Karl Friedrich von Schäffer

Karl Friedrich von Schäffer (born April 10, 1808 in Stuttgart , † April 17, 1888 in Cannstatt near Stuttgart) was a German doctor and patron . From 1838 to 1874 he was medical director of the royal (insane) nursing home in Zwiefalten .

Live and act

Karl Friedrich von Schäffer was born on April 10, 1808 as the son of the hat maker Carl Friedrich Schäffer (1773–1846) and his wife Johanna Catharine Dorothea, born. Steinhardt (1788–1873), born in Stuttgart . After attending grammar school in Stuttgart, he studied medicine at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen from 1826 to 1830 and was there with a thesis on the subject of the liver sample, a confirmation of the lung sample in a medical-forensic relationship or examinations on a new criterion for the decision on the Lived or not lived a newborn child . He had already dealt with the field of psychiatry during his studies . In the years 1831 and 1832 he went on extensive study trips to England and France and found out about the state of psychiatry in individual institutions at various locations in Germany. He then practiced as a doctor in Stuttgart for a few years. In 1838 he was appointed head of the "Königlich Württembergische Insane Asylum" in Zwiefalten (with the title of Hofrat). In 1874 he retired and lived in Cannstatt near Stuttgart until his death . In addition to his medical work, which was carried out with great dedication and care, Schäffer devoted himself to botany and numismatics, and in the course of his life he put together large collections. He bequeathed his extensive private library as well as his coin and fern collection to the University Library of Tübingen . Schäffer remained unmarried. His grave in the Steigfriedhof in Bad Cannstatt has not been preserved.

Schäffer's private library, which comprises 1183 works from the fields of medicine, general science, botany, mathematics, history, geography and philology, is owned by the University Library of Tübingen . This also includes a larger collection of portrait graphics. His numismatic collection of around 3,000 pieces, especially valuable coins from ancient Greece , and the accompanying correspondence belong to the coin collection of the Institute for Classical Archeology at the University of Tübingen. The fern collection he has compiled is in the herbarium of the University of Tübingen.

Awards

• 1853: Knight's Cross of the Württemberg Crown Order (associated with the award of the personal nobility).
• 1869: Comthur Cross II. Class of the Frederick Order.
• 1874: Comthur Cross II. Class of the Crown Order.

swell

• Veronika Holdau: Karl Schäffer and the Königliche Pfleganstalt Zwiefalten 1838–1874 , dissertation Ulm 2016 ( online ).
• Stefan Krmnicek / Henner Hardt (eds.): A Collection in context. Annotated edition of the letters and documents in the Dr. Karl von Schäffer , Tübingen, Tübingen University Press, Tübingen 2017 (Tübingen Numismatic Studies, Volume 1), ISBN 978-3-947251-00-1 ( online )
• Ernst Seidl (Ed.): Museums + Collections of the University of Tübingen , Museum of the University of Tübingen MUT, Tübingen 2016 (Writings of the Museum of the University of Tübingen MUT, Volume 14), p. 62, ISBN 978-3-9817947-4-8 .