Karl Eisen

Karl Eisen (* July 7, 1873 in Weißenburg ; † July 6, 1943 there ) was between 1916 and 1937 director of Karthaus-Prüll , the institute for psychiatry in Regensburg , and an important reformer in the treatment of the mentally ill.

Life

Eisen received his doctorate on November 20, 1896 and passed the license to practice medicine on February 1, 1898. On April 1, 1898, he joined the district service as a doctor. Then he was an assistant doctor in Bayreuth , Kutzenberg and Deggendorf . In 1909 he became a senior physician in Kaufbeuren . On April 1, 1916, he began his service as director of the psychiatry in Regensburg (Karthaus-Prüll). He was married to Luise Karoline E., geb. Breit, and had a daughter and two sons who were also studying medicine and working as gynecologists and psychiatrists in Bamberg .

Work at the Karthaus-Prüll psychiatric institution

The situation in the psychiatric institution in the middle of the First World War , when Eisen took over the management, was depressing. In 1917, 20% of all patients died in the turnip winter . This was the reason for Eisen to introduce profound reforms in the hospital's economic management. His goal was that Karthaus-Prüll should become economically self-sufficient. After an initial rejection, the Upper Palatinate district council approved the leasing of agricultural land. The institute was able to survive the difficult years of the global economic crisis that followed. Even when in 1927 the Upper Palatinate district council completely canceled the subsidies for the nursing care rates, the patients could be well cared for thanks to their own contribution.

Eisen introduced a whole series of administrative and technical innovations, so that Regensburg Psychiatry was soon able to acquire a very good reputation. This included the introduction of patient land registers, a card index system for administration and the purchase of a typewriter. As an agricultural innovation, the first dehydrator was purchased in the Upper Palatinate, a lemonade factory was set up and the workshops were renewed. All of this was also an opportunity for occupational therapy measures . For the patients, entertainment was provided with a “cinema machine” (1917). In addition, a theater group for patients and employees was founded (1918), which regularly performed operettas and folk plays.

Eisen also introduced new therapeutic concepts: the so-called "Tobacco Departments" were converted into guard rooms and the "Tobzimmer" into comfortable single rooms. Eisen opened many new departments and largely abolished isolation, restraints and other coercive measures. All patients should be saved from dulling, boredom, and lack of independence and released back into normal life as soon as possible. In 1923, Karthaus-Prüll was the second Bavarian institution to introduce “ Open Welfare ”, ie early discharge with further outpatient treatment, where it was always necessary to overcome resistance from local politicians and the higher authorities.

A visit to the Gütersloh psychiatric institution in 1927 was an important experience for Eisen . Here he got to know the "active treatment of the sick" introduced by the director Hermann Simon . After his return, he introduced this to the guard wards for all patients from the beginning of their stay in the institution. For this purpose, a whole range of job offers and branches of production were developed, whereby the patients could even earn money. The establishment of the institutional magazine "Karthäuser Blätter" in January 1928 was a specialty that only existed in two other institutions in Germany ( Schussenried and Nietleben ). In recognition of all these achievements, Karthaus-Prüll was included in the series of "upper-class institutions" ( Eglfing , Klingenmünster and Erlangen ) in 1928. In 1932 96% of all patients were able to take part in meaningful occupations, and Eisen also stood up for the care and support of the other 4%.

Conduct in the time of National Socialism

Eisen tried to keep this humane attitude even after the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists . He stressed his political neutrality and pointed out that he was primarily interested in the welfare of his patients. However, concessions to the new rulers were inevitable, so in 1933 a "memorial" decorated with a swastika was unveiled and the hospital had to be decorated with the obligatory swastika flags for the May celebrations. In contrast, the mention of religious activities in the annual reports has not changed. It was inevitable that the SA medical tower used the institution's festival rooms at least once. In 1934 the publication of the “Karthauser Blätter” was stopped, at the same time the whole press was brought into line.

One problem that Regensburg faced in 1934 was the transfer of 144 "difficult patients" from the Deggendorf and Mainkofen institutions , with whom 28 nurses and craftsmen were also transferred to Regensburg. This could not find the approval of Eisen, as it meant that Simon's concept of active patient treatment could no longer be implemented.

However, Eisen has apparently endorsed the “ Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Offspring ”. In a letter dated February 24, 1934, the regional court director appointed him second assessor for the Regensburg Hereditary Health Court . In autumn 1934 an operating theater was set up in Karthaus-Prüll to carry out sterilization of men, while women were sterilized in the Evangelical Hospital in Regensburg. At the beginning of 1939, women were also given the opportunity to be sterilized in Karthaus-Prüll. Between 1934 and 1939 572 sterilizations were carried out, whereby in the majority of cases (76%) the diagnosis of schizophrenia was decisive, and “congenital imbecility ” was also a relatively common diagnosis (10%). In 1936, under iron, the “ hereditary biological inventory ” began. For this purpose, a separate office ("genetic biology station") was set up. By 1940, around 2000 "family tables" had been created.

Eisen joined the NSDAP in 1935 , probably to be able to stand up for his patients; but this was of no use to him, rather he had to realize that his life's work - the emphasis on work therapy for the “brain-sick” - was visibly dismantled under the new rulers. He applied for early retirement and left the institution with effect from November 1, 1937. Under his successor Paul Reiss , Karthaus-Prüll was brought to the National Socialist line and from 1940 the patients were transported to the Nazi killing center in Hartheim .

Eisen was posthumously checked for possible Nazi exposure by the military government. But no objections were found which spoke against the payment of a pension to his widow.

literature

• Clemens Cording: The Regensburg sanatorium and nursing home Karthaus-Prüll in the “Third Reich” - a study on the history of National Socialism. 2000, Würzburg: Deutscher Wissenschaftsverlag, ISBN 3-9806424-4-5 .

Web links

The patient artist Josef Forster [1]