Ernst Gottlob Pienitz

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Ernst Gottlob Pienitz

Ernst Gottlob Pienitz (born August 20, 1777 in Radeberg ; † May 30, 1853 in Pirna ) was a German doctor and psychiatrist . From 1811 to 1851 he was director of the Royal Saxon Healing and Catering Establishment on the Sonnenstein and belongs to the group of somatics .

Life

Pienitz was born in Radeberg as the son of the surgeon Christian Gotthelf Pienitz (1741–1788). Like three of his brothers, he became a doctor, studied like his father at the Dresden Collegium Medicorum (1795 to 1796 and 1799) and graduated as a surgeon before serving as a military surgeon in the Saxon Artillery Corps from 1797 to 1800. On March 12, 1801, he enrolled at the medical faculty of the University of Leipzig, where he studied until 1803.

After a year of study in Vienna in 1804, where his interest in psychiatry was aroused, he traveled to Paris to see Philippe Pinel in February 1805 . Christian August Fürchtegott Hayner was also in Paris . Both were supported by the Saxon Minister Gottlob Adolf Ernst von Nostitz and Jänkendorf , who sought a reform of the Saxon psychiatry system for the Saxon government. Pienitz and Hayner were supposed to study the latest methods of psychiatry at the Hôpital de la Salpêtrière with Pinel in order to be able to apply their knowledge later in Saxony. After completing his study visit, Pienitz returned to Leipzig in the spring of 1806, where he passed his exam in May. In the same month he took up a position as an assistant doctor at the poor, hospital and penitentiary in Torgau .

In September 1806 Pienitz received his doctorate in Leipzig with a thesis on the treatment of the mentally ill. Also in September he married Julie Baudon, the daughter of an art professor, in Paris. The witnesses were Hayner and Jean-Étienne Esquirol , who had also studied with Pinel.

From 1807 to 1810 Pienitz worked as an independent general practitioner in the Torgau Institute and was therefore the doctor responsible for around 300 inmates. In addition to prisoners and beggars, numerous mentally ill people were also housed there.

The closure of Torgau at Napoleon's request became the external reason for the reorganization of the Saxon institutional system. By decree of King Friedrich August I , the Royal Saxon Commission for the state penal and supply institutions was instructed to set up an institution for the mentally ill in the Sonnenstein fortress in Pirna . On behalf of the chairman of the commission, Nostritz, Christian Hayner prepared an expert opinion on the establishment of the institution. After the establishment of the institution, Ernst Pienitz was appointed first director of the newly opened Royal Saxon Healing and Catering Institution on the Sonnenstein on July 8, 1811.

The opening of the institution marked the beginning of a reform of psychiatry in Saxony, which was intended to set an example for the German territorial states. Here was first healing of mentally ill done to the target. In addition to moderate means of coercion, the treatment methods for the first time provided alternative applications such as baths, medication and early forms of psychotherapeutic measures. Due to the healing successes, which were sensational for the time, the professional world soon became aware of the institution, which later earned it the reputation of being the German training center for "mad doctors". Pienitz died on May 30, 1853 in his house in Pirna on Lauterbachstrasse and was buried in the family grave of the Sonnenstein cemetery.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Boris Böhm: Ernst Gottlob Pienitz (1777-1853) - the first director of the Sonnenstein sanatorium . In: Pirnaer Hefte . No. 5 , 2003, p. 135-149 .
  2. ↑ a b Otto Bach: The "Heil- und Pflegehaus Sonnenstein" . In: Ärzteblatt Sachsen . No. 6 , 2010, p. 288–290 ( online as PDF ).
personal data
SURNAME Pienitz, Ernst Gottlob
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German doctor and psychiatrist
DATE OF BIRTH August 20, 1777
PLACE OF BIRTH Radeberg
DATE OF DEATH May 30, 1853
Place of death Pirna