Hermann Cohn (doctor)

Hermann Cohn

Hermann Cohn (born June 4, 1838 in Breslau ; died September 11, 1906 there ) was a German ophthalmologist .

Life

As the son of wealthy Jewish parents, Hermann Cohn attended Maria-Magdalenen-Gymnasium in Breslau . Here he had learned in the middle of the 19th century how inadequate the lighting in the classrooms was. The afternoon classes, often the first few hours in the morning, had to be given under artificial lighting throughout the winter. In the writing lesson, a tallow candle was stuck on the school desk between every two seats. This did not happen during the reading class. The hard-working are likely to spoil their eyes, the less eager were free to declare that they could no longer see anything. This description comes from Max Grube , who later became an actor and theater manager, who also visited the Magdalenäum about 15 years later as Cohn. After graduating from high school, Hermann Cohn was able to tackle his studies without financial worries.

First he studied chemistry and physics in Breslau and Heidelberg from 1857 and medicine in Heidelberg, Breslau and Berlin from 1860 . His teachers included Gustav Kirchhoff , Robert Bunsen , Helmholtz , Rudolf Virchow and Richard Förster .

Cohn received his doctorate in Berlin in 1863, was assistant doctor to Richard Förster in Breslau in 1864 and in 1866 undertook further studies with the famous ophthalmologist Albrecht von Graefe in Berlin, with de Wecker in Paris and with Ritter von Arlt in Vienna . He then set up his own eye clinic in Wroclaw.

His wife Valeska was a sister of the large industrialist Fritz von Friedlaender-Fuld , who came from Upper Silesia . The writer Emil Ludwig was a son of Hermann and Valeska Cohn . The father had successfully campaigned for the name change.

Grave slab of Hermann and Valeska Cohn in the Old Jewish Cemetery in Wroclaw

Hermann Cohn died at the age of 68. His grave is in the old Jewish cemetery in Wroclaw .

power

Hermann Cohn qualified as a lecturer in ophthalmology at the University of Breslau in 1868 . He loved open words when it came to bringing truths to light. And so he condemned his former school as "eye-murdering" because of the poor lighting conditions. A Wroclaw city ​​council called him "probably mentally disturbed". Max Grube went on to write about this in his memories of his youth : “But this darkness of the Maria Magdalenen Gymnasium in Breslau shed a lot of light on Germany's schools. She probably gave the excellent ophthalmologist Hermann Cohn the enlightening idea to examine the pupils for myopia and to compile statistics about it. ”The result appeared in Leipzig in 1867 : examinations of the eyes of 10,060 school children, along with suggestions for improving school facilities that are detrimental to the eyes . The book has also been translated into English and Russian. It was Cohn's success that the high school building was demolished that same year and replaced by a new building. A sign had been set. Cohn became the eye specialist preferred by the nobility and the upper classes , but who did a lot for young people in particular, because he gave the impetus for school medical care. And eye hygiene, now a widely branched science, is, so to speak, an invention of Hermann Cohn. In Breslau he was only called the "Augen-Cohn". Virchow, who was on friendly terms with his pupil until his death, gave lectures on Cohn's achievements. Like Virchow, Cohn was a radical democrat , a staunch opponent of the war and a champion of women's studies . In 1874 Cohn was appointed associate professor. As a Jew, he was denied the opportunity to become a “full professor”. However, his books, specialist lectures and publications, which made him one of the leading ophthalmologists in Germany, found high recognition. In 1888 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina Scholars' Academy .

Rudolf Virchow and Ernst Haeckel , Ludwig Büchner , Heinrich Schliemann and Ernst Schweninger frequented his house . It was Cohn who first recognized the importance of Robert Koch . For forty years, Hermann Cohn ran a polyclinic with his own resources , in which poor people were treated free of charge. He gave tens of thousands of people their eyesight again through surgery or treatment. He invented and even improved an ophthalmologist's paraphernalia, such as goggles, light testers, school lamps, eye samples, color charts and more. For his services he received various orders and awards.

Publications

• Examination of the eyes of 10,060 school children, together with suggestions for improving school facilities that are detrimental to the eyes , Leipzig 1867
• Gunshot wounds to the eye , Erlangen 1872
• The schoolhouses and school desks at the Vienna World Exhibition: an ophthalmological review , Breslau 1873
• Preparatory work for a geography of eye diseases , Jena 1874
• Studies on Congenital Color Blindness , Breslau 1879
• The eyes of women , Breslau 1879
• The hygiene of the eye in schools , Vienna 1883; Translations into English (1886) and Russian (1887)
• About artificial lighting , Braunschweig 1883
• About the lighting value of lamp bells , Wiesbaden 1885
• On the need to introduce school doctors , Leipzig 1886
• Medical supervision of schools to prevent the spread of myopia , Vienna 1887
• The school of the future , Hamburg 1890
• On the influence of hygienic measures on school myopia , Hamburg 1890
• Textbook on the hygiene of the eye , Vienna 1891
• Georg Bartisch, a star engraver of the Middle Ages. In: German Review. Volume 18, No. 3, 1893, pp. 214 ff.
• On the spread and prevention of eye dilatation in newborns , Berlin 1896
• Thirty years of ophthalmological and academic teaching: Rückblicke , Breslau 1897
• The visual acuity of primitive peoples and Germans. in: Die Gartenlaube (1898) pp. 661–666
• The visual performance of 50,000 school children in Wroclaw , Wroclaw 1899
• How should books and newspapers be printed? , Braunschweig 1903
• Works by Hermann Ludwig Cohn in the Berlin State Library

Web links

• Hermann L. Cohn in "jewish encyklopedia"
• G. Christmann, ophthalmologist and school hygienist Prof. Dr. Dr. Hermann Cohn , Ärzteblatt Sachsen, No. 2/2007