Josef Loebel

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Stolperstein , Budapester Strasse 11, Berlin-Tiergarten

Josef Löbel (born April 22, 1882 in Kronstadt , Kingdom of Hungary , † May 20, 1942 in Prague ) was a German-Bohemian doctor and writer .

Live and act

Josef Löbel was born into an educated middle-class family. His father was the businessman Michael (Melach) Löbel (1831-1902), who had immigrated to Kronstadt from Bucharest. The mother was Adele, b. Thal (1854–1937), of German descent from Galatz in Romania . They married on May 17, 1881 according to the Jewish rite in Kronstadt. They made some wealth. Josef attended the Honterus grammar school in Kronstadt and obtained his Matura on June 22, 1899. At 17, he moved to Vienna to attend the local university to study (academic years 1899-1905). For the longest time he lived in Kinderspitalgasse 5. From 1901 to 1903 he received a scholarship from the Weinberg Foundation, which was awarded once a year by the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien . After the father's death in 1902, the mother moved to Vienna with her underage daughter Carla in 1910.

Josef Löbel received his doctorate on April 8, 1905 on the carcinoma problem. In his later popular publications, Löbel endeavored to encourage timely examination and the possible early diagnosis. In April 1909 he married the 22-year-old Leontine Glücklich from Vienna in Pressburg . Shortly after the wedding, he was hired as a ship's doctor on a cargo ship on the Hamburg-America Line - it was customary at the time for ship's doctors to take their wives with them. In 1910 he opened a practice in Pressburg at Ország út 19 (today Radlinského ulica). The practice was not very successful. In the same year he worked for the first time in Franzensbad as a spa doctor during the summer months . The couple then acquired the certificate of homeland of the South Moravian community of Lundenburg . This was significant later, since after the independence of Czechoslovakia in 1918, the two received Czechoslovak citizenship in 1919.

In Františkovy Lázně he ordained in the summer months - together with 51 spa doctors , who had to care for around 100,000 guests during the season. He lived in the Berliner Hof, a large spa hotel that was now almost empty and belonged to the Grillmayer-Schuh family. For over 28 years he worked as a spa doctor in Franzensbad - until he was expelled in 1938. In the winter months he lived mainly in Berlin and Vienna - also to pursue his writing activities. The first son Karl Gustav Löbel was born on December 17, 1911 in Berlin-Tiergarten . The second son was born in January 1914 in Vienna (at the address of Aunt Carla Löbel). During the First World War Josef Löbel provided medical services in various reserve hospitals , e.g. B. in Vienna and in Eger .

In Berlin he lived near the legendary Romanesque Café and met the greats of literary Berlin there. Löbel wrote popular science books and essays, but also feature sections. His journalistic works included popular medical titles such as From Marriage to Love , Thank You - Good! Fifty New Chapters of Optimistic Medicine and Medicine, or The Man May Be Helped, translated into several languages. His best-known book is probably Knaurs Health Lexicon, first published in 1930 . He also wrote a notable biography about Robert Koch . At that time, Joseph Roth wrote his Radetzky March in Berlin and set in it Josef Löbel a literary monument in the form of the spa doctor Dr. Skowronnek from Franzensbad.

After Austria's "annexation" to the National Socialist German Reich , Löbel and his wife fled from Vienna to Prague on April 27, 1938. The son Peter had studied in Prague since 1937 and the son Karl emigrated to Scotland on March 17, 1937. Peter fled to England via Poland in 1939. Josef Löbel tried in vain to emigrate until 1942. By the invasion of the German troops in the rest of Czechoslovakia on 15./16. In March 1939 these attempts were made more difficult and then unsuccessful. Josef Löbel lived with his wife Leontine Löbel, b. Happy, in May 1941 at Prager Londoner Strasse 6, which was renamed by the occupiers to Münchener Strasse (Mnichovska). Leontine Löbel was deported to Theresienstadt on February 12, 1942 . Her husband had been released because of a diagnosed tuberculosis - but he poisoned himself in May 1942. He was buried in the New Jewish Cemetery in Prague (no tombstone - number 32/11/4). On the day of his funeral (May 27, 1942) Heydrich was assassinated .

Works

  • Do not be afraid! Forty chapters of optimistic medicine. Grethlein, Leipzig 1928.
    • May paura. 40 spunti di medicina ottimistica. Hoepli, Milan 1941.
  • From marriage to love. Grethlein, Leipzig 1929.
  • Knaur's Health Lexicon. A manual of medicine, hygiene, physical culture and beauty care. Edited by Josef Löbel. Knaur, Berlin 1930.
  • Good thank you! 50 new chapters of optimistic medicine. Grethlein, Leipzig 1930.
  • Medicine or the man can be helped. Rowohlt, Berlin 1933.
    • Whither medicine? Sidgwick & Jackson, London 1934.
    • Lægekunsten. Martin, Copenhagen 1935.
    • Medicinens landvinningar. Läkekonsten och deomanskliga fördomarna. Nature and culture, Stockholm 1936.
    • Medicina d'oggi… Cosa può e cosa non può? Hoepli, Milan 1936.
  • Robert Koch. Story of a lucky man. Library of contemporary works, Zurich 1935.
  • Rescuer. Detective novels from the history of medicine. Library of contemporary works, Zurich 1935.
    • People redders. Groote werkes uit de geschiedenis the medische wetenschap. Nederlandsche Keurboekerij, Amsterdam 1935.
  • Eugen Steinach : Sex and life. Forty years of biological and medical experiments. The scientific values ​​adapted to the lay reader by Josef Loebel. Viking, New York 1940.

literature

Web links

Commons : Josef Löbel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Löbel, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bohemian doctor and writer
DATE OF BIRTH April 22, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Kronstadt
DATE OF DEATH May 20, 1942
Place of death Prague