Hermann Altmann

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hermann Altmann (born July 19, 1873 in Angerburg , East Prussia , Gumbinnen district ; † November 4, 1940 in Weißwasser ) was a German doctor. After studying medicine, he settled in Weißwasser / O. L., where he was driven to his death by the National Socialists after more than 37 years of service .

Life

Altmann came from a Jewish family, his father Abraham AM Altmann was a rabbi , his mother's name was Chanange. He had five siblings named Moritz, Max, Bernhard, Lotte and Cäcilie. He attended a preparatory school and studied at the high school in Poznan from Easter 1886 . In 1891 he passed his Abitur there and was already matriculated at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Berlin from May , where he studied medicine . There he was a member of a striking association . After a break in his studies, he took the preliminary medical examination at Easter 1899. Before 1903, Altmann married Frieda Petzold, then around 28 years old, who died on January 10, 1914. With her he had a daughter, Ruth.

On February 21, 1903, Altmann received his license to practice medicine with the rating “good” . He submitted his dissertation to Leipzig University and received printing permission on November 25, 1903. On October 15, Dr. Altmann opens his practice in Weißwasser / O. L., in the house of the Zum Prälaten restaurant , which later became the Schlachteplatte restaurant , on Bautzener Strasse, known in the local press as a general practitioner, surgeon and obstetrician. He was the fourth physician in town.

As early as February 11, 1904, the Weißwasser parish council decided to follow the proposal of the commission for the poor and appoint it as a poor, d. H. To appoint a care physician. Altmann joined the Görlitz synagogue community . Around 1907 he moved his practice to the residential and commercial building of the businessman Gustav Handrick in Friedrichstrasse , at the corner of Bismarckstrasse 4, later 9, today Dr. Altmann-Strasse, corner of Strasse der Glasmacher.

During the First World War he served in the Prussian Army as a medical officer . In the Imperial German Army and on horseback, he was on the way to care for the wounded.

Altmann was also the founder of communal youth care in Weißwasser. Probably his most important achievement for Weißwasser was his commitment to the youngest inhabitants of the place. He paid particular attention to the children and young people, who had suffered most during the famine years of the First World War. A social area of ​​responsibility that was not a matter of course at that time.

On March 4, 1919, the local council elected him to the health committee, in which he was involved for years. At the same time he became a member of the poor commission and police doctor. He had become so used to traveling on horseback that he used this method to visit his patients in and around Weißwasser even in peacetime. Later he used a horse-drawn carriage , a carriage , a bicycle and finally a car, in which his brother-in-law Erich Hänsler chauffeured him. He therefore enjoyed an extraordinary reputation among the population.

During the shortage years, especially during the swede winter of 1916/17, the health of the children and adolescents in particular suffered. As part of a relief operation, all school children were to undergo medical examinations from November 1920 to determine the degree of malnutrition. for which Altmann was also committed, among others. Shortly afterwards it was determined that Altmann had to cope with the problem with the children alone, because he was the poor doctor and police doctor. Many parents could not pay for this compulsory examination and so from December 1921 onwards the medical doctor was granted an increase in his fee by the local council according to the arbitration and collective bargaining conditions. As a result of the investigation, Dr. Altmann told the council of Weißwasser to introduce the Quaker feeding (school feeding) at least for a certain period of time and to provide forty thousand marks for the procurement of clothing for poor children, and baths should be given to children suffering from tuberculosis and glandular diseases. His request to use the bathroom of the largest glassworks company in town, the United Lusatian Glassworks, for some time for these children, was rejected. The municipal administration, for its part, negotiated unsuccessfully with the innkeeper Simoßeck in Hermannsdorf , later inn Max , in order to be able to use his much smaller bathing establishment for this. For children with particularly severe malnutrition, however, Hermann Altmann ensured that they could travel to Switzerland for a spa stay and that "... particularly poor children should have the costs reimbursed by the community fund."

From his second marriage to Martha Jäckel (born September 20, 1893) comes his second daughter named Hannelore, who was born on July 9, 1924 in Görlitz.

In the years up to 1933 he made great contributions in the fight against tuberculosis , which found a favorable breeding ground in the community dominated by glassworks . It was in fact the glassmaker's occupational disease and affected many families. That was a great challenge and introduced him to a large part of the population. Altmann was one of the first doctors in Germany to use an X-ray machine , which he was the first doctor in Weisswasser to use in his practice, and was thus ahead of his professional colleagues. His brother-in-law helped him with the operation.

As a school doctor , as a police doctor and as head of the maternity, infant and marriage counseling center , he took on other tasks in the public health and social services and therefore enjoyed great trust in the population because of his intensive work.

Immediately after the seizure of power , Dr. Altmann initially took up his secondary medical posts. His license to practice medicine was withdrawn from him due to his work as a medical officer in the Prussian army during the First World War, the opening of his medical practice before 1914 and his great popularity only on September 30, 1938. Regardless of this, he and his family were particularly exposed to the hatred of the National Socialists after November 10th of that year , the apartment and practice were completely destroyed. He himself, along with his wife and daughter, was the target of furious insults from SA men and leading NSDAP officials . Despite threats, several helpers were found to help look after the family and restore the home.

The continued harassment and the information received from his daughter Ruth about the obligation to label and the ghettoization of Jews in Warsaw from October 1940 onwards let his resistance wane. On November 4, 1940, he passed away by suicide using an overdose of morphine . Although Weisswasser had a Jewish cemetery, he was not allowed to be buried there because the authorities feared a demonstration. His grave is on the Jewish cemetery in Görlitz , field H No. 33. The tombstone made of syenite bears the inscription Here Hermann Altmann from Weißwasser found his rest. Your love was noble and devoted, your actions selfless and generous .

The daughter Hannelore was able to flee to England on May 18, 1939 with a Kindertransport via Hamburg . She acquired British citizenship through marriage. As Mss. Broodbank lost her track. After the war her mother followed her. Altmann's house was completely destroyed by the war in April 1945.

Works

  • About diseases of the nervous system as a result of whooping cough
  • Inaugural dissertation to obtain the doctorate in medicine, surgery and obstetrics of the High Medical Faculty of the University of Leipzig, Weißwasser O.-L - 1903 printed and published by Emil Hampel

Honors

  • In 1991 the street on which Dr. Altmann ran a practice named after him for a long time.
  • There is the Hermann Altmann House in Freising-Sünzhausen

Bibliography

Web links

  1. ↑ The Hermann Altmann House in Sünzhausen as a residential facility for Lebenshilfe Freising ( Memento of the original from November 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lebenshilfe-fs.de
personal data
SURNAME Altmann, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German doctor
DATE OF BIRTH July 19, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Angerburg , East Prussia , Gumbinnen district
DATE OF DEATH November 4th 1940
Place of death White water