Johann Hermann Leonhard
Johann Hermann Wilhelm Leonhard (born August 8, 1835 in Mülheim an der Ruhr ; † November 2, 1905 in Berlin ) was a German doctor and founder of the Mülheim an der Ruhr ophthalmological institution .
Life
He was born the son of the medical councilor Johann Hermann Leonhard (1805–1882) and his wife Karoline, née Kaulbach, the second of five children. His father, a resident doctor, surgeon and doctor for the poor, switched to hospital service when the Evangelical Hospital and Supply House was founded in 1850, where he assumed the position of chief doctor.
After graduating from a grammar school in Essen in 1854, the young Johann Hermann Leonard first enrolled at the University of Berlin to study law before moving to the University of Munich in 1857 . From then on he studied philosophy instead of law and graduated with a doctorate in 1858. Since his school days, however, his real passion has been mining. After he had already acquired basic knowledge of mining law and mineralogy at the University of Berlin , he wanted to get to know mining in practice. From 1858 to 1860 he did an internship in a mine in the Ore Mountains. However, a chronic eye condition forced him to give up this career aspiration.
He began studying medicine at the University of Bonn , moved to Berlin, where he completed his studies in 1863 with a doctorate. In 1864 he received his license to practice medicine , surgeon and obstetrician. He then returned to his hometown of Mülheim, where he settled as a doctor and from 1871 worked alongside his father at the Evangelical Hospital. When his age-related retirement from hospital service, the son took over the position of chief physician in 1882. Two years later Leonhard resigned and retired from the medical profession. The reason for this could have been his eye disease, which had worsened considerably since 1860.
When Leonhard retired as chief physician, he moved to Berlin with his wife Margarete Stinnes (1840-1911) and their daughter Margarethe (Gretchen) in 1884, where he devoted himself to various economic activities. After the early death of their daughter at the age of 23, the Leonhard couple decided in 1903 to transfer a substantial part of their considerable fortune to a foundation for the benefit of their hometown Mülheim an der Ruhr . The establishment of the “Gretchen Leonhard Foundation” (1903) for the construction of playgrounds and sports facilities on the Mülheimer Kahlenberg was followed by the “Foundation for Ophthalmology” (1904) and the “ Leonhard Stinnes Foundation ” (also in 1904), the latter for financial purposes Securing the two previous foundations. Shortly after he set up the foundations, Johann Hermann Leonhard died at the age of 70. He did not live to see the opening of the ophthalmic institute he founded in the summer of 1907.
literature
- Monika von Alemann-Schwartz: ... the only ophthalmological institution in a wide circle. The eye clinic in Mülheim an der Ruhr and the founders Johann Hermann Leonhard and Margarete Stinnes . Edition Werry, Mülheim an der Ruhr 2007.
Other sources
- City archive Mülheim an der Ruhr, holdings 1550 (Mülheim personalities)
- City archive Mülheim an der Ruhr, holdings 1610 (estate of the Leonhard family)
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Leonhard, Johann Hermann |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Leonhard, Johann Hermann Wilhelm (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German doctor and founder of the Mülheim an der Ruhr ophthalmic hospital |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 8, 1835 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Mülheim an der Ruhr |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 2, 1905 |
| Place of death | Berlin |