, patient lives (1635)

Daniel Schwabe (also Daniel Schwab ; * 1592 in Danzig ; † in the 17th century in Königsberg i. Pr. ) Was a German surgeon .

meaning

Schwabe was "Royal Magister in Pohlen and Sweden, also Elector Highness of Brandenburg and the praiseworthy loyal city of Königsberg the best surgeon and lithotomus" in the Duchy of Prussia . With the approval of the Medical Faculty of the Albertus University in Königsberg , Schwabe carried out the first successful gastric operation in July 1635. He removed the knife that servant Andreas Grünheide had brought down his throat to vomit and swallowed unexpectedly. The operation was supposed to be stopped when it was noticed that the peritoneum had not yet been opened. A detailed " operation report " is thanks to Daniel Beckher the elder . Duke Georg Wilhelm (Brandenburg) made Schwabe court surgeon in the same year.

The knife came into the possession of the State and University Library Königsberg via Bogusław Radziwiłł , which loaned it to the City History Museum Königsberg . It was there until 1945.

The bold intervention can only be understood against the background that at that time doctors lived in Königsberg who had been in Italy for a while . Emancipated in the Renaissance , anatomy there had considerably expanded the surgeon's horizons .

Bänkelsang

Knife removal caused as much attention in Europe as the first heart transplant did three hundred years later. Like the tabloids today , a flying paper reported on the sensation . The university printer Lorenz Segebad printed it on August 2, 1635 without permission and without the Rector's signature . The faculty disapproved of the paper, especially since the doctor was mentioned before the dean and the professor. The dean Daniel Beckher had the copies of the “badly informed and recited lying poem” confiscated and destroyed two days later in Königsberg and Danzig. The judicial investigation showed that the printer's journeyman Gottfried Brückner from Silesia had written the Bänkelsang .

"It is a Gossengesang, the like that the people walking around in the alleys with full neck when many people come, the Scharteck 'has been secretly printed and, in his opinion, decorated by Segebad with lettering pictures."

- Daniel Beckher the Elder Ä.

A truly wonderful and unheard-of description / of a son of Pauren / with the name Andreas Grienheit / out of the village of Grinwaldt / how he suddenly swallowed a knife early in the morning on Whitsun Tuesday at 5 a.m. Which to him afterwards to Koenigsberg / July 9th 10 am / from Mr. Daniel Schwab / surgeon Occulisten Stein vnd Bruchschneider / again cut out of the stomach /. In Beysein Mr. Doctoris Rotgeri / Licentiat Danielis Becker / Licentiat Bartholomei Krügern / and Master Hanß Grehel a Balbier / next to a Balbierer journeyman. And to receive divine help in life / as you will hear in this song.
In the melody of the daily way. Let me hear what I want to sing / Listen to you dear people / Of strange things / As recently as this time / Has been
in Prussia / How you will now hear / God hides my day.

Great miracle I do say / It happened / In a village with a name / Grinwoldt was named /
The story happened there / With a son of Paur / As I tell you about it.

Andreas grinness by name / That was the name of the same servant / On Whit Monday he came / Drinking outside the jug / At home / And
that went to sleep / Because he drank too much / Now hear what has happened.

On the third day of Pentecost / well around the fifth hour / early in the morning / I tell you / He thinks to break /
But he doesn't want to leave town / His fellow servant is present / He gave him this advice.

He should grasp his throat with his finger / would soon be wrestling / to break / same-case / but
this also won't help / you take a key / he speaks to him again.

Whenever I drink a lot / Just listen to miracles / And keep quiet a little /
He said: I have no key / He takes the knife / Sticks it down in his neck.

He's getting too deep / He's not breathing / He's swallowed the knife / The other Paurenknecht /
Thet immediately report this / Much people came running / That he wanted to paw.

His nobleman by name / Georg von der Grebe called / When he heard such /
He sent him soon / He rode to Königsberg with a letter / Fünff Meyl / And three on foot he ran.

But it does not harm him / he does not feel any pain / the Medicos advice asks / whether one tells him to help /
he handed them the letter / also shows / how it went.

Everyone over it / In great miracle came / Mr. Licentiat Crüger | He took care of it /
That he wanted to curry him / The knife out of the stomach / One should cut him out.

Six weeks went away / He took a bite out of the factory / Much advice was given / How you would like to proceed /
That you are not in danger with anyone / Because things like this / never been heard.

The new Julij just / Wol in the ten stundt / Have you gone / To him in Losament /
And tied him to a board / With hands and with feet / As it is painted here.

Then they put on him / A plaster of magnet / What moves the knife / And this will soon be reported /
After what Mr. Daniel Schwab / Kegen der left Seyten / did cut open his body.

They did not find their stomach / At a good time / The knife penetrated it / Het from the right steady /
But in the end with great hardship / You got to hold it / Vnd cut open.

A jester with a name / Hans Grebel was called / De also come to this / He asks at the end / Andres /
How is it? Will you feel bad too / will you puff up too? Then he said no.

For a little while / he spoke with a loud voice / My dear ick was charmed / Because I was getting really bad now / By knowing
the knife / He's happy about it / In his mind.

The knife I do say / Was that figure / Hett a deer
leg shells / As you can see here, ground / Even started to eat / On the shells and tips / A great miracle thing.

Afterwards he was laid / bandaged on a bed / he was well cared for / that he was not lacking /
many people also visited him / then such a great miracle / nobody heard.

In his life he stayed / A great miracle was written / His age was written / In the second and twentieth year /
Then the story happened / How it all came about / Do you report here.

literature

Oskar Ehrhardt : A flyer about the first surgical opening of the stomach . Old Prussian Monthly Journal 38 (1901), p. 290 ff.
Joachim Gruber: Surgical operations on the stomach in the 16th to 18th centuries - an analysis of contemporary sources . Dissertation, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, 2005, full text

Individual evidence

↑ see Gruber
↑ Editor: The history of the Prussian knife eater and its spectacular operation in Königsberg in 1635 . Circular letters from the Albertus University (1973)
↑ Ehrhardt (1901)
↑ The Königsberg surgeon Prof. Dr. Oskar Ehrhardt (1873–1950) dedicated a copy in 1901 to the pathologist Ernst Neumann , whose grandson published it in 1973 on Ehrhardt's 100th birthday in the circulars of the Albertus University .

personal data
SURNAME	Schwabe, Daniel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Schwab, Daniel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German surgeon
DATE OF BIRTH	1592
PLACE OF BIRTH	Danzig
DATE OF DEATH	after 1635
Place of death	Koenigsberg i. Pr.

[1] see Gruber

[2] Editor: The history of the Prussian knife eater and its spectacular operation in Königsberg in 1635 . Circular letters from the Albertus University (1973)

[3] Ehrhardt (1901)

[4] The Königsberg surgeon Prof. Dr. Oskar Ehrhardt (1873–1950) dedicated a copy in 1901 to the pathologist Ernst Neumann , whose grandson published it in 1973 on Ehrhardt's 100th birthday in the circulars of the Albertus University .