Friedrich Wilhelm Oppenheim

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Lithograph by Philibert Schick (1850)

Friedrich Wilhelm Oppenheim (born October 5, 1799 as Samuel Oppenheim in Hamburg , † March 16, 1852 in Illenau ) was a German doctor .

Live and act

Friedrich Wilhelm Oppenheim was the son of the wealthy businessman Salomon Oppenheim (~ 1770–1830) and his wife Judith, née Bondy (~ 1773–1857). The couple had five children, of whom Friedrich Wilhelm was the second oldest. Salomon Oppenheim was involved in the Jewish reform movement and the Jewish community in Hamburg . During the French period in Hamburg and from 1815 to 1825 he was a member of the board of directors of the German-Israelite community.

Friedrich Wilhelm Oppenheim attended the learned school of the Johanneum from 1810 to 1818 and from spring to autumn 1818 at the Academic Gymnasium in Hamburg . He then studied medicine at the University of Hamburg and the University of Heidelberg . During his studies in 1820 he converted from the Jewish to the Christian faith. The family members followed his example until the middle of the 19th century. He often acted as a witness at these baptisms. During his baptism ceremony on November 8, 1820 in the Protestant church of Mosbach , he took the first name "Friedrich Wilhelm". Since people of Jewish faith were only allowed to work to a limited extent at the time, the conversion gave Oppenheim new professional perspectives; A job in the civil service would not have been possible for him as a Jew.

On December 8, 1821, Oppenheim passed the Rigorosum of medical studies "with excellent praise" and received his doctorate two days later. He then traveled for three years through Europe for educational purposes, including France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Transylvania and Bohemia. In the autumn of 1824 he settled in Hamburg as a qualified general practitioner. He worked as a surgeon and obstetrician. On January 14, 1825, he acquired Hamburg citizenship .

In the following years Oppenheim repeatedly undertook educational trips as a practical surgeon. In 1829 he worked as a medical officer at the General Staff of the Russian Army under Nikolaus I. Oppenheim headed the avant-garde ambulance during the Russo-Turkish War . After the Peace of Adrianople he worked in the hospital of Constantinople , of which he became director. After the withdrawal of the Russian army, he left the troops with a higher rank. He then worked as the chief doctor for the Ottoman Sultan Abdülmecid I until 1831 . In the collection of the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg there is a Koran that he received as thanks. He redesigned Turkish military medicine on the European model. In 1830/31 he accompanied the war against Albania as a practical field surgeon. During the wars, Oppenheim performed numerous amputations of limbs, which were often pioneering acts. For this he received several awards such as the Order of St. Vladimir . He was also named a Russian hereditary nobility.

Oppenheim then left the Turkish army and traveled through southeast Europe. In August 1831 he went back to Hamburg. Here he practiced as a surgeon and surgeon, but no longer as an obstetrician. He described his travels and visits abroad in several books and articles that appeared, for example, in the magazine for all medicine . He not only dealt with medical topics, but also cultural and historical contexts. The scientific findings entered the specialist literature. Many of his contributions have appeared in English and French translations.

From 1836 Oppenheim was co- editor of the journal for all medicine . From 1842 to 1851 he was the sole editor. As a result, the journal was in close contact with the Medical Association and has meanwhile been its publication organ. Oppenheim had joined the association in 1825 and worked in its management from 1837 to 1843. He was also committed to a planned reform of the Hamburg medical regulations. After the club library was largely lost in the Hamburg fire , Oppenheim campaigned for its reconstruction. In the magazine he successfully advertised for monetary and material donations from home and abroad, with the help of which the library could be re-established.

Together with Johann Carl Georg Fricke , Gustav Buek , Georg Hartog Gerson and Günther Oppenheim , Friedrich Wilhelm Oppenheim founded the Anatomical and Surgical School, where he taught himself from 1833 to 1842. Here surgeons from Hamburg and the surrounding area received medical training within two years, which complemented the offers of the academic high school and the university and prepared them for study. From 1845 to 1850 he was also a member of the Hamburg Health Council.

Outside Hamburg, Oppenheim was intensely involved in medical-scientific committees and was a member of many societies and academies. On May 15, 1850, he asked the Hamburg Senate to be released from work due to health problems. A little later he stopped the practical activities.

Friedrich Wilhelm Oppenheim, who had been married to his wife and cousin Maria Elisabeth since March 15, 1832, left two sons and a daughter.

Publications (selection)

author

  • Experimenta nonnulla circa vitam arteriarum et circulationem sanguinis per vasa collateralia. ( Dissertation ), Hamburg 1822.
  • The?? Treatment of the pleasure plague without mercury or the non-mercurial means and methods for curing the pleasure plague. Hamburg, 1827.
  • About the state of medicine and about common diseases in European and Asian Turkey. Hamburg, 1833.

editor

  • Journal for the whole medicine. (45 volumes), Hamburg 1836 to 1851.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quran | Museum of Arts and Crafts Hamburg. Retrieved March 23, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Oppenheim, Friedrich Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Oppenheim, Samuel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German doctor
DATE OF BIRTH October 5, 1799
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH March 16, 1852
Place of death Illenau