Ferdinand von Herff

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Ferdinand von Herff
(drawing around 1910;
UTHSCSA Libraries)
The coat of arms of the von Herff family (1814)

Ferdinand von Herff (born November 29, 1820 in Darmstadt , Hesse ; † May 18, 1912 in San Antonio (Texas) ) was a German-American surgeon. He is considered the "father of the Texas hospital system".

family

He was the son of the landowner and the Grand Duke of Hesse receding Christian von Herff (1784-1853), Government (Judicial) on hessian Oberappellations- and Cassation i on Neutsch, Lord. Odenwald and Elisabeth Freiin von Meusebach (1795–1871) from Dillenburg , a cousin of Otfried Hans Freiherr von Meusebach (1812–1897), General Commissioner of the Mainz Aristocracy Association . Father Herff was raised to the grand-ducal Hessian nobility on July 29, 1814 in Darmstadt .

Herff married on May 1, 1849 in Germany Mathilde Klingelhöffer (born January 30, 1823 in Gießen , Hessen; † July 9, 1910), the daughter of Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Hermann Klingelhöffer (1796-1821) and Emilie Hoffmann (1803-1835 ).

Life

During his studies at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn , Herff lived with his uncle, the president of this university, through which he met many celebrities. Here he also became a member of the Corps Palatia Bonn in 1839 . Later he studied at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin with the best physicians, the most modern concepts and techniques of medicine and finished his studies in 1843 at the Hessian Ludwigs Universität with a doctorate . In Gießen he became a member of the Corps Starkenburgia in 1842 . During his subsequent service as a military doctor in the Hessian army (1843-1847), he himself developed new techniques in plastic surgery and tuberculosis treatment . As a result, he became known internationally as a young doctor and in the highest circles of the European nobility.

Because of the domestic political unrest in Germany, Herff, like many other intellectuals (see Thirties and Forty-Eighters ) and persuaded by his friend Hermann Spieß , the then general commissioner of the “Mainzer Adelsverein”, emigrated to the USA as early as 1847, accompanied by a group of emigrants led by Spieß then supported a group of intellectuals in Texas with Gustav Schleicher , the " Society of the Forties ", in founding the all too utopian, because noble communist or socialist settlement Bettina (Texas) on the north bank of the Llano River ( Llano County ) near the Town of Castell, Texas . Since this group consisted only of politically interested intellectuals, but technically unskilled and not farmers, this commune, which they named after the poet Bettina von Arnim , only existed for a few months. Herff belonged to a group of German idealistic socialists, which also included Eduard Degener , Ernst Kapp and Edgar von Westphalen , Karl Marx's brother-in-law .

In 1848 Herff returned briefly to Germany, but knowing that Texas would be his new home. He only served briefly in the army as a military doctor, where he was again very successful: Since he was extremely clean, washed himself with soap before each operation and sterilized his instruments , the usual infectious diseases only occurred to an incomparably low level.

He then returned to Texas with his wife Mathilde via New Orleans ( Louisiana ) in 1849 , where he was naturalized and henceforth renounced his title of nobility. The couple initially settled in New Braunfels , then in 1850 they moved to San Antonio, where Herff began his outstanding career as a doctor.

Herff was the first doctor to successfully operate a cataract on an Indian chief and, in 1854, for the first time in Texas to operate on an anesthetized patient. Herff developed the Texan medical system, which at that time of the settlement was mostly still practiced in the open air, in private houses or hotels, which is why he was instrumental in founding the first hospital in San Antonio.

He co-founded the Bexar County Medical Society , the West Texas Medical Association , the Texas Medical and Surgical Record, and the Texas Medical Association, and was a member of the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners .

The family owned a farm near Boerne (Kendall County, Texas) and also promoted the development of the town, which is why the residents erected an obelisk there in memory of Herff's favorite place on Malakopf Mountain , which after it was weathered in 1952 by the Grandchildren John B. and Ferdinand Peter Herff was restored and in 1982 was added to the list of Texas monuments ("Texas Historical Marker").

Around 1865 he also allowed the German aircraft pioneer Jacob Brodbeck (1821–1910) to carry out his experiments on building a new type of “airship” on his farm and actively supported him in doing so.

The couple is buried with relatives in the city cemetery of San Antonio (plot 16 A & B).

Honors

  • Honorary doctorate from the University of Giessen
  • Honorary Doctorate from the St. Louis College of Physicians and Surgeons
  • Honorary member of the Corps Starkenburgia

Works

  • The Regulated Emigration of the German Proletariat with Special Reference to Texas: Being Also a Guide for German Emigrants . German first edition: Franz Varrentrapp Verlag Frankfurt am Main 1850. - English translation: Arthur L. Finck Jr., Trinity University Press, San Antonio (Texas) 1978

literature

  • Gotha noble paperbacks . Series B, Justus Perthes Verlag, Gotha 1919
  • Henry B. Dielmann: Dr. Ferdinand Herff, Pioneer Physician and Surgeon . In: Southwestern Historical Quarterly . Issue 57, USA 1954
  • Ferdinand Peter Herff: The Doctors Herff. A Three Generation Memoir , Ed .: Laura L. Barber, Trinity University Press, San Antonio (Texas) 1973
  • Raymond Boryczka: "I am only an honest man". Dr. Ferdinand Ludwig Herff, pioneer Texas physician and civic leader . Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio (Texas) 2001
  • R. Maurice Hood (arr.): Early Texas Physicians 1830-1915. Innovative, Intrepid, Independent . Texas Surgical Society (Ed.), State House Press, Austin (Texas) 1999, ISBN 1-880510-63-4
  • Frederick C. Chabot: With the Makers of San Antonio , 1937

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Kösener Corpslisten 1930, 14/24; 38/117
personal data
SURNAME Herff, Ferdinand von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Herff, Ferdinand; Herff, Ferdinand Ludwig Johann Arnold von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American surgeon in Texas
DATE OF BIRTH November 29, 1820
PLACE OF BIRTH Darmstadt , Hesse
DATE OF DEATH May 18, 1912
Place of death San Antonio (Texas)