Heinrich Wilhelm Behm

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Gesundbrunnen, copper engraving by Johann Daniel Schleusen around 1770

Heinrich Wilhelm Behm (* 1708 in Erfurt ; † 1780 in Berlin ) was a German doctor and court pharmacist of Friedrich II.

Life

Behm studied at the University of Erfurt , where he received his doctorate in medicine in 1730 with his inaugural dissertation on dropsy (Dissertatio Inauguralis Medica De Hydrope). After completing his studies, he became Friedrich II's court pharmacist in Berlin. At the beginning of the 18th century, a spring was discovered on the Panke , which can be verified from 1748, when a Berlin merchant intended to use the water for his calico factory with bleach . In 1751, the chemist Andreas Sigismund Marggraf investigated the iron-containing spring, which Berliners had now known as a healing spring .

Another analysis took place in 1757 when Behm offered the king to set up a spa. On March 17, 1757, he turned to Friedrich II with the request "on the Feldmarck Wedding, without a paper mill by the mineral spring located there" to establish a health well. Attached were plans for the facility and the request for a lease permit for parts of the royal property in Wedding. Since Behm intended with his plans to make the fountain "a beauty and gem of the area of ​​the Royal Residences", he also hoped for financial support. Friedrich II made building materials available. The Vorwerk Wedding, to which the spring belonged, was first leased to him temporarily and then in 1766 in long lease .

Behm's original plans envisaged a circular square on an area of ​​almost 40  hectares , surrounded by representative colonnades as well as accommodation and farm buildings. The centerpiece should be the bathhouse, as a temple-like complex, crowned by a Hercules statue. Radially radiating streets should open up a surrounding park. Due to cost reasons, these plans could not be realized, instead a much simpler facility was built on the Panke from 1758 to 1760, which Behn named "Friedrichs-Gesundbrunnen" and which was officially opened in 1760 as Gesund Brunnen . For this purpose, Behm published a small advertising pamphlet in 1760 with the title Preliminary Message from the Gesundbrunnen near Berlin .

Behm died in 1780. With his death, the decline of the bathing establishment began, his heirs sold the lease, the buildings fell into disrepair and the visitors stayed away. The war and the defeat of Prussia in 1806 brought the spa business to a standstill.

Behmstrasse , located in the garden city of Atlantic , was named in 1894.

Works

  • Heinrich Wilhelm Behm: Dissertation Inauguralis Medica De Hydrope . Joh. Christophorus Heringii, Erfurt 1730 ( Göttingen Digitization Center ).
  • Preliminary news from the Gesund fountain near Berlin; 1760

literature

  • Ute Langeheinecke: Wedding as a rural settlement. On the urban development of the Wedding district, 1720 to 1840 . Mann, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-7861-1658-X .
  • Matthias Donath, Gabriele Schulz: Mitte district. Wedding and Gesundbrunnen districts . Ed .: Landesdenkmalamt Berlin (=  monument topography Federal Republic of Germany. Monuments in Berlin ). Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2004, ISBN 3-937251-26-X , p. 16-17 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Heinrich Wilhelm Behm: Dissertatio Inauguralis Medica De Hydrope . Joh. Christophorus Heringii, Erfurt 1730 ( Göttingen Digitization Center ).
  2. ↑ Behmstrasse. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
personal data
SURNAME Behm, Heinrich Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German doctor and court pharmacist Frederick II.
DATE OF BIRTH 1708
PLACE OF BIRTH Erfurt
DATE OF DEATH 1780
Place of death Berlin