Erich Paulun

Erich Hermann Paulun

Erich Hermann Paulun (born March 4, 1862 in Pasewalk ; † March 5, 1909 in Shanghai ) was a German naval doctor. After retiring from active service, he founded the Tung Chee Hospital for Chinese (Tung Chee in Pinyin: Tongji) together with the German doctor Oscar von Schab in 1899. The Tongji Hospital Shanghai and the Tongji Hospital Wuhan refer to this foundation today. In 1907 the German government founded the “German Medical School for Chinese in Shanghai”. Paulun was the founding rector. Tongji University in Shanghai and the medical faculty of Huazhong University for Science and Technology in Wuhan refer to this foundation today .

childhood

Erich Paulun's parents died during his childhood. When sister Marie was born in 1864, the parents were diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis . At that time it was customary to separate healthy children from their parents and give them to a healthy family. The parents went to a tuberculosis clinic in Berlin , where they died a short time later. From the age of two to ten, Erich Paulun lived with his grandparents (named Lecke) in Schöppenstedt in well-to-do circumstances. After the death of his grandparents he came to live with his aunt in Wolfenbüttel (household veterinarian Sieverling). In Wolfenbüttel he attended the high school large school up to the Abitur.

Training and military service

After graduating from high school in 1882, he was admitted to the Medicinisch-Surgical Friedrich Wilhelm Institute in Berlin in October of the same year . He became a member of the Pépinière-Corps Franconia . From April to October 1883 he did his basic military service with the 5th Company of the Emperor Alexander Guard Grenadier Regiment No. 1 in Berlin. He completed the Physikum in 1884 and the Rigorosum in 1886 (examiners included Robert Koch). His doctorate (in medicine and surgery) took place in 1887 at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin.

CV as of July 27, 1887

Erich Paulun himself is a credible source for his life. He added the following curriculum vitae to the dissertation: “Author of this work, Hermann Erich Paulun, Protestant Confession, was born on March 4, 1862 in Pasewalk in Pomerania. He received his previous scientific training at the high school in Wolfenbüttel, which he left on September 22, 1882 with the certificate of maturity. He was on October 28 of the same year in the Königl. med. chir. Friedrich Wilhelms Institute added. From April 1 to October 31, 1883 he served with the weapon in the 5th Comp. of the Kaiser Alexander Guard Grenadier Regiment No. 1. On July 19, 1884 he passed the Examen physicum, on July 16, 1886 the Rigorosum. According to the decree of November 10, 1886 to the junior physician in the 3rd Pomeranian Infantry Regiment No. 14th appointed. During his studies he attended the lectures, clinics and courses of the following professors and docents: Bardeleben, v. Bergmann, Dilthey, you Bois-Reymond, Eichler (+), Ewald, Fraentzel, Gerhardt, Gurlt. Gusserow, Hartmann, v. Helmholtz, Henoch, Hirsch, Hofmann, Jäckel, Koch, Koehler, Kossel, Leyden. Leuthold, Lewin, Liebreich, Liman, Orth, Reichert (+), Salkowski, Schweigger, Schwendener, Schweninger; Schultze, Sonnenburg, Trautmann, Virchow, Waldeyer, Westphal. The author hereby expresses his thanks to all of these, his esteemed teachers. "

Military doctor

After completing his doctorate, Erich Paulun rejoined the Pomeranian Infantry on October 1, 1887 and was employed there as a junior doctor in the 3rd Pomeranian Infantry Regiment. Studying medicine as a military doctor was a recognized and qualified way to become a doctor, namely when money was tight in a family. Medical studies were free. However, you had to commit to serving as a military doctor for one year per semester after completing your degree. Many famous doctors have gone this way, such as Virchow, Koch, von Helmholtz ... and others that Erich Paulun mentions in his résumé above.

The transition from the military doctor in Pomerania to the naval doctor in Wilhelmshaven has not yet been secured with documents. The appointment as marine assistant physician 2nd class on January 24, 1888 can be found repeatedly in the naval rankings that were published annually by the high command of the navy. According to the naval rankings for the year 1891, the deadline for the data October 31, 1890, Paulun was active in Wilhelmshaven. According to the naval rankings for 1892, as of October 31, 1891, Paulun was ship's doctor on the gunboat Iltis I in East Asian waters. The name Iltis (1) makes sense because the name Iltis has been given at least four times. After the sinking of Iltis (1) on July 23, 1896, there was a new building with the same name, which should be distinguished as Iltis (2). The two gunboats are often confused. He was appointed medical officer on February 23, 1893; Paulun was still on duty on the Iltis gunboat (1). Farewell to the Navy was approved for Paulun on June 30, 1893. The detailed story about Paulun's spontaneous departure from the Navy in June 1891 cannot have happened. As claimed in an earlier version, there cannot have been any return to Germany on the gunboat Iltis (1) and two years of medical training. For one thing, Iltis (1) never returned to Germany. There was one stranding with total loss in the cliffs in front of Moyedao lighthouse, Shandong, with 76 dead, including all officers, including the ship's doctor. On the other hand, Paulun retired from active service in Shanghai on June 30, 1893, but on September 15, 1893, he was expressly mentioned in a letter from the Consulate General in Shanghai to the Reich Chancellor as the representative and successor of the consulate doctor Zedelius. Another old claim that Paulun returned from Germany and founded his own practice or a private practice in Shanghai cannot be true either.

Since this letter of September 15, 1893 is the first reliable proof of the appearance of Paulun in Shanghai and also qualifies him (indirectly), the wording is reproduced below:

“To his Excellency the Chancellor General of the Infantry, Count von Caprivi. In accordance with the high decree of March 5, 1887 - II 3961/7772 - he was active as a doctor of the local Imperial Authority. Zedelius has left Shanghai in order to create a new position in Germany if possible. His local practice, which is not insignificant, was sold to the previous ship's doctor of His Majesty Gunboat Iltis, medical officer of the reserve, Paulun initially as a representative, possibly as a successor. Since the absence of Mr. Zedelius, even in the event of his return to Shanghai, will in any case extend for 1 to 2 years, I do not believe that I may simply accept the agreement made by him for representation or successor, insofar as it affects the Imperial Consulate General, I rather have the honor to obediently seek your Excellency's approval for this, adding that Mr. Paulun, in the short period of his civil medical activity in Shanghai, knew how to quickly acquire and certainly also to maintain the trust of his colleagues and the foreign colony becomes."

The last part of the letter can certainly be rated “as a good testimony” for Paulun. The time indication "... in the short period of his civil medical activity ..." can only refer to the period from July 1st to September 15th, 1893. That is actually very little time to gain the trust of colleagues and patients "as a new doctor".

Shanghai

By decree of November 6, 1893, the Chancellor appointed Paulun as a representative for Zedelius as consular doctor, under the same conditions as Zedelius had previously.

Hong Kong

So far, a stay of several years by Paulun in Hong Kong was completely unknown. The entry in the Hong Kong Medical Register took place in February 1896. The practice was at Queen's Road No. 16, ... in a prime location. For the year 1898, Paulun is still listed in the Chronicle & Directory for China as a resident of Hong Kong. Paulun only returned to Shanghai after the death of Zedelius in January 1899.

Zedelius had returned to Shanghai from Germany and took up his old position again. The exact time is not yet certain, probably in the autumn of 1895. The collaboration between the two very different men turned out to be increasingly difficult. Zedelius came from an old family from Oldenburg that had placed officers, doctors, theologians ... in leading positions for centuries. His father was the district president of Oldenburg. Zedelius was brought up as a pupil with the last ruling Duke of Oldenburg. He thought and acted elitist. Paulun was vital and impulsive. Above all, as an orphan, he had no family to show.

After a heated argument, Paulun went to Hong Kong. This decision was obvious, because Paulun had an excellent reputation as a surgeon among English doctors in China. For example, in the English hospital in Shantou (formerly Swatau), east of Hong Kong, during a stay of Polecat (1) in the port of Shantou, he nevertheless carried out an operation that had been declared not to be feasible under the critical observation of all English colleagues. The patient, Carl von der Osten-Fabeck, survived and was fully rehabilitated. He later wrote the details down in his memoirs.

From April to November 1898 Paulun accompanied the Rear Admiral Prince Heinrich of Prussia from Hong Kong to Canton, North China, Korea and Japan. In the memoirs of Erich Raeder, 1956 edition, the individual stations, details and a photo of excellent quality can be found.

After Zedelius' death, Paulun went back to Shanghai in January 1899, dissolved his practice and sold it. The widow Zedelius and her four children returned to Germany from the proceeds and lived in Hamburg. In the following year Paulun traveled to Hamburg and married the eldest daughter of Zedelius there. They returned to Shanghai together.

The widow Zedelius married the Hamburg China merchant Arnholt. Together they built the house at Elbchaussee 268, which is now the Chinese Consulate General.

History of the establishment of the hospital

During his work Paulun had got to know the poor medical care of the poor Chinese population, so that in 1899 he decided to found a hospital for poor people. He was supported by the former marine doctor Oskar von Schab, who had settled in Kobe, Japan. He was not satisfied there and followed Paulun's request to come to Shanghai to work together. Both founded the “German Medical Association in Shanghai”, in which Paul Krieg also took part a little later . In 1899, Paulun bought a piece of land in Burkill Road (today Fengyang Lu) with donations from German and Chinese companies and other personalities. The entry in the land register took place on October 24, 1900. After the end of the Boxer Wars in 1901, Paulun acquired two so-called Döckersche barracks from the German military for the hospital. According to a report in East Asian Lloyd on December 5, 1902, in-patient treatment began in April of that year. The hospital was very popular with Chinese patients, so that in 1904 a brick building was built and the barracks demolished. Paulun's work is recognized in a retrospective annual report from January 23, 1908 by the physiologist Claude du Bois Reymond: “Every coolie in Shanghai knows the Tongji Hospital. A crowded polyclinic is held every afternoon at 5 a.m. Towards the end the brilliant Paulun appears to carry out one or more major operations almost every evening. "

History of the founding of the medical school

The great popularity of the Chinese patients caused the German doctors to think about founding a medical school. On February 14, 1904, Consul General Knappe wrote to the Foreign Office: “In Shanghai the three German doctors (Paulun, von Schab and Krieg) work with great success under one company and jointly. They also turned to work among the Chinese and, with foreign, especially Chinese, support, set up a hospital with a polyclinic. Their ideal was to combine a school for the training of doctors with the hospital and to build a pre-school for the medical school. ”These lines show that the impetus for the establishment of a medical school in Shanghai was not from the political side, but from Paulun and his colleagues went out. The idea fell on fertile ground in Berlin, so that in the following years various initiatives were involved in founding the medical school. After a visit by a Chinese study commission to Berlin in March 1906, the course was set very quickly. The "German Medical School for Chinese in Shanghai" was founded in 1907 by the German government as the first major foreign cultural policy project. On March 14, 1907, the founding protocol of the medical school was signed and on June 3 of the same year the preschool was opened with 22 students. After Paulun's death, the hospital was named Paulun Hospital (寶隆 醫院, Baolun).

Journey to Europe and Paulun's death

In 1908 Paulun took the first vacation of his life and traveled to Europe with his entire family, five children from one to seven years, including his son Dirks Paulun . In April 1908 he took part in the 37th Congress of the German Society for Surgery in Berlin. He then traveled to Italy, Germany and England. He visited ancient sites, museums, universities, clinics, gave lectures, and promoted medical engagement in China. He wanted to see everything that he hadn't had time for before. On November 5, 1908, the family traveled back to Shanghai on the Derfflinger steamer, where they arrived around Christmas. Paulun needed more space for his large family, and he bought the neighboring house to connect it to his home with a wall breakthrough. There had been typhus sufferers in this house. Paulun asked the attending doctor whether the house had been disinfected. Before he entered the house to measure and allocate the rooms, he asked again about the disinfection and was again confirmed that it had been disinfected. Some time afterwards, Paulun developed a fever that he ignored for a week. Then he was himself a patient with a typhoid infection. When there was also kidney bleeding, he died on March 5, 1909, one day after his 47th birthday. His death caused great consternation and sadness. It was only after his death that many details about his humane treatment of his patients, care and donations became known.

Further development after Paulun's death

In 1912 the German government added the "German Engineering School for Chinese in Shanghai" to the medical school with a training workshop. She was supported to a much greater extent than at the medical school by German companies interested in the China market, including Krupp, Thyssen, Siemens, Bayer, BASF and Deutsche Bank. A language school prepared the Chinese students for German-language specialist studies. In 1917 the "German School of Medicine and Engineering for Chinese in Shanghai" was closed by the French colonial power. However, it was temporarily continued in other buildings with Chinese help and, after the Chinese government had recognized it as a university in 1923, reopened as the Chinese Tongji University in 1924. Their technical equipment was once again donated by German industry, and German lecturers continued to give specialist instruction in German. This created the basis for intensive German-Chinese cooperation a good hundred years ago, which has been preserved to this day.

Appointments, Awards and Honors

• November 10, 1886 junior physician in the Pomeranian Infantry (Bromberg);
• July 27, 1887 doctorate (Berlin);
• November 10, 1887 again under doctor in the Pomeranian Infantry (Bromberg);
• January 24, 1888 Assistant Marine Physician 2nd Class (Wilhelmshaven);
• April 1890 Marine Assistant Physician 1st Class (East Asian Station);
• February 21, 1893 Naval Staff Physician (East Asian station);
• June 15, 1895 Prussian Landwehr Service Award, 2nd class (Shanghai);
• April 12, 1898 Order of Franz Joseph (Hong Kong);
• November 6, 1903 Prussian Landwehr Service Award, 1st class (Shanghai);
• April 23, 1906 Medical Council (Shanghai);
• April 25, 1907 Professor (Shanghai);
• May 13, 2011 Inauguration of a monument in Pasewalk, the city of birth.

In Pasewalk the vocational school "Dr. Erich Paulun" bears his name.

literature

• Roswitha Reinbothe (Ed.): Tongji University in Shanghai: Documents on the founding history. Wiesbaden. Harrassowitz, 2009. ISBN 978-3-447-06063-9
• Tongji University commemorates Dr. Erich Paulun: Bridge builder in German-Chinese cultural exchange; Exhibition on the 100th anniversary of Erich Paulun's death; Shanghai, Berlin, Bonn, Wolfenbüttel, Hamburg; 2009 - 2010. , Hanover Confucius Institute and Tongji University, Shanghai, 2009. OCLC 837591249
• Rainer Dambach (Ed.): Dr. Erich Paulun: Founder of the Tongji Hospital Shanghai; Bridge builder of cultural relations between Germany and China; Commemorative publication on the occasion of the award on May 13, 2011. Pasewalk, 2011 OCLC 915296918

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Baptism and birth registers of the ev. Parish Pasewalk, Große Kirchstr. 17, 17309 Pasewalk
2. ^ Obituary in the Hong Kong Telegraph of March 13, 1909.
3. ↑ from: Roswitha Reinbothe (ed.): Tongji University in Shanghai. Documents on the founding history. ISBN 978-3-447-06063-9 .
4. ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1960, 60 , 204
5. ↑ Erich Paulun: About vertebral fractures. Goedecke & Gallinek, Berlin, 1887 OCLC 251056996
6. ^ Archive of the Humboldt University in Berlin, Acta der Königl. Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin, 482
7. ↑ Navy ranking lists from 1890 to 1894.
8. ↑ Political Archives of the Foreign Office, formerly Federal Archives, R 9208–792
9. ↑ Carl von der Osten-Fabeck: Memories. ISBN 978-3-8391-5628-5 .
10. ↑ Erich Raeder: My life. Until the naval agreement with England in 1935. Fritz Schlichtenmayer Verlag, Tübingen 1956.
11. ^ Tongji Hospital History. Retrieved February 20, 2016 . 
12. ↑ The obituary in the Hong Kong Telegraph of March 13, 1909 can be found at www.dr-erich-paulun.info
13. ^ Website of the Erich Paulun Institute