Karl Wessely (medic)

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Karl Wessely

Karl Wessely (born April 6, 1874 in Berlin , † February 25, 1953 in Munich ) was a German ophthalmologist.

origin

Wessely's ancestors were Galician Jews from Bar (Vinnytsia) . Many were victims of pogroms in the Khmelnytskyi uprising in 1648 . His great-grandfather was Hartwig Wessely . Grandfather was the Bleicheroder doctor Moritz August Wessely (1800–1850). In 1845 he converted from the Jewish to the Protestant faith and received the title of Grand Ducal Nassau Privy Councilor and Royal Prussian Privy Medical Council . Karl Wessely's parents were the Royal Prussian Secret Health Council and medical officer of the reserve August Hermann Wessely, born on June 21, 1840 in Nordhausen, and Mathilde Isabelle Wessely, born on May 9, 1846 in Warsaw as the daughter of the Protestant publishing houses August and Emma Glücksberg born Landshutter. They married on May 30, 1868 in Berlin. August Hermann Wessely died on December 1, 1914 in Charlottenburg and Mathilde Isabelle Wessely on September 25, 1933.

Life

Wessely was baptized in Berlin on June 10, 1874 and confirmed on September 20, 1889. At Easter 1893 he passed the final exam at the Luisenstädtisches Gymnasium . After graduating from high school, he studied medicine at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität and the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg . His teachers were Carl Gegenbaur , Wilhelm Kühne , Wilhelm Erb and Julius Hirschberg . Hirschberg won and inspired Wessely for ophthalmology. Wessely wrote his first publication as a student . It was followed by 300 more. After he had passed the state examination in Heidelberg on August 24, 1898 (“very good”), he went to Theodor Leber for three years . With an excited liver dissertation, he was in 1900 in Heidelberg summa cum laude for Dr. med. PhD. In 1901 he went to Carl von Heß at the Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg to train as an ophthalmologist .

Berlin and Würzburg

In 1902 Wessely returned to his native Berlin, where he worked as a practicing ophthalmologist in his private clinic for five years. At the same time he did research with the physiologist Theodor Wilhelm Engelmann ; but - as Walther Löhlein recognized - the daily practice could not satisfy him in the long run. Invited by the ordinaries in Würzburg, Breslau and Königsberg to return to a university career, Wessely returned to the Würzburg Eye Clinic in 1907. His former teacher Hess was probably the most important German ophthalmologist there. Wessely took over a senior physician position and completed his habilitation in 1908 on glaucoma . The habilitation thesis and the disputation made an excellent impression on the faculty . Wessely was then appointed private lecturer on July 11, 1908 . To keep him in Würzburg, he was awarded the title and rank of associate professor two years later . When Hess switched to the Munich chair, Wessely was appointed his successor by Eugen von Knilling on January 29, 1913 .

First World War

In the First World War on the third day of mobilization for the German army called, he came over Bonn and Liege to the Western Front . In the war hospital department of the Guard Corps he was used in the Battle of the Sambre (1914) . Unlike the later military hospitals in trench warfare department Wessely was used in the operation area at the front. In small individual groups she had to support the doctors in the field hospitals . Another area of ​​application was the Battle of the Aisne (1914) . Later the military hospital was moved to Cambrai and Kortrijk . When the use of poison gas required more and more ophthalmological help, Wessely was assigned to another hospital to set up an eye ward. As a medical officer in the reserve he also experimented during the war at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry on drugs for eye protection when using gas. After a year he was released again to head the Würzburg Eye Clinic. There he was in charge of the reserve hospital until demobilization . He reported on his military medical experience in publications.

Wurzburg

For the Würzburg pediatrician Hans Rietschel , Wessely was "Germany's first ophthalmologist even in his time in Würzburg". During Wessely's time as head of the clinic in Würzburg, the first woman to receive a doctorate in ophthalmology. After he had repeatedly belonged to the academic senate, he was elected Rector of the University of Würzburg for the academic year 1921/22 (in a second ballot) . His speech at the rectorate was devoted to Goethe's and Schopenhauer's position in the history of the doctrine of facial sensations . On May 11, 1922, he spoke at the unveiling of the memorial plaques for the fallen at the University of Würzburg:

“It is four simple panels, without any pictorial decoration, that we are unveiling today. Nothing distracts the eye from its essential content, because what this marble brings are the names of the 400 fighters who belonged to the Alma Julia and who sealed their devotion to the fatherland with death. […] In the spirit, however, we relive the hours when Germany was called against its will to fight, where the German people, in unanimity as it had never been seen before, rose up to protect their most sacred goods, where the whole academic Youth and their teachers, as far as they could still carry weapons, rushed to the flag. All those whom we honor today are not drawn into the field for the selfish goals of a people, not to increase power, but to protect and preserve: German soil, home and hearth, German language, German style and custom. And that despite the will to annihilate and the overwhelming power of the enemy there is still a German people, a German country, we thank all those who, like these fellow students, gave their lives for it. […] No acumen of a politician or historian, a philosopher or scientist can dissect what is ultimately the root of the idealism of love for the country. As little as the doctor knows how to say what homesickness is. But we all know from youth that we, those who were born on earth, are bound to the soil from which we grew up, to the language in which we became human beings, with fibers so indissoluble that our best wither away when these roots of our strength be destroyed. The words fatherland and mother tongue, they tell us again and again with secret violence that we become unfaithful to ourselves if we give them up, like the individual who breaks away from father and mother. "

- Karl Wessely

In 1924 Wessely followed the call of the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich to succeed Carl von Hess. Wessely's successor in Würzburg was Franz Schieck .

Munich

After his teacher Carl v. Hess had died in Munich in 1924, Wessely followed him to the Munich chair. He had previously turned down calls from the University of Vienna and the University of Zurich . His successor in Würzburg was Franz Schieck . The Congregation of the Sisters of the Redeemer met Wessely's request and sent - against the initial resistance of Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber  - 25 nuns to Munich. They took over the work in the nursing service, ambulance, operating theater, kitchen, administration, laboratory and X-ray. As a thank you, Wessely had them set up a chapel in 1927. His lecture on sensory physiology was unique and caused overcrowded classrooms. From 1927 to 1938 he sat on the board of the German Ophthalmological Society . He represented the German ophthalmologists at the delegates' conference in Scheveningen (1927) and at the first international congress after the war (1929). His lectures in Lucerne (1904), Naples (1909) and Amsterdam (1929) earned him and the professional society respect and recognition. In particular, many colleagues from Italy, the Netherlands and the United States attended the Munich clinic.

As early as December 1, 1930, the Völkischer Beobachter agitated against Wessely. Like Alfred Bielschowsky and Aurel von Szily , Karl Wessely was given leave of absence on October 25, 1935 by the Bavarian State Ministry for Education and Culture under the law to restore the professional civil service - although they had been sworn in to Adolf Hitler again a year earlier . This was followed by compulsory retirement, which officially took effect on December 31, 1935. The Reich Office for Genealogical Research presented on August 18, 1936 Wessely fixed "fully Jewish descent". The International Council of Ophthalmologists intervened with the Reich Foreign Minister and achieved that Wessely were granted pensions, work permits and freedom to travel. The decision on the pension payments due remained reserved. It is not known why Wessely's license to practice medicine - unlike all other Jewish doctors - was not withdrawn on the express orders of Hitler. The fact that Wessely was a civil servant before the war and from 1933 to 1935 in the Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten and referred Ferdinand Sauerbruch to the front service and the Iron Cross, could have been significant.

After the end of the Nazi regime, Wessely returned to the chair at the request of the Bavarian state government in 1945, despite his advanced age . The air raids on Munich had destroyed two thirds of the hospital buildings. An operating theater and 100 beds could be set up in the midwifery school of the women's clinic on Maistraße . 1950 Wessely led the conference of the German Ophthalmological Society in Munich. After a long break due to the Second World War, the Bavarian Ophthalmological Association he founded was able to resume its activities in 1952.

Wessely outlived his successor in Würzburg by seven years. He died at the age of 78 and was buried on March 2, 1953 in the Waldfriedhof (Munich) .

“Karl Wessely is a university professor, doctor and researcher who was one of the most important and distinctive personalities in the ophthalmological world and who has contributed in no small way to increasing and consolidating the reputation and importance of German medical research in the world. "

- Erwin Walser

Appreciation

Despite its paramount importance, there are hardly any biographical contributions about Wessely. This is also astonishing because 32 specialist journals from all over the world brought news of his death and paid tribute to his work. These were:

Honors

Estate and sources

His personal estate is kept in the German Medical History Museum . Wessely's personnel files are in the Bavarian Main State Archives (MK 44514, MK 69379). The file "Wessely, Karl" ´ in the archive of the University of Würzburg (UWü ARS 891) contains the correspondence with authorities, offices and clinics.

See also

literature

  • Kürschner's German Scholars Calendar , 4th Edition (1931), p. 3247.
  • Erwin Walser: Karl Wessely †. In: Albrecht von Graefe's archive for ophthalmology combined with archive for ophthalmology. Volume 153, 1952/1953, pp. 387-390.
  • Hanns-Jürgen Merté : On the 25th anniversary of Karl Wessely's death. Fortschr Med 96 (1978), pp. 1064-1065.
  • Horst Kalthoff : Johannes Fuchs. Ophthalmologist in the 20th century - a piece of contemporary and medical history . Kaden Verlag, Heidelberg 2006. ISBN 978-3922777748 , pp. 19-26.
  • Walther Löhlein : Opening address and commemorative speech on Karl Wessely's death. In: Report on the 58th meeting of the German Ophthalmological Society. Volume 58, 1953, pp. 1-3.
  • Thomas Friedel: Karl Wessely - his life, his work and his influence on ophthalmology in Germany and in the world . Diss. Univ. Würzburg 2008 ( online version )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Dissertation Friedel (2008)
  2. ↑ ophthalmoscopes on yourself . Central Journal for Practical Ophthalmology 1897
  3. ↑ Dissertation: Experimental studies on the transmission of stimuli from one eye to the other .
  4. ↑ Habilitation thesis: Experimental studies on intraocular pressure and the qualitative and quantitative influence on the intraocular fluid change .
  5. ↑ Wessely's annual salary was 6,000 marks .
  6. ↑ in: August Borchard : The German surgery in World War 1914 to 1918 . Johann Ambrosius Barth Verlag , Leipzig 1920.
  7. ↑ Ophthalmological experience in the field . Wuerzburg 1915
  8. ^ Injuries to the organ of vision after the experiences of the war . Leipzig 1920
  9. ^ Heike Hessenauer: Stages of women's studies at the University of Würzburg (1869–1939). Degener & Co., Neustadt an der Aisch 1998 (= sources and contributions to the history of the University of Würzburg. Supplement 4), ISBN 3-7686-9170-5 , p. 178 f.
  10. ^ Walter Ziegler : The University of Würzburg in transition (1918-20). In: Peter Baumgart (Ed.): Four hundred years of the University of Würzburg. A commemorative publication. Degener & Co. (Gerhard Gessner), Neustadt an der Aisch 1982 (= sources and contributions to the history of the University of Würzburg. Volume 6), ISBN 3-7686-9062-8 , pp. 179-251; here: p. 186 f.
  11. ↑ Rector's speeches (HKM)
  12. ^ Decision of the Reich Ministry of the Interior of September 2, 1939 (No. 200.04)
  13. ↑ Detlev Gück, Patrick Vivell, in: History of Ophthalmology of the University of Munich
  14. ↑ Jens Martin Rohrbach, in: Ophthalmology in National Socialism .
  15. ↑ Franz Grehn, Gerd Geerling, Frank Krogmann and Michael Stolberg, in: 150 Years University Eye Clinic Würzburg .
personal data
SURNAME Wessely, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German ophthalmologist
DATE OF BIRTH April 6, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH February 25, 1953
Place of death Munich