Ernestine Thren

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Ernestine Thren (born March 30, 1899 in Brillbox near London , Great Britain , † February 22, 1981 in Karlsruhe, other information: place of death Mosbach / Neckarelz ), was a German nurse . She served as a Red Cross sister on the Eastern Front during the Second World War and gained public recognition for her work during a smallpox epidemic in Heidelberg .

Live and act

Ernestine Thren was born during a trip to Great Britain as the daughter of railway clerk Johann Thren and his wife Josephine near Brillbox not far from London. She attended elementary school in Diedesheim and was then trained as a seamstress . During the First World War she worked in the service of the Baden State Railroad , after the war she took over an office job at the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians.

In 1926 she joined the Baden Sisterhood of the Red Cross in Karlsruhe and was trained as a nurse. In 1927 she took up a job at the Medical University Clinic in Heidelberg with Ludolf von Krehl and worked on an infection ward until 1939. At the beginning of the Second World War, she was assigned to various field hospitals in France, and in 1941 she was transferred to the Eastern Front. Henni Thiessen , the army superior at the time, entrusted her with the care of seriously wounded soldiers such as those with head injuries and those who were wounded with gunshots from the lungs or stomach due to her special nursing talent. On May 1, 1942, Ernestine Thren received the War Merit Medal .

Stalingrad, smallpox epidemic in Heidelberg

She and her unit got into the Stalingrad pocket in autumn 1942 , from which they escaped on November 25, 1942 on a transport of wounded. When the German troops withdrew, she was captured and taken to a POW camp in Austria , from which she was able to escape. On July 4, 1945, she sought refuge with relatives in Neckarelz .

After the war, Ernestine Thren was employed as a nurse to Oberin Olga von Lersner , also a DRK sister, in Heidelberg. When a smallpox epidemic broke out there in December 1958 , she volunteered to care for the sick with Karl Matthes . This commitment brought her public notoriety and reputation among the population. In 1963 she was awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal for her commitment . In 1933 Pia Bauer , also a DRK nurse at the academic hospital in Heidelberg, had already received this award for her services in oncological care.

Ernestine Thren retired in 1964. She died of a stroke on February 22, 1981 in Karlsruhe. Her notes as a front sister about the operation in Russia were published by Richard Thren after her death.

Henry Dunant received an honorary doctorate from the Medical Faculty of Heidelberg

In 1903 the founder of the International Red Cross, Henry Dunant , to whose mother house Ernestine Thren belonged, was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Medical Faculty of the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität for his services to nursing and especially to war nursing. Dunant received the honorary doctorate together with Gustave Moynier . The doctor, cancer researcher and prorector of the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg , Vincenz Czerny , emphasized at the centenary celebration of Ruperto Carola in 1903 the development of the free science of the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität since the year 1803 and thus continued the tradition of his predecessor Franz Anton Mai and his services to the academization of nursing a hundred years earlier. For health reasons it was not possible for Dunant to attend the Zentenar celebration. He limited himself to written greetings. The academic tradition of nursing since Franz Anton Mai was continued in the nursing school of the University of Heidelberg under the direction of Olga Freiin von Lersner , the employee of Ernestine Threns.

Honors

  • Ernestine Thren received the War Merit Medal in 1942
  • Ernestine Thren received the Florence Nightingale Medal in 1963 for her services during the smallpox epidemic in Heidelberg (1958)

literature

photos

  • In the Heidelberg University Museum, a display board (exhibit no. 27) shows several photos of the Bergheim Clinic (Ludolf von Krehl Clinic). In one of the photos Ludolf von Krehl can be seen with his Red Cross nurses.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Leobw: Ernestine Thren
  2. ↑ Wolfgang U. Eckart : The Heidelberg School of Anthropological Medicine , in: Heidelberg University, Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography, Peter Meusburger and Thomas Schuch, published on behalf of Rector Prof. Dr. Bernhard Eitel : Scientific Atlas of Heidelberg University , Bibliotheca Palatina, Knittlingen 2011, pp. 116–119, Photo: Krehl in the circle of the sisters of the Medical Clinic in 1930 , p. 117.
  3. ↑ Letter responses to the publication Richard Thren: DRK Sister Ernestine Thren
  4. ↑ Vice-Rector Excellence Privy Councilor Professor Dr. Czerny : Ceremonial address , in: Senate of Ruperto Carola : Acta Saecularia. In memory of the centenary celebration at Heidelberg University, 1803-1903 , Verlag von Otto Petters Heidelberg 1904, pp. 59–61, Henry Dunant , pp. 180, 215.
  5. ↑ Christine R. Auer: History of the nursing professions as a subject. The curricular development in nursing education and training , dissertation Institute for the history of medicine (later: history and ethics of medicine) Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg , academic advisor Wolfgang U. Eckart , Heidelberg 2008, pp. 91–95. C. Auer: History of the nursing professions as a subject
  6. ↑ On May 12, 1963, Ernestine Thren received the Florence Nightingale Medal ( Memento of the original from April 29, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.drk-badische-schwesternschaft.de

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Thren, Ernestine
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Red Cross Sister
DATE OF BIRTH March 30, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Brillbox near London
DATE OF DEATH February 22, 1981
Place of death Karlsruhe