Friedrich Betz

Friedrich Betz

Philipp Friedrich Betz (born February 15, 1819 in Weinsberg , † September 24, 1903 in Heilbronn ) was a German doctor and medical writer . He had his own practice in Heilbronn for over 50 years, published a large number of specialist articles and edited two medical journals. In Weinsberg and Heilbronn he was a co-founder and long-time chairman of two historical associations .

Life

Betz grew up in Weinsberg, where his father was a stocking knitter, wine tavern and city councilor. Up to the age of 14 he attended the Weinsberg Latin School . The successful career of an uncle, a senior staff doctor Dr. Dorsch in the Hanoverian service in Celle , awakened in him the desire for a medical profession. From 1833 he started an apprenticeship with the Gundelsheim city ​​doctor Stegmeyer, a friend of his family , who trained him in wound medicine . In 1837 he passed the wound medicine assistant examination.

Betz wanted to be a doctor and medical study. Since his parents did not have enough financial means, he joined the Württemberg military and in 1838 became a military junior doctor in Ludwigsburg . In Ludwigsburg, he attended the Lyceum in addition to his official duties and passed the Matura examination in 1842 . In the same year he began studying medicine at the University of Tübingen . He made use of a regulation that existed in the Kingdom of Württemberg at the time , which enabled junior doctors with a high school diploma to study in the military for a further six years with full wages in return for an obligation. He stayed longer in the military and was active as an assistant doctor for a total of 18 years.

In November 1845 he finished his studies and was then a year as a junior physician in Stuttgart , where he gave anatomical lessons at the art school . He then worked as a doctor in his hometown of Weinsberg for nine months before receiving an invitation in 1847 to work as an assistant at the Physiological-Anatomical Institute in Tübingen. There he became a prosector with Friedrich Arnold , gave lectures in osteology and pastoral medicine and was temporarily assistant doctor in the clinic of Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich . In the spring of 1848 he made a scientific trip to Prague and Vienna . He turned down an assistant position offered to him at the University of Tübingen. From March 1850, Betz worked as a general practitioner in Heilbronn , the neighboring town of Weinsberg. On 6 December 1852 he was with a thesis on The deformities of the human jaw from the University of Erlangen doctorate .

Betz had started in 1848 to write medical articles and send them to specialist journals. By 1855, dozens of articles by Betz appeared in a large number of journals. In 1856 he finally founded his own specialist journal, the Memorabilien aus der Praxis , from 1858 only Memorabilien with the subtitle Zeitschrift für rational Praxis Ärzte , and only published there over 200 articles in the course of the following decades. In 1864 he also took over the editor of the journal Der Irrenfreund. A psychiatric monthly for general practitioners . Both magazines ceased to appear on his death.

During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871 , Betz trained a field medical team for the theater of war, as he did during the German War in 1866, and headed a military hospital . When cholera broke out in Vienna at the end of August 1873 , he studied it on site, but was called back by telegram after a few days because the disease had also broken out in Heilbronn.

Betz was committed to the medical profession in a variety of ways. In Heilbronn he founded the medical association in 1851 and chaired it for a long time. He was also a member of appropriate bodies at the district and state level. He visited the German Medical Conference several times . In 1877 he suggested a central aid fund for doctors , but was unable to assert itself, so that the establishment of one, as a forerunner of the German medical insurance , later came from Berlin. In 1884 Betz, who was an opponent of vaccination and never vaccinated in his practice, was appointed a member of a commission at the Imperial Health Office for the introduction of smallpox vaccination .

Politically, Betz was conservative and advocated the small German solution , that is, a German empire under Prussia's leadership. In 1860 he joined the German National Association in Coburg , in 1867 he was a co-founder of an association of national men in Heilbronn based on the principles of the national liberal German Party (DP) in Stuttgart. The Heilbronn DP, which was organized in 1875, he served for many years as a committee member, in 1899 he was appointed to its honorary board.

Design of the Oekolampadius monument. Lithograph around 1868

Although Betz had not lived in Weinsberg since 1847, he always retained his citizenship there. The history of the city was very close to his heart, and after the city of Basel erected a memorial to the Basel reformer Johannes Oekolampadius , who came from Weinsberg, in 1862, he committed to building one in Weinsberg as well. He was able to win several well-known Weinsberg citizens such as Theobald Kerner , Christian Hildt , Dean Hermann Bauer and Stadtschultheiß Käpplinger for his project, and in 1871 the monument was inaugurated on the church square in front of the Johanneskirche , where it stood until 1967 when it was damaged by a Relief was replaced. In addition to Oekolampadius, the memorial was also dedicated to the memory of the first Protestant pastors Weinsberg, Erhard Schnepf and Johann Geyling .

To commemorate the inauguration of the monument, the Oekolampadius Association was formed in Weinsberg that same year. Under the chairmanship of Betz, who had been a member since 1863 and a committee member since 1872 of the Historical Association for Württembergisch Franconia, the Oekolampadius Association set itself the task of maintaining the history of the town and office of Weinsberg. In 1882 he organized a public celebration for Oekolampadius' 400th birthday. Betz remained chairman of the association until 1899, when he was followed by Heinrich Meißner, pastor from Weinsberg. In November 1906, the association dissolved and the Justinus Kerner Association, founded in the previous year, was used to inherit its collections, some of which can be seen in the Kernerhaus .

In Heilbronn, too, a history association was to be established based on the model of the Historical Association for Württemberg Franconia. Betz pushed ahead with the establishment, and on February 27, 1876 the first meeting of the Heilbronn Historical Society took place, which Friedrich Betz elected to the board of directors. The main focus of the association's activities during Betz's executive committee was the collecting of antiquities and soil research. In 1899 Alfred Schliz Betz succeeded him as a member of the board.

From 1896 onwards, Betz's health deteriorated. He still had his own practice until autumn 1902. After a brain embolism on November 11, 1902, he could no longer get out of bed. On September 24, 1903, he died at 3 a.m., and on September 26, at 3 p.m., he was buried in the Weinsberg cemetery next to his wife, who had died in 1875. The estate of Frederick Betz is located in the city archives Heilbronn .

family

In April 1852 Betz married his wife Marie Picot († 1875), the daughter of a merchant from Spiegelberg . From the marriage u. a. the son Odo Betz, who graduated from the University of Tübingen as Dr. med. received his doctorate and died on January 2, 1916 at the age of 55.

Awards

For the training of paramedics and management of a hospital, Betz received the Olga Order and the Bavarian Cross of Merit for the years 1870/71 in 1871 . On his 80th birthday in 1899, King Wilhelm II awarded him the title of Medical Councilor .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Date and place of death after the entry on Philipp Friedrich Betz in the personal database of the Baden-Württemberg State Bibliography
2. ^ Stadtarchiv Heilbronn, archive materials, signature D001-41, entry on the military farewell to the Württemberg 6th Infantry Regiment for Dr. Philipp Friedrich Betz in the HEUSS database after 18 years as a junior doctor, first class
3. ↑ Memorabilia from practice . Heilbronn, 1.1856-2.1857, ZDB -ID 538477-1
4. ↑ Memorabilia. Journal for rational general practitioners . Heilbronn, 3.1858-25.1880, N.F. 1 = 26.1881-19 = 44.1901 / 03.9, ZDB -ID 538492-8
5. ↑ The mad friend. A psychiatric monthly for general practitioners. Scheurlen, Heilbronn, 1.1859–42.1901 / 02, ZDB -ID 506590-2
6. ^ Stadtarchiv Heilbronn, archive materials, signature D001-49, entry for inquiry to Dr. Betz, whether he would like to work as an expert in the commission at the Imperial Health Department for the introduction of the smallpox vaccination in the HEUSS database
7. ↑ Heilbronn City Archives, archive materials, signature D001, entry on the estate of Dr. med. Friedrich Betz in the HEUSS database
8. ↑ Heilbronn City Archives, archive materials, signature D001-50, entry on doctoral degree (certificate) from the University of Tübingen for Dr. Odo Betz in the HEUSS database
9. ^ Friedrich Dürr : Chronicle of the city of Heilbronn . Volume II: 1896-1921. Heilbronn City Archives, Heilbronn 1986, DNB  870345052 , p. 213 ( Publications of the Archives of the City of Heilbronn . Volume 28. - Unchanged reprint of the first edition from 1922).
10. ↑ Stadtarchiv Heilbronn, archive materials, signature D001-45, entry on the order's vice-chancellor's reply to the letter of thanks from Dr. Betz for the award of the Order of Olga in the HEUSS database
11. ↑ City Archives Heilbronn, archival materials, signature D001-46, entry on the letter of the Order Chancellor that the Württemberg King had given the acceptance of the Bavarian Cross of Merit for 1870/1871 to Dr. Betz sports-free approved in the HEUSS database

literature

• Julius Pagel : Betz, Philipp Friedrich . In: Biographical lexicon of outstanding doctors of the nineteenth century. Urban & Schwarzenberg, Berlin / Vienna 1901, Sp.  162–163 .
• Friedrich Betz † . In: Medicinisches Correspondenzblatt des Württembergisches Ärztlichen Landesverein . 73rd year. Schweizerbart, 1903, ZDB -ID 502535-7 , p. 855-858 .
• Kurt Seeber: Friedrich Betz and the Oekolampadius Association. In: Contributions to Swabian literary and intellectual history and communications from the Justinus Kerner Association and Women's Association Weinsberg e. V. Volume 2. Verlag des Justinus-Kerner-Verein, Weinsberg 1982, ISBN 3-922352-04-9 , ISSN  0723-1970 , pp. 212-218
• Helmut Schmolz : 100 years of the Heilbronn Historical Association. A review. In: Yearbook for Swabian-Franconian History . Volume 28. Heilbronn Historical Association, Heilbronn 1976, ISSN  0175-9841 , pp. 303-330

Web links

Commons : Friedrich Betz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Heilbronn city archive, contemporary history collection, signature ZS-11110, entry on Friedrich Betz in the HEUSS database