Jacob Heart
Jakob Herz (born February 2, 1816 in Bayreuth ; died September 27, 1871 in Erlangen ) was a German doctor and the first Jewish professor in Bavaria .
Life
Jakob Herz was born in Bayreuth as the first of eleven children of the Jewish merchant Samson Herz (1784-1859) and his wife Rosalia (née Rindskopf; 1775-1863) with the original first name Koppel. He did not use the first name Jakob until 1839 when he was doing his doctorate. One of his brothers was the railway engineer Julius Herz . In his childhood, Koppel made the acquaintance of Jean Paul . In his poems, it was Samson's heart that he addressed when he wrote "my Samson".
When in 1870 he agreed to take over the management of a hospital train that took care of the wounded in the war between France and Germany in 1870/71 , this had devastating consequences for his health.
On September 27, 1871 at 1 p.m., he succumbed to his condition at the age of only 55. According to a magazine, his last words were: "Life flees, thank God." Shortly after his death, numerous obituaries were published in various, mainly Jewish, newspapers and magazines, in which the merits of the deceased were extensively recognized. His popularity was particularly evident at the funeral on October 3rd through the lively participation and sympathy of the population and the university.
Scientific work
After heart the grammar school (today's Christian-Ernestinum had completed) in Bayreuth in 1835 as his class, he enrolled in the winter semester 1835/36 at the University of Erlangen for the subject medicine one. Herz's loyalty to his faith made itself felt during this study .
Already in 1839 , Herz received his doctorate under his new first name Jakob on club feet (De pedibus incurvis) . Why he changed his name is not known. Then he got a job as an assistant in orthopedic operations at Louis Stromeyer in Erlangen . Together with the latter he developed a surgical technique with which it was possible for the first time to meaningfully help people with club feet , which led to crowds of club feet to come to Erlangen. In the development and implementation of this method, which achieved international renown, Herz by no means played a secondary role, rather he was an equal partner of Stromeyer's.
After becoming an assistant in the surgical-ophthalmological department of the University Hospital in Erlangen in 1841, he made numerous observations in joint and bone surgery, which he reported to the physico-medical law firm in Erlangen . There he also gave a lecture on the enchondroma , the benign bone tumor that was published in 1843 as a commemorative publication on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen .
Inspired by the experiments of the Parisian medicine professor and surgeon Joseph-François Malgaigne , Ferdinand Heyfelder , the successor of Stromeyer, and his assistant Jakob Herz decided in 1847 to try to anesthetize patients with sulfur ether . An apparatus consisting of an ox bladder filled with ether and a glass tube with a horn mouthpiece at the end was held to the patient's mouth so that he inhaled the evaporating ether. The first attempt at such an anesthetic was made on a 26-year-old shoemaker who had an abscess removed. Gradually, more and more people of all ages are using this painless method when they have minor interventions.
In 1851 Herz, together with the internist Franz Dittrich and the anatomist Joseph Gerlach , who had only recently been appointed to the University of Erlangen, autopsied the bodies of two executed people. The results of these investigations were published in the renowned Prague quarterly and were considered to be particularly valuable, since the issue was not about organisms already weakened by disease, but about healthy bodies.
Jakob Herz was very interested in medical advances, kept himself up to date by reading numerous specialist journals and, like his colleagues Dittrich and Gerlach, belonged to the science-oriented Prague School of Medicine . His progress-oriented work got around and drew the attention of the philosopher and religious critic Ludwig Feuerbach, who lives in Nuremberg , to the heart. In 1853 the two men got to know and appreciate each other. Feuerbach reports on conversations with the Erlangen doctors "of the new materialistic school" and especially with his "darling" Jakob Herz, with whom he maintained contact for a long time.
Promotion to the university
Jakob Herz did not find his true calling in scientific work, but rather in teaching.
After Louis Stromeyer had left the university in 1841, Herz changed in the same year as an assistant from the orthopedic to the surgical and ophthalmic department of the university hospital. In 1847 he was the intercession of using Gottfried Fleischmann , Prosektor at the anatomical institute. Although he earned only moderately, this function was an essential step towards his goal of a professorship , especially since he was already organizing lectures and exercises at this time and becoming a celebrated doctor whose services were even used by the professors.
In 1854 he submitted a habilitation application to the university senate, which was strictly rejected. His opponents were led by Johann Michael Leupoldt , a supporter of the Christian-Germanic view of medicine. He was a professor of theoretical medicine and had already been criticized by Stromeyer for his lack of practice and his uncompromisingly Christian standpoint. It was explained that a basic requirement for the habilitation at a Bavarian university was to belong to a Christian denomination. According to the law, Jews were also prohibited from teaching at a German school as a Christian educational establishment. Essential for the rejection of Jakob Herz's habilitation request was certainly not only the anti-Semitism of many Germans, but above all the rejection of his scientific point of view by his opponents. But also the jealousy of the assistant, whose lectures were so much more popular than those of the professors. Despite petitions that Dittrich and Gerlach addressed to the Senate, which emphasized the academic merits and teaching qualities of their friend, Herz was not appointed professor.
However, the Bavarian King personally granted him the right to hold lectures and to announce them publicly. That may seem like little consolation for the man who, despite his extraordinary abilities and great commitment, was now forced to persevere in his subordinate position. But one must remember that Herz had already achieved more with this privilege than any other Jew before him.
For a short time he was also acting head of the surgical clinic after Johann Friedrich Heyfelder had left the university.
In 1861, Jews in Bavaria were officially granted equal rights by King Ludwig II , and the university's senate made a request to appoint Jakob Herz an associate professor. Although this time even the theological faculty in Erlangen had joined this, Herz was only made an honorary professor, which meant that he continued to teach at the university without holding a position and was not given the full function of a professor. This caused him great disappointment. It was only after threatening to leave the city that he was finally appointed associate professor at the University of Erlangen in 1863. In 1867, Herz was granted honorary citizenship , which is particularly important because Jews had only been allowed in Erlangen and its district since 1860. The fact that Herz studied and worked in the city even before this permit was due to one exception. In 1869, two years before his death, he became the first Jew in Bavaria to become a full professor of anatomy. In the same year he also rose in the party hierarchy of the Bavarian Progressive Party , which he had joined three years earlier. He was elected to the Erlangen council of municipal representatives.
Honors
The inscription, otherwise in Hebrew , on Jakob Herz's tomb in the Jewish cemetery in Baiersdorf also contains the following information in German:
JAKOB HERZ
DOCTOR OF MEDICIN
UNIVERSITY
PROFESSOR HONORED CITIZEN OF
ERLANGEN
When the cemetery was desecrated during the Nazi era, the grating of the enclosure and a metal honor wreath attached to the tombstone were removed. On the information board of the cemetery, Herz is named as one of the most famous of the personalities buried there.
Due to his popularity as a passionate teacher and doctor, a statue was erected in his honor after his death: Immediately after his death, friends and grateful patients began collecting funds to build a monument. This was ceremoniously unveiled on May 6, 1875 in the form of a double life -size bronze statue on a stone pedestal depicting a heart in a frock coat . This work was designed by the Viennese sculptor Caspar von Zumbusch and cast by Christoph Lenz . Its location was the Holzmarkt, today's Huguenot Square, where a school was located at that time. It was the first memorial dedicated to a Jew in Bavaria.
In addition, the committee that had already initiated the erection of the monument set up a Jakob-Herz-Scholarship Foundation, which had set itself the goal of supporting destitute members of all denominations in studying medicine.
Later, in 1924, Max Freudenthal , chairman of the Jewish community in Nuremberg, set up a Jakob-Herz-Lodge with the same mission.
On September 14, 1933, the Nazi city council faction in Erlangen, chaired by Mayor Hans Flierl , decided "to make amends for a cultural disgrace that the whole German people felt as such," that is, to remove the heart monument on what was then Luitpoldplatz. On the same day, an article appeared in the Erlanger Tagblatt in which the anonymous author denied all of Herz's merits and described the bronze sculpture as completely unjustified. After the statue was "felled" under mockery by numerous gawking spectators, it was kept in a wooden box, then given to the scrap material collection in 1944 and probably melted down for war purposes.
In 1967 a memorial plaque was unveiled on Jakob Herz's former home at Heuwaagstraße 18:
UNIVERSITY
PROFESSOR
DR. JAKOB HERZ
* Bayreuth 2.II.1816 † 27.IX.1871 TO
THE SELFELESS DOCTOR IN
MEMORY
SINCE 1867 HONORED CITIZENS
OF THE CITY
In 1983 a stele followed, which should represent "a memorial to a memorial" and remind of the original statue. The text on the front reads:
We think of Jakob Herz,
who
erected and destroyed a monument to
the citizen of this city
There is a short résumé on the back. The stele stands at the intersection between Universitätstrasse and Krankenhausstrasse, thus in a certain way unites the two elementary areas of activity of Herz.
In 2000 a bronze plate was set into the ground on today's Huguenot Square, where the original memorial was located. The inscription reads:
JAKOB HERZ 1816-1871
PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE
HONOR CITIZENS OF OUR CITY
HIS MONUMENT
CITIZENS PUT IT IN 1875
CITIZENS DESTROYED IT IN 1933
CITIZENS REMEMBER IT
A broken Star of David is scratched across the text, highlighting the religion of the former professor.
In 2002, a newly built access road in Erlangen was called Jakob-Herz-Weg and a 5.80 m high pin was also erected next to the existing slab, as can be found in many historically significant places in Erlangen. It was made by the Erlangen artist Isi Kunath. This also includes a plastic plate in the bottom:
With the erection of the monument in 1875, the citizens of Erlangen paid tribute to the honorary citizen of their city, the university professor Dr. Jacob Heart.
The charitable doctor was very popular among the population.
On September 15, 1933, the National Socialists destroyed this memorial, the first to be erected to a Jewish professor at a Bavarian university.
Since 1983 a memorial stone in Universitätsstrasse has been commemorating the doctor.
In his honor, a bronze plate was placed on Huguenot Square in 2000.
Jacob Heart Prize
In 2009, the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg awarded the Jakob-Herz-Prize for Medical Research for the first time , which is endowed with 10,000 €. It is given as an award for outstanding scientific achievements in the field of theoretical and clinical medicine. In 2009 it went to Robert A. Weinberg from the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research Cambridge , USA . He was honored for his services as "a Pioneer of Molecular Oncology" and in addition to the money received a certificate and a medal with a portrait of Jakob Herz. In 2016 the prize was awarded to Fred H. Gage from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies , and in 2018 to the French cancer researcher Laurence Zitvogel .
A street near the Bayreuth Clinic has been named Herz since 1988, and although the house where he was born (Kulmbacher Strasse 7) was demolished after 1974, a new memorial plaque was inaugurated by the former mayor Dieter Mronz .
literature
- Simmer, Hans H .: Monument for a memorial. In memory of the Jewish doctor, surgeon and anatomist Jakob Herz (1816-1871) in Erlangen . Medizinhistorisches Journal Vol. 1 (1966) to Vol. 40 (2005) p. 22 (1987) 271-276
- Rainer Trübsbach: History of the City of Bayreuth . Druckhaus Bayreuth 1993. ISBN 3-922808-35-2
- Archive for the history of Upper Franconia . 75th volume 1995. Historical association for Upper Franconia
- Christa Habrich: Koppel (Jakob) Herz , in: Manfred Treml , Wolf Weigand (Hrsg.): History and culture of the Jews in Bavaria. Resumes . Munich: Saur, 1988, pp. 143–152
- Jakob, Andreas: The monument for Jakob Herz in Erlangen. An example of overcoming the exclusion of Jews in the 19th century . Erlanger modules for Franconian homeland research, Vol. 55 (2015), pp. 339–350. Local history and history association Erlangen, Erlangen city archive
Web links
- Compactmemory, German-Jewish literary history on the web
- Raumzeit, newspaper for the Nuremberg-Fürth-Erlangen area, No. 16/2002 (July 15, 2002)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Christine Bartholomäus: From Emanuel Osmond to Hilde Marx . In: Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation Bayreuth (ed.): Jüdisches Bayreuth . Ellwanger, Bayreuth 2010, ISBN 978-3-925361-81-4 , pp. 105 ff .
- ↑ Rosa and Volker carbon home: Bayreuth from AZ. Lexicon of Bayreuth street names . C. and C. Rabenstein, Bayreuth 2009, ISBN 978-3-928683-44-9 , pp. 67 .
- ^ Kurt Herterich : A Bayreuth street triangle . Ellwanger, Bayreuth 1994, ISBN 978-3-925361-21-0 , pp. 30 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Heart, Jacob |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Heart, paddock (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German doctor and first Jewish professor in Bavaria |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 2, 1816 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bayreuth |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 27, 1871 |
| Place of death | gain |