Johann Christian August Clarus

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Johann Christian August Clarus

Johann Christian August Clarus (born November 5, 1774 in Coburg , † July 13, 1854 in Leipzig ) was a German medic. He became known for his expert opinion on Johann Christian Woyzeck's “sanity” , the reading of which inspired Georg Büchner to write his drama Woyzeck .

resume

Johann Christian August Clarus (around 1830)

After taking private lessons with his father and attending the Coburg high school, Clarus began studying medicine in Leipzig in 1795. After eight semesters of study , he earned his doctorate in philosophy in 1799 and completed his doctorate in medicine in 1801 with the dissertation Momenta quaedam historica de methodicae scholae principibus, which was supervised and assessed by his uncle, the then Leipzig medical professor Ernst Benjamin Gottlieb Hebenstreit.

In 1804, at the age of 30, Clarus was appointed associate professor of anatomy and surgery and at the same time was entrusted with the office of prosector . In 1811 he took over a full professorship as well as the Leipzig city ​​physics - today comparable to the head of the health department - and in this function headed the military hospitals after the Battle of the Nations . For the care rendered to Russian wounded he was decorated in 1814 with the Knight's Cross of the Order of Vladimir 4th Class, which was followed in 1818 by the Saxon Order of Merit and the title of Royal Saxon Court Councilor . He was a member of the Leipzig Freemason Lodge Minerva to the three palms .

In the following years he published his two larger scientific works ( Der Krampf, explained systematically in pathological and therapeutic terms, Volume 1, Leipzig 1822; Contributions to the knowledge and assessment of dubious mental states, Leipzig 1828).

In May 1830 Clarus was given the chairmanship of the clinical institute in Leipzig. In the years 1836/37, as rector of the University of Leipzig, he reached the climax and the end of his career. It was not until 1848, at the age of 74, that he resigned from his public offices. Clarus died in Leipzig on July 13, 1854.

The reports

The sanity of the murderer Johann Christian Woyzeck, Leipzig 1824

Clarus became known beyond the borders of Leipzig through the report on the responsibility of the murderer JC Woyzeck, according to the principles of state medical science. This is the title of the second report that he wrote for the trial against the wig maker Johann Christian Woyzeck. The reports were published several times. The author himself presented it to the Leipzig public in a "special edition" before Woyzeck's execution. The execution took place on August 27, 1824 on the market square in Leipzig.

On June 21, 1821, Woyzeck stabbed the 46-year-old widow Christiane Woost. The trial against him dragged on for three years. Clarus submitted the first report on September 16, 1821. In it, the defendant was certified after five interviews. The court sentenced Woyzeck to death and all requests for clemency were rejected. Months later, shortly before Woyzeck's execution date, an eyewitness confirmed his confusion, whereupon a second, much more extensive report was prepared by Clarus. In it, the expert once again confirms Woyzeck's sanity.

In the preface to the second report, Clarus explains the reasons that, in his opinion, led Woyzeck to the act. He writes that the condemned man had "sunk from one stage of moral savagery to another through a restless, desolate, thoughtless and inactive life" and then "destroyed a human life in the dark turmoil of raw passions". Clarus hopes for a deterrent effect, especially on the "growing youth" "at the sight of the bleeding criminal, or at the thought of him" and he wishes that "the truth [may] be impressed deeply, that work shyness, play, drunkenness, unlawful satisfaction of sexual desire, and bad company, unawares and gradually leading to crime and scaffolding ”.

After colleagues from Clarus had polemicized against the statements of the report, interest in him was widespread. Finally, it appeared in Henke's magazine for state medicine in 1825 and became known to a larger specialist audience. One of the subscribers was the Darmstadt doctor Ernst Karl Büchner, the father of Georg Büchner , who then wrote to Woyzeck .

Judgments on the Clarus reports

  • "In the Woyzeck case, the state medicine customer and psychiatry, which is currently constituting itself as a science, is subordinate to the prevailing reason of state," says the website of the Saxon Psychiatry Museum.
  • “What could be a possible diagnosis [at Woyzeck]? By far the most likely [according to today's nomenclature] 'paranoia'. Above all, the development of a delusional system and paranoia are indicators of great weight. [...] The decisive factor is whether we obtain a well-founded judgment, certainty or at least a predominant probability in the question: Was there a psychosis or not? In this question, I am convinced that we have solid ground: On August 27, 1824, a severely mentally ill person was beheaded on the market square in Leipzig. "(Alfons Glück: Der historic Woyzeck , in: Georg Büchner: Revolutionär - Dichter - Scientist (1813 - 1837). The catalog of the exhibition Mathildenhöhe, Darmstadt from August 2nd to September 27th 1987. Basel, Frankfurt am Main, Stroemfeld / Roter Stern, 1987)

Web links

Wikisource: Johann Christian August Clarus  - Sources and full texts

literature

Footnotes

  1. ↑ The wording of this report is - slightly abbreviated - documented in Wikisource : The responsibility of the murderer Johann Christian Woyzeck .
personal data
SURNAME Clarus, Johann Christian August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German medic
DATE OF BIRTH November 5, 1774
PLACE OF BIRTH Coburg
DATE OF DEATH July 13, 1854
Place of death Leipzig