Carl von Rokitansky

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Karl Freiherr von Rokitansky, lithograph by Joseph Kriehuber , 1839
Karl Freiherr von Rokitansky, photo around 1870
Title page of the first edition

Carl Freiherr von Rokitansky , also Karl (Freiherr) von Rokitansky ( Czech : Karel Rokytanský ; born as Karl Joseph Wenzel Prokop Rokitansky ) (born February 19, 1804 in Königgrätz , Bohemia ; † July 23, 1878 in Vienna ) was an Austrian pathologist , Politician and philosopher .

Life

Karl Joseph Wenzel Prokop Rokitansky was born as the son of the district chancellor of Leitmeritz , Prokop Rokitansky, in the Bohemian town of Königgrätz. His mother Theresia was the daughter of the Königgrätzer district commissioner Lodgman Ritter von Auen. Karl was the first of four children (Prokop, Marie, Theresie) in the family. Due to the early death of his father († 1812), Carl grew up with his three siblings in meager circumstances. Despite this situation, his mother made it possible for him to attend grammar school in Königgrätz and then to Karl Ferdinand University in Prague . Here he first had to study philosophy for three semesters before he could start studying medicine in 1821. At that time, the lectures were held in German and Latin. He earned his living by private lessons. In 1824 he moved to Vienna to his uncle Lodgman von Auen to continue his medical studies at the University of Vienna . From 1827 he was also active in the pathological-anatomical prosecution of the Vienna General Hospital. In Vienna he received his doctorate in medicine on March 6, 1828. He got his first paid assistant position at the Prosecture.

In 1834 he married Maria Anna Weiss, a singer trained by Antonio Salieri , who gave up her career in favor of the family. There were four children from the marriage: Hans was a well-known singer at the Vienna Court Opera, Viktor also became a singer and singing teacher; the other two sons were physicians, Karl became a university professor for gynecology at the University of Graz and Prokop (1842–1928) professor for internal medicine at the University of Innsbruck . His wife Marie von Rokitansky (1848–1924) wrote a famous cookbook, The Austrian Kitchen .

In Vienna he first worked as an “unpaid practitioner” in the pathological-anatomical training institute of the Vienna General Hospital . His first autopsy protocol comes from October 23, 1827. Rokitansky received his doctorate on March 6, 1828 at the University of Vienna in medicine . From 1830 he was an assistant at the Pathological-Anatomical Institute. In 1832 he became an associate supplier. Professor and in 1834 he was appointed associate professor and curator of the Pathological-Anatomical Museum . In 1844 he received the first chair for pathological anatomy at the University of Vienna. Rokitansky spent his entire academic life (1830 to 1875) at this institution.

pathologist

Rokitansky recognized that the as yet little noticed discipline of pathological anatomy as a science must serve the clinic. Only then can she offer the doctor at the bedside new diagnostic and therapeutic options . According to Gerard van Swieten , the founder of the Elder or First Vienna Medical School , Rokitansky triggered a scientific “revolution”. With the establishment of the Younger or Second Vienna Medical School , the pathologist, together with the internist Josef von Škoda and the dermatologist Ferdinand von Hebra , initiated a paradigm shift that led medicine based on natural philosophy to modern medicine based on natural science. With the specialization of medicine, combined with the development of new disciplines, "Viennese doctors" achieved world renown. Eduard von Hofmann followed him at the Vienna chair .

A speculative doctrine of Krasen or blood mixture formulated by Rokitansky in 1846 was sharply criticized, among others, by Rudolf Virchow , who on the other hand respected Rokitansky for his services in pathology. Rokitansky had assigned a special meaning to the blood as the place of pathological occurrence in all diseases that could not be precisely localized and thus undertook what is probably the last scientific attempt to revive ideas of humoral pathology .

The Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome is named after him ; it is also mentioned in the synonyms for the Budd-Chiari syndrome and the Rokitansky-Aschoff sinus .

Rokitansky is considered to be the first to describe a tracheal diverticulum .

Politician

Rokitansky's coat of arms on the occasion of his elevation to the baron class in 1874

Through leadership positions in various academic and political institutions, Rokitansky also shaped the era of Austrian high liberalism . He represented the liberalism of the educated middle class. In the pursuit of "freedom and progress" he contributed to the university reform as well as to the substantial improvement of the health system. He was dean of the medical faculty several times , in 1852 the first freely elected rector from the medical professors' college of the University of Vienna and president of the Supreme Sanitary Council . As early as 1850 he headed the Society of Doctors in Vienna , Rokitansky remained its president for life. In 1863, Minister of State Anton von Schmerling appointed the Liberal as medical advisor in the Ministry of the Interior. On November 25, 1867, Emperor Franz Joseph I appointed him “unexpectedly and unprepared” to the manor of the Reichsrat. In 1870 the newly founded Anthropological Society elected him as its first president. In 1874, Rokitansky was raised to the baron status by Emperor Franz Joseph I.

philosopher

Rokitansky grave in the Hernalser Friedhof

Although Rokitansky advocated the "materialistic method" in scientific research, he rejected materialism as a worldview . In the celebratory speech on the occasion of the opening of the Pathological-Anatomical Institute in the General Hospital in Vienna, he warned urgently against misusing “the freedom of natural research”. The natural scientist must first become aware of the human being as a “knowing subject” and only then should he follow “the urge for knowledge”. If the human being was only considered an object of research in medicine, human dignity would be lost. With this, the humanist addressed the question of ethics in medicine in a forward-looking manner . Rokitansky was critical of animal experiments for ethical, but also for scientific reasons, since "the development history, pathological anatomy and clinical observation provide a number of facts that are worth more than a thousand experiments". In the speech about the “solidarity of all animal life” at the “Imperial Academy of Sciences” he showed his closeness to Arthur Schopenhauer's doctrine of pity. "If we [...] have compassion and practice," he declared, we would "take some of the burden of suffering from those who suffer". Human greatness shows itself in the ability to "voluntarily accept the greatest suffering" by renouncing aggression. Those who do so should be our “great ethical role models”.

On July 17, 1848, Rokitansky was elected a full member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, Vice-President in 1866, and the scholar was its President from 1869 until his death on July 23, 1878. He found this award "the greatest honor that I enjoy". In 1850 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . From 1856 he was also a member of the Leopoldina .

He rests in an honorary grave in the Hernalser Friedhof (group AR, number 24) in Vienna.

Honors and honors

Original bust of Carl von Rokitansky in the arcade courtyard of the University of Vienna

In 1874 he was raised to the nobility as "Freiherr von Rokitansky" by Emperor Franz Josef . He was the holder of the Commander's Cross of the Austrian Order of Leopold and an honorary citizen of the City of Vienna. Rokitansky received honorary doctorates from the universities of Prague, Jena and Krakow. Since 1856 he was a member of the Leopoldina . In 1870 he was accepted as a corresponding member of the Académie des sciences . In 1864 the Rokitanskygasse in Vienna- Hernals (17th district) was named after him. In 1954, on the occasion of his 150th birthday, the Austrian Post issued a special postage stamp. Mount Rokitansky bears his name in the Antarctic .

Works (selection)

  • Carl Rokitansky: Handbook of Pathological Anatomy . Braunmüller u. Seidel, Vienna ( picture on Wikiversity - 3 volumes, 1842–1846).
  • Carl Rokitansky: For orientation about medicine and its practice . Lecture given at the solemn meeting of the Imperial Academy of Sciences on May 31, 1858. In: Almanach der Kaiserliche Akademie der Wissenschaften , 9, Vienna 1859, pp. 119–152.
  • Carl von Rokitansky: Ceremonial address: Freedom of natural research . Ceremonial opening of the pathological-anatomical institute in the Imperial General Hospital on May 24, 1862 (Vienna 1862).
  • Carl von Rokitansky: The conformity of the universities with regard to current Austrian conditions . Vienna 1863.
  • Carl von Rokitansky: Time Issues Concerning the University with a Special Relation to Medicine (Vienna 1863).
  • Carl Rokitansky: The Independent Value of Knowledge . Lecture given at the meeting of the Imperial Academy of Sciences on May 31, 1867. 2nd edition approved by the Imperial Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1869.
  • Carl Rokitansky: The solidarity of all animal life . Lecture given at the solemn meeting of the Imperial Academy of Sciences on May 31, 1869. In: Almanach der Kaiserliche Akademie der Wissenschaften , 19, Vienna 1869, pp. 185–220.
  • Carl Rokitansky: The defects of the partitions of the heart . Pathological anatomical treatise. Vienna 1875.
  • Carl von Rokitansky: autobiography and inaugural address . Introduced, edited and provided with explanations by Lesky Erna (Vienna 1960).

literature

  • Wilde William Robert: Its literary, scientific and medical institutions . With remarks on the current state of science. Dublin / London / Edinburgh 1843.
  • Constantin von Wurzbach : Rokitansky, Karl . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 26th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1874, pp. 288–295 ( digitized version ).
  • Julius Leopold Pagel .:  Rokitansky, Karl Freiherr von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 29, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1889, pp. 69-72.
  • The Vienna Medical School in Vormärz , ed. Neuburger Max. Vienna / Berlin / Leipzig 1921.
  • Robert Rössle : Karl von Rokitansky and Rudolf Virchow . In: Reprint. Wiener Medical Wochenschrift , 84, 15, 1934, pp. 1-9.
  • Leopold Schönbauer : Medical Vienna. History, becoming, appreciation . 2nd revised and expanded edition. Vienna 194).
  • Leopold Schönbauer: Carl von Rokitansky . In: Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift , 66, 8, 1954, pp. 131-134.
  • Hermann Chiari: Carl von Rokitansky's importance for pathological anatomy . Lecture given on February 19, 1954 at the meeting of the Society of Physicians in Vienna on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the birthday of Carl Frh. V. Rokitansky. In: Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift , 66, 8, 1954, pp. 134-137.
  • Karl Rokitansky: memorial words of his grandson Dr. Karl Freiherr v. Rokitansky . In: Reprint from Österreichische Furche , No. 8, February 20, 1954.
  • Paul Klemperer: Notes on Carl von Rokitansky's Autobiography and Inaugural Address . In: Bulletin of the History of Medicine , Vol. 35, 1961, pp. 374-380.
  • Erna Lesky: The Vienna Medical School in the 19th Century (= studies on the history of the University of Vienna 6). Graz / Cologne 1965.
  • Ottokar Rokitansky: Carl Freiherr von Rokitansky . In: A thousand years of Austria . A biographical chronicle 2: From the Biedermeier to the founding of modern parties, ed. Pollack Walter. Vienna / Munich 1973.
  • Robert J. Miciotto: Carl Rokitansky: Nineteenth-century pathologist and leader of the New Vienna School . Dissertation at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore 1979.
  • Milestones in Viennese Medicine: Austria's Great Doctors in Three Centuries , ed. Lesky Erna. Vienna 1981.
  • H. Wyklicky:  Rokitansky Karl Frh. Von. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 9, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-7001-1483-4 , p. 221 f. (Direct links on p. 221 , p. 222 ).
  • Helmut Wyklicky, Karl Freiherr von Rokitansky. In: Reprint Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (Vienna 1986).
  • Oscar Wilde's father on Metternich's Austria. William Wilde - an Irish ophthalmologist about Biedermeier and Vormärz in Vienna , ed.Montjoye Irene (= Studies on the History of Southeastern Europe 5, ed. Hering Gunnar. Frankfurt am Main / Bern / New York 1989.
  • Mark Luprecht: "What people call pessimism": Sigmund Freud, Arthur Schnitzler and Nineteenth-Century Controversy at the University of Vienna Medical School . Riverside CA 1991.
  • Karl Sablik: The beginning of the Second Viennese Medical School: A philosophical-medical paradigm shift . In: Repressed Humanism . Delayed Enlightenment 3: Education and Conceit from the Failed Bourgeois to Liberalism. Philosophy in Austria (1820–1880), edd. Benedikt Michael, Knoll Reinhold, Rupitz Joseph. Vienna 1995.
  • Felicitas Seebacher: "Primum humanitas, alterum scientia". The Vienna Medical School in the field of tension between science and politics . Dissertation University of Klagenfurt, 2000.
  • Roland Sedivy: Carl Freiherr von Rokitansky, pioneer of pathological anatomy . Vienna 2001.
  • Christian Andree : Rokitansky and Virchow - the giants of pathology in disputatio. In: Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift , 154, 19/20, 2004, pp. 458–466.
  • Alexander M. Rokitansky: A life on the threshold . In: Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift , 154, 19-20, 2004, pp. 454-457.
  • Anton Schaller : Reflections by today's gynecologist on the pathological-anatomical life's work of Carl Freiherr v. Rokitanskys . In: Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift , 154, 19/20, 2004, pp. 477-481.
  • Roland Sedivy: Carl Rokitansky and the ambivalence between natural philosophy and natural science . Naturwissenschaftliche Rundschau 57 (12) (2004, pp. 661–669.
  • Ottokar Rokitansky: Carl Freiherr von Rokitansky - for his 200th birthday. An anniversary commemorative . In: Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift , 116,23, 2004, pp. 772–778.
  • Viennese clinical weekly. The middle european journal of medicine , ed. W. Druml, H. Sinzinger. Special issue: Carolus Rokitansky - conditor pathologicae anatomiae: on the occasion of his 200th anniversary, guest editor Roland Sedivy, 116,23, 2004.
  • Main topic: 200 years of Carl Freiherr von Rokitansky , ed. Roland Sedivy. In: Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift , 154, 19/20, 2004).
  • Gabriela Schmidt:  Rokitansky, Carl Freiherr von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 22, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-428-11203-2 , p. 8 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Helmut Rumpler, Helmut Denk (ed.), Christine Ottner (editor): Carl Freiherr von Rokitansky 1804–1878. Pathologist, politician, philosopher, founder of the 19th century Vienna Medical School . Vienna, Böhlau 2005, ISBN 3-205-77205-9 .
  • Felicitas Seebacher: "Freedom of Nature Research!" Carl Freiherr von Rokitansky and the Vienna Medical School: Science and Politics in Conflict . With a foreword by Helmut Denk and an introduction by Günther Hödl. Photo section: Karl Sablik (= Austrian Academy of Sciences, Mathematical and Natural Science Class. Publications of the Commission for the History of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Medicine No. 56, Vienna 2006).

Web links

Commons : Carl von Rokitansky  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Barbara I. Tshisuaka: Rokitansky, Karl Freiherr von. 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 , pp. 1262 f .; here: p. 1262.
  2. ↑ Wolfgang Eckart : History of Medicine . Springer Verlag, 1990, p. 210
  3. ↑ Carl Rokitansky: About diverticulum-like expansion of the tracheal canal. (1838) Medical yearbooks of the kk Austrian state. No. XXV, pp. 374-385.
  4. ^ Critical Contributions to Physiology and Pathology, 1875
  5. ^ Members since 1652: Carl Frhr. by Rokitansky. Leopoldina, accessed on February 22, 2020 .
  6. ^ List of members since 1666: Letter R. Académie des sciences, accessed on February 22, 2020 (French).
  7. ↑ Entry on Carl von Rokitansky in the Austria Forum  (as a stamp illustration), accessed on December 16, 2011
personal data
SURNAME Rokitansky, Carl von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rokitansky, Carl Freiherr von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian pathologist, politician and philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH February 19, 1804
PLACE OF BIRTH Königgrätz , Hradec Králové, Bohemia
DATE OF DEATH July 23, 1878
Place of death Vienna