Ernst Kohlschütter

This article deals with the medical professional, for the geophysicist and astronomer see Ernst Kohlschütter (geophysicist)

Ernst Kohlschütter

Ernst Otto Heinrich Kohlschütter (born December 26, 1837 in Dresden , † September 7, 1905 in Bad Salzschlirf ) was a German physician .

Life

Ernst Kohlschütter was born in Dresden on December 26, 1837 as the son of the physician Otto Kohlschütter (1807-1853) and his wife Henriette Heydenreich. He was first trained by his father and by a private tutor , and from 1850 he attended the Saxon State High School in Sankt Afra . He passed his school leaving examination in 1856. Now he moved to the University of Leipzig to study medicine, although he was also interested in Greek philology . He chose medicine because his late father was a doctor. The study was financed by scholarships as well as by former patients of the father.

He graduated in 1862 with the promotion to the doctor from the medicine, he had conducted research on the "strength of sleep." In sleep research , the term wake-up threshold is associated with these attempts to determine the “depth of sleep” from the beginning of research into sleep. His waking stimulus method chose the strength of the stimulus that leads to awakening as a measure of the depth of sleep.

Thanks to Theodor Weber , Kohlschütter was then able to work as an assistant doctor at the university's polyclinic. In 1864 he received his license to practice medicine and was henceforth allowed to act as a surgeon and obstetrician . With a study on typhoid abdominalis he was then on the two-year university hall of Internal Medicine habilitation . From then on he taught balneology as a private lecturer and was appointed head of clinical propaedeutics .

During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/1871 Kohlschütter volunteered as a doctor in the Diakonissenanstalt Halle . For this he received the war memorial for non-combatants . In 1875 he was promoted to unpaid associate professor in Halle . In the polyclinic, he advocated getting new equipment.

Kohlschütter was of the opinion that the tuberculin serum was not effective, which is why he heavily criticized Robert Koch . As a result, the Ministry of Culture obtained the Faculty's opinion on this topic. Although the university defended him, from then on he could no longer work as a scientist. Although he was considered an excellent doctor, he did not see his work as a scientific one, but as one that should help people. In addition to his work as a doctor and professor, he was involved in many commissions , associations and bodies . He participated in the planning and implementation of a water pipe and the expansion of the sewer system. He also examined the groundwater. It is basically thanks to these efforts that Halle was not hit by the cholera epidemic of 1873/1874. He also got involved in a holiday colony for poor and disabled children. Together with Johannes Conrad , he initiated a reading room for the people, he also created public kitchens and public coffee halls, whereby it was important to him that no alcohol was served there. Furthermore, he was the curator of the Hallensisches Museum and thus caused the Moritzburg to be converted into a museum. Since 1879 he was also chairman of the liberal association, but soon gave up this position. From 1885 he was chairman of the Association for the People's Welfare. In this office he tried to improve the position of the workers. In doing so, however, he made social democracy an enemy. Although he did not suffer any general disadvantages from all the political activity, he still received no funding, as noted in the chronicle of the University of Halle.

In 1890 Kohlschütter gave up the professorship because it was no longer acceptable for him due to political conflicts. But he continued to give lectures. In 1896 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina .

In 1892 Kohlschütter was appointed a local councilor. He held this position until his death. According to the university chronicle, however, he often had tantrums against “meanness and meanness”, which is why he was soon considered an outsider.

On September 7, 1905, Kohlschütter succumbed to a heart attack while on a spa stay in Bad Salzschlirf , after he had previously suffered from heart disease and hearing impairment and had withdrawn from the public. In his medical care for the poor he had taken no account of his own health, had been infected several times and almost died of an epidemic.

The Association for Cemetery Culture Halle describes Kohlschütter as "helpers of the poor in Glaucha ". Shortly after his death, Kohlschütterstraße was named after him in Halle as a souvenir for his commitment, for his work in local politics and for his concern for the poor. There is a marble monument for Kohlschütter at the north cemetery in Halle. A pharmacy in Halle has been named Kohlschütter since 1991.

family

Kohlschütter was married three times, his first marriage to Antonie Härtel (born November 21, 1837 in Leipzig, † early February 1874 in Halle an der Saale), a daughter of the music publisher Hermann Härtel , whom he married on February 23, 1873 in Leipzig. In his second marriage he was married to Elise Klincke († 1870), with whom he had the son Ernst Kohlschütter . His third wife was Helene Spielberg (1842–1898), daughter of the lawyer Wilhelm Spielberg . The marriage had five children, including the astronomer Arnold Kohlschütter . In addition, Kohlschütter adopted four children and had guardianship over two more. He earned the money for his family through his lectures and his medical practice. However, he received no appointment to other chairs and did not write any scientific works.

Web links

• Pagel: Biographical lexicon of outstanding doctors of the nineteenth century. Berlin, Vienna 1901, column 892.
• Entry on Ernst Kohlschütter in the Catalogus Professorum Halensis
• Biography of Kohlschütter and further information on friedhofskultur-halle.de
• NDB

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ernst Otto Heinrich Kohlschütter: Measurement of the firmness of sleep . In: Journal for rational medicine . Third row, no. 17 , 1863, p. 209-253 . , here online (PDF, 5.88 MB), accessed on January 29, 2013
2. ↑ Uwe Rose The Diakoniekrankenhaus Halle in: The Surgeons Association Saxony-Anhalt 1990–2000 Halle 2001, p. 130