Henryk Dobrzycki

Henryk Dobrzycki

Henryk Dobrzycki (born January 5, 1841 in Kalisch , Poland , † March 7, 1914 in Warsaw ) was a famous Polish doctor , philanthropist , musicologist and composer .

Life

Studies

Henryk Dobrzycki's grave

Dobrzycki came to the city of Kalisch as the son of the city official Hipolit Dobrzycki and his wife Barbara geb. Lipska to the world. He came from a patriotic family of the small nobility. In 1858 he passed the Abitur exam at the municipal secondary school. He began studying architecture at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. However, he had to stop this because of an eye disease. In 1860 Dobrzycki enrolled at the Medical and Surgical Academy in Warsaw. After a year he moved to the University of Breslau , where he completed two semesters. Then he returned to Warsaw. He received his medical diploma in 1864 at the Warsaw secondary school . His teachers and later collaborators included Tytus Chałubiński and Franciszek Sokalski .

Professional activities

Even as a student of medicine, Dobrzycki cared for wounded insurgents in 1863. During this time, he also got to know the difficult fate of the rural population in Congress Poland and decided to serve them through his work. Instead of opening a practice in a big city, he went to Mienia near Mińsk Mazowiecki , where he founded Poland's first and one of Europe's first sanatoriums for poor consumption patients. He spent 15 years there and published numerous scientific reports on his work. Soon he became one of Poland's greatest authorities in the field of tuberculosis medicine and climatology .

In 1879 Dobrzycki moved to Warsaw, where, together with Chalubinski and Sokalski, he established a foundation that supported Polish medical research. In 1898 the "Hygienic Society" was founded and Dobrzycki took over the management of the department for climatic and water health resorts . He was also made an honorary member of the Warsaw Medical Association and a full member of the Warsaw Scientific Society.

Scientific activity

Henryk Dobrzycki had no scientific titles or degrees, but was nonetheless a globally recognized scientific authority. He took part in medical congresses in Vienna , (1873), Rome , (1894) and Saint Petersburg , (1898). The international section of the medical press was created at his request. He was also the founder of the Warsaw magazine Klinika ( Clinic ) and chief editor of the magazine "Medycyna i kronika lekarska" ( Medicine and Medical Chronicle ). He wrote about 125 scientific and popular scientific papers. Dobrzycki mainly dealt with tuberculosis and the Vistula plait , but also left behind u. a. statistics on accidents while working with agricultural machines, the project of a family house for farmers with exemplary hygienic facilities, an analysis of the work in the setters from a toxicological and orthopedic point of view, and a history of medical training in Congress Poland. He was also one of the pioneers in creating the summer colonies for poor city children.

Activity in the field of culture

Dobrzycki was a board member of the Warsaw Music Society, which was once founded by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann , and as such he created a special Chopin section, which organized the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the composer's death, founded a Chopin Museum and raised funds for the construction of the Chopin monument in Warsaw. At the same time he was a board member of the Society for General Libraries and for the Promotion of Fine Arts.

Among his own compositions, mention should be made of the song “ Kennst du das Land ” based on a text by Maria Konopnicka (based on Goethe ), and a few polonaises for the piece “Burggrafenmet” by Józef Ignacy Kraszewski . He was also a novelist and wrote several works on Polish art, literature and music history.

In honor of him, the Warsaw Society for Hygiene created a foundation named after him and a scholarship for elementary school teachers after his death.

Works (selection, title translated)

• Completely new and easy way of reading Polish, or a little Polish ABC , (1862);
• On the origin of systolic heart cramp , (1864);
• About the Weichselzopf , commonly called “polca polonica” , (1877);
• Bronchitis as the cause of consumption , (1884);
• On the Cure of Pulmonary Tuberculosis , (1891);
• A few words about Chopin's portraits , (1894);
• Andriolli in Art and Social Life , (1904);
• Roman Im Dorfe , (1904);
• Chopin's Ethnicity , (1908).

literature

• Alexander von Freyer, Jacek Krajewski, Witold Piotrowski: The Henryk Dobrzycki Hospital in Jawor / Jauer. Yes 1997.