Justine Siegemund

Justine Siegemund (in) , also Justina Siegmund , b. Dietrich (in) or Dittrich (in) (* December 26, 1636 in Rohnstock ; † November 10, 1705 in Berlin ), also Justina Sigmund and Justine Siegmund , was a Silesian midwife and became an autodidact and village midwife at the Brandenburg court and published the first German textbook for midwives (first edition 1690).

Life

Justina Dietrich (von Rohnstock) was the daughter of the Protestant pastor Elias Dittrich from Rohnstock and married to the rent clerk Christian Sieg (e) mund.

Justina Siegmund learned her midwifery skills autodidactically. At the age of 21 she had gone through an “imaginary pregnancy” (“grossesse nerveuse”) and suffered from the ignorance of midwives. This special case in her own body awakened her interest in obstetrics. In 1670 she became the “city woe mother” in Liegnitz . After her fame and reputation had increased, she was appointed to Berlin in 1683 by the Great Elector Friedrich Wilhelm as “Chur-Brandenburgische Hof-Wehemutter” (midwife). She also worked at other courts, including the Netherlands. The classic “double handle” was named after the “winner”.

Work and meaning

“After she wrote a work of the med, drawn entirely from her own many years of experience and the notes she made about every serious birth case. Faculty in Frankfurt an der Oder, had submitted to the censorship and had received approval in 1689, it appeared under the title The Chur-Brandenburgische Hoff-Wehe-Mutter, That is: A Most Necessary Teaching of Difficult and Unjust Births, in a conversation presented (Coelln ad Spree 1690, 4 °, Berlin 1708, Leipzig 1715, 1724; expanded editions under the title . The Royal Preuss and Chur-Brandenb Hoff-woe-mother [...]... , Berlin 1723, 4 °, 1741, 1752, 1756; Dutch translation with the addition of a text by Cornelius Solingen, Amsterdam 1691, 4 °. “G. in Hirsch-H. V, pp. 263–264)

Title page of the work,
a later edition (1723)
Justine Siegemundin's double handle

literature

Justine Siegemund: The Chur-Brandenburgische Hoff-Wehe mother. Liebpert, Cölln a. Spree, 1690. ( digitized and full text in the German text archive ), ( digitized edition from 1723 of the University and State Library Düsseldorf )
Franz von Winckel : Siegemund, Justine . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 34, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1892, p. 194 f.
Waltraud Pulz: “Not everything is written according to the learned sense” - Justina Siegemund's midwifery guide. For the reconstruction of the traditional obstetric knowledge of early modern midwives and its significance in the development of modern obstetrics. Munich 1994. (Munich contributions to folklore. Vol. 15.) (Previously Phil. Diss. Munich 1992.)
Waltraud Pulz: "Aux origines de l'obstétrique moderne en Allemagne (XVIe - XVIIIe siècle): accoucheurs contre matrones?" In: Revue d'histoire moderne et contemporaine 43 (1996), pp. 593-617.
Waltraud Pulz: "Forced help? The work of the midwife as reflected in a court conflict (1680–1685)." In: Rituals of Birth. A cultural story. Ed. V. Jürgen Schlumbohm [and a.] Munich 1998. (Beck'sche Reihe. 1280.) pp. 68-83 and 314-318.
Waltraud Pulz: Author vitae and 'mother' of a book: the royal Prussian and Brandenburg court midwife Justina Siegemund . In: 500 years of the Reformation: designed by women. [2015.]
Justine Siegemund and Lynne Tatlock (eds. And transl.): The Court Midwife. University Press, Chicago 2005, ISBN 0-226-75709-9 .
Barbara I. Tshisuaka: Siegemund [in], b. Dittrich [Dietrich], Justina. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 1329.

Web links

Commons : Justine Siegemund - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Literature by and about Justine Siegemund in the catalog of the German National Library

Remarks

^ Walther Schönfeld , Director of the University Dermatology Clinic in Heidelberg : Women in Western Medicine. From classical antiquity to the end of the 19th century (summary of a lecture that was no longer held at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg in the winter semester 1944/45), Ferdinand Enke Verlag Stuttgart 1947, pp. 102-103.
↑ Juliane C. Wilmanns : Siegemundin, Sigmund (in) Justine , in: Wolfgang U. Eckart and Christoph Gradmann : Doctors Lexicon. From antiquity to the present , 3rd edition Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2006, p. 303, ISBN 978-3-540-29584-6 (print), ISBN 978-3-540-29585-3 (online).
↑ Justine Siegemundin: The Koenigl. Prussian and Chur-Brandenb. Court woe mother. A very necessary teaching of difficult and unjust births [...], with an appendix of healing Artzeney remedies [...]. Berlin ( Christian Friedrich Voss ) 1752; Reprint Hanover 1982.

personal data
SURNAME	Siegemund, Justine
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Siegemundin, Justine; Dietrich, Justine; Dietrichin, Justine; Dittrich, Justine; Dittrichin Justine; Siegmund, Justina; Sigmund, Justina; Siegmund, Justine; Sigmund, Justine
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German midwife, author of the first German midwifery book
DATE OF BIRTH	December 26, 1636
PLACE OF BIRTH	Rohnstock
DATE OF DEATH	November 10, 1705
Place of death	Berlin

[1] Walther Schönfeld , Director of the University Dermatology Clinic in Heidelberg : Women in Western Medicine. From classical antiquity to the end of the 19th century (summary of a lecture that was no longer held at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg in the winter semester 1944/45), Ferdinand Enke Verlag Stuttgart 1947, pp. 102-103.

[2] Juliane C. Wilmanns : Siegemundin, Sigmund (in) Justine , in: Wolfgang U. Eckart and Christoph Gradmann : Doctors Lexicon. From antiquity to the present , 3rd edition Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2006, p. 303, ISBN 978-3-540-29584-6 (print), ISBN 978-3-540-29585-3 (online).

[3] Justine Siegemundin: The Koenigl. Prussian and Chur-Brandenb. Court woe mother. A very necessary teaching of difficult and unjust births [...], with an appendix of healing Artzeney remedies [...]. Berlin ( Christian Friedrich Voss ) 1752; Reprint Hanover 1982.