Emil Schardon

Emil Schardon

Emil Schardon (born March 4, 1887 in Beindersheim ; † September 27, 1950 in Nuremberg ) was a physician and doctor of medicine, knight of the Bavarian Military Medical Order , because of his bravery in exercising the medical profession.

Life

dissertation

Schardon was born on March 4th, 1887 as the youngest of 3 children of the farmer Jakob Schardon u. Sibylla Schardon b. Fruth, born in Beindersheim near Frankenthal (Palatinate) . He studied medicine, received his doctorate in 1913 at the royal Bavarian Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg with a thesis on the subject of "Primary, tumor-like lip tuberculosis", then specialized in the field of "skin and venereal diseases" and finally worked in Nuremberg , where he later ran his own practice.

Emil Schardon as a military doctor in the First World War

At the beginning of the First World War he moved to the 10th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment as an assistant doctor in the reserve and initially held the position of a "sub-doctor" who was not part of the officer corps. In this batch, Schardon took part in the battles of his regiment on the Western Front and, as the official documents say, earned "excellent merits" at the formation posts and in the various battles, but in particular during the battle of Nancy-Epinal because the wounded were cared for and recovered in the “front line of action, unconcerned about their own risk of death”, on the night of August 25th to 26th, 1914 before Anthelupt and on the night of September 4th to 5th, 1914 near Deuxville. Regarding the battle near Deuxville, it is stated more precisely that he "... as the sole doctor of the battalion, when everything else was under cover, treated the wounded without any cover against enemy fire and thereby performed an exemplary act that went far beyond what was required."

The Military Medical Order was re-established on October 16, 1914, as the highest Bavarian honor for courage for medical officers who had distinguished themselves in times of war on the battlefield or in hospitals at risk of caring for the wounded and sick. You had to apply for the decoration yourself if you thought you had done something. This was then examined in detail by a commission, hearing witnesses etc., and the award was either approved or refused. Strict criteria were applied when assessing the facts, which is why there were only 174 awards.

Schardon therefore applied himself for the award of the newly founded Military Medical Order and was awarded it on April 17, 1915. But no sooner had he received his well-deserved medal than it was noticed that, according to the (not yet very familiar) statutes, he actually did not belong to the group of entitled persons. As a "junior doctor" he was not yet formally part of the officer corps , although in this position he had to fulfill the same tasks as all other field doctors. A similar case happened with a Ferdinand Müller, to whom the decoration dated May 15, 1915 had been awarded, but in contrast to Schardon, had not yet been handed over. The two erroneously awarded medals led to the War Ministry and finally King Ludwig III. himself, had to deal in detail with the “precedents” Schardon and Müller.

Announcement from the Red Cross to Emil Schardon's father that he was taken prisoner; 1917

The war minister told the king that at the time of their meritorious deeds, both doctors were not medical officers, but rather junior doctors in assistant positions, so the award could not be applied for. The delivery of the medal to Müller could still be stopped, but Schardon had received his medal for a long time and the award had also been published. The minister went on verbatim:

" The withdrawal of the order would not only have to be felt most painfully by this medical officer (in the meantime it was already!), But would also belittle him in the eyes of his comrades and colleagues and damage his authority and his reputation in the most sensitive way while Müller does not have to fear these disadvantages. "

King Ludwig III. decided that both doctors, both Schardon and Müller, should keep their medals and thereby expressed his personal appreciation for their selfless behavior - beyond all formal concerns of the responsible authorities.

The physician advanced to senior physician on June 25, 1916 and on August 22, 1919, when he was demobilized after the end of the war, he assumed the character of a medical officer in the reserve. He was also taken prisoner by the French in 1917, from where - according to family tradition - he fled and returned to the Bavarian army in an adventurous way via Switzerland . In addition to the extremely rare military medical medal, he also possessed the much more frequent decorations of the Bavarian Military Order of Merit, 4th class, and the Iron Cross, 2nd and 1st class. Until his death on September 27, 1950, as a result of a long-term heart condition, Emil Schardon ran a practice in Nuremberg as a "dermatologist and gender doctor". He remained unmarried and had no direct descendants.

Emil Schardon tomb, formerly Beindersheim cemetery, now Reich repatriate court, Heßheim

Schardon's military medical medal and the corresponding certificate were lost in the hail of bombs of World War II . The deserving physician found his final resting place in the Schardon family grave in the Beindersheim cemetery. After the official dissolution of the corresponding burial ground a few years ago, nothing in his home village today reminds of the man who, at risk of his life, practiced his medical profession in an exemplary and fearless manner and was rewarded with the highest order of bravery that his country had to award him . Heinz Reich, husband of Schardon's great niece, spent the tomb, which weighed tons - carved out of a huge sandstone block in the shape of a tumba - with great effort in the neighboring village of Heßheim , where it found a worthy place in the garden of his emigrant farm.

literature

• “Bavaria's Golden Book of Honor” , Bavarian War Archives, Munich, 1928 (with a detailed description of Schardon's awarding facts).
• "The Royal Bavarian Military Sanitary Order" , from the series: The collections of the Defense History Museum in Rastatt Castle, 1980 (with a detailed description of the awarding facts and the special awarding circumstances of Schardon).
• “A mistakenly awarded medal and a personal confirmation from the king” , Joachim Specht, Heimatjahrbuch Volume 22 (2006), Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis, Ludwigshafen / Rhein.