Hans Hunziker (physician)

Family grave in the Hörnli cemetery , Riehen, Basel-Stadt

Hans Hunziker with his wife Brunhilde Kramer

Hans Hunziker-Kramer (born August 2, 1878 in Attelwil , † December 17, 1941 in Basel ) was a Swiss doctor , university professor for hygiene and social medicine, teetotaler and city ​​physician of Basel.

Life

youth

Hans Hunziker came from a family in which the medical profession was a tradition. His mother died early; Hunziker's father Johannes was a doctor with his own country practice in Attelwil , Canton Aargau . On the often long ride to see patients in the upper Suhrental , Hans was allowed to accompany his father in the saddle. Hans Hunziker had a sister, Martha Jucker-Hunziker (1876–1968). Her father did not allow her to study medicine.

In 1890, Hans Hunziker moved to Basel with his father. There he attended the lower and then the upper high school. In high school he was soon noticed as a good student and because of his muscular strength , which he also used against teachers. He belonged to a group of "valued students" by teachers, including Moppert, Ed. Thommen and Rud. Belonged to black.

After finishing high school, he studied medicine in Basel, Geneva, Heidelberg and Munich. In 1906 he received his doctorate from the University of Zurich with an inaugural dissertation on intraventricular brain tumors .

During these years Hunziker was significantly influenced by Gustav von Bunge and Auguste Forel , whose pupil he was, and their ideology of abstinence . Eugen Blocher and Heinrich Reese were among his childhood friends . Like Hunziker, they were fellow students from Libertas , a "student association that, under the leadership of Bunge and Forel, had set itself the goal of combating the drinking habits of the time".

During his studies, he met his partner and wife Brunhilde Kramer. He had children with Kramer, who was herself a doctor in St. Gallen .

With the intention of returning to surgery later, Hunziker then switched to pathological anatomy at the Pathological Institute in Zurich. Due to hypersensitivity to the skin, he turned away from it and worked as a gynecologist at the Zurich obstetric clinic / Zurich women's clinic.

After his marriage, he settled with his wife as a doctor and gynecologist in Basel, where he opened a doctor's practice and worked as a general practitioner.

For two years, Hunziker was an assistant doctor at the surgical clinic in Basel under Eugen Enderlen . Hunziker was originally interested in obstetrics . Under the influence of Eugen Bleuler , he changed his direction towards psychiatry . His interest in psychiatry led to his being appointed general practitioner at the Basel penal institution in 1908 , an activity that he carried out on a part-time basis.

politics

His insight into hygienic grievances, especially " alcoholism ", gained early on , made him want to hold a public office. Its aim was " prophylaxis " and "preservation of public health ". On July 1, 1911, Hunziker was appointed head of the cantonal health department of Basel-Stadt and replaced Fritz Aemmer , who entered the Basel government, in this office. In order to fully devote himself to his new job, Hunziker had to give up his medical practice. His duties in this office included: the sanitary examination of state officials; the supervision of doctors and pharmacists and of sanatoriums and nursing homes; To initiate measures in the event of influenza epidemics. Hunziker also served as a delegate of the government council in various commissions. Among his confidants, he counted government councilor Edwin Zweifel .

In 1912 his daughter Rose Reimann-Hunziker was born.

Parallel to his public office, where he worked as a practical hygienist, he worked in commissions and associations, gave public lectures on public hygiene and served as a lieutenant colonel (army hygienist) during the First World War from 1914 to 1918.

In his office he contributed a lot to the hygienic education of the broadest sections of the population through lectures and common hygienic information sheets. As a former student of Gustav von Bunge and Auguste Forel, he put his knowledge to the service of Basel's anti-alcohol movement. He contributed to the "enlightenment" of comrades and fellow students in the abstinence movement of Patria and Helvetia as well as in the Libertas student association and helped found new sections of such associations. As the central president and founder of the Alt-Libertas , he had even more influence.

Teaching

On November 20, 1917 he completed his habilitation and became a private lecturer ( Venia docendi ) for hygiene and social medicine / social psychiatry at the University of Basel . In 1917 and 1918, as a representative of Switzerland, he traveled several times to Germany and France to manage and supervise internment transports. In 1922 he was made an honorary member of the Fédération Dentaire Internationale , and later of the Royal Sanitary Institute in London. In 1924 he took part in a study trip of European medical directors to North America in the service of the League of Nations . On July 10, 1925, he was appointed associate professor .

On June 20, 1931, he received a teaching post for special areas of social hygiene . Hunziker oriented various doctoral theses , including those related to medical history . He became chairman of the Swiss Association of Civil Service Doctors . From 1930 he was chairman of the Swiss Society for Health Care .

During the Second World War , Hunziker served as a medical colonel . In this role he mainly dealt with the control and prevention of epidemics. As Colonel of the Sanitary Department, head of the hygiene section of the Sanitary Department, he was also the advisory hygienist of the Army Medical Officer, Colonel Brigadier Paul Vollenweider . One of his best confidants was also Sanitary Colonel Hans Maier .

In 1941 he died unexpectedly of a heart attack in the Basel Citizens Hospital ; Days before that he was still lecturing at the University of Basel. He was buried in the Basel cemetery on Hörnli ; His brother-in-law Pastor Jucker-Hunziker held a farewell speech.

plant

Hunziker wrote scientific works in the fields of general and social hygiene. He also wrote articles in the field of neuropsychiatry . "His monographs on special questions of pathological anatomy, general and social hygiene, the fight against epidemics , cemetery hygiene and medical statistics ", especially the "alcohol question", should be emphasized . According to Alfred Gigon , Hunziker's work on depictions of struma in painting and sculpture in the 16th century shows how he “knew how to combine his studies of art and science”.

In addition to his scientific activities, he gave lectures to educate the public about health problems. This included fighting gnats , rats and mice , preventing epidemics such as typhoid , tuberculosis and goiter, as well as participating in the Samaritan system and gas protection.

Fonts (selection)

• The Basel typhus epidemic of August 1931. Lecture in the Basel Medical Society on December 3, 1931. Swiss Medical Weekly . Volume 62, No. 38.Basel: Benno Schwabe , 1932.
• The water as a carrier of germs . Lecture given at the 58th annual meeting of the Swiss Gas and Water Experts Association (SVGW) in Basel, September 5, 1931. Monthly bulletin of the Swiss Association of Gas and Water Experts . Zurich (Drei-König-Str. 18), born in 1931. No. 10.
• The importance of the Kembs Rhine dam for the sewage system and the groundwater level of the city of Basel and the measures necessary to avoid poor hygiene . From: Technical Hygiene. Supplement Swiss Journal for Roads , Zurich, 1931, No. 7/8.
• Hygienic aspects in the construction of the new central cemetery in Basel . From: Technical Hygiene. Supplement to the Swiss Road Science Journal . No. 5. Solothurn: Vogt-Schild, 1931.
• What are the requirements for hygiene lessons for teachers and students? . Swiss magazine for health care and archive for social welfare . Volume VIII, Issue 5. Zurich: Gutswiller, 1928.
• The fight against Kurpfuschertum in Switzerland . Publications in the field of medical administration . Volume 27, Issue 8. Berlin: Schoetz, 1928. pp. 7-16.
• On the Medical Services of the United States of North America : Report of a study tour of senior medical officers to North America. In: Swiss Journal for Health Care , Volume 4, Zurich: Gutzwiller, 1924 (23 pages)
• Contribution to the doctrine of Acardiacus amorphus . 1907.

literature

• Prof. Hans Hunziker, on his 60th birthday. In: National-Zeitung , August 1, 1938.
• Prof. Hunziker 60 years old. In: Basler Nachrichten , August 2, 1938.
• † Prof. Dr. Hans Hunziker. In: Basler Nachrichten , No. 346, December 17, 1941
• Physicist Prof. Dr. Hans Hunziker †. In: National-Zeitung , No. 586, December 17, 1941
• On the passing of Prof. Hunziker. In: Basler Nachrichten , No. 347, December 18, 1941
• Prof. Dr. Hans Hunziker †. In: National-Zeitung , No. 587, December 18, 1941
• Obituary. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , No. 2077, December 18, 1941
• Farewell to Prof. Dr. Hans Hunziker. In: National-Zeitung , No. 592, 20./21. December 1941
• Heinrich Reese . Obituary for Hans Hunziker in the Medical Society In: Swiss Medical Weekly , Volume 72, No. 5. Basel: Schwabe, 1942 (2 pages)
• Georg Boner : The University of Basel in the years 1914–1939. Basel: F. Reinhardt, 1943.
• Prof. Dr. med. Hans Hunziker – Kramer. In: Biographical Lexicon of Deceased Swiss . Volume 2. Zurich: Swiss Industrial Library, 1948. P. 110.
• HUNZIKER, Hans. Albert Bruckner (Editor-in-Chief): In: New Swiss Biography . Basel: Book printing company for Baslerberichthaus AG. P. 254.

References and comments

1. ↑ ^{a b} Prof. Dr. Hans Hunziker †. In: National-Zeitung No. 587, December 18, 1941
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Farewell to Prof. Dr. Hans Hunziker. In: National-Zeitung No. 592, 20./21. December 1941
3. ↑ On the departure of Prof. Hunziker. In: Basler Nachrichten No. 347, December 18, 1941
4. ^ "Obituary." Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease . August 1942. Vol. 96, p. 238.

Web links

• Literature by and about Hans Hunziker in the catalog of the German National Library
• 45 obituaries in the Basel-Stadt State Archives.