Hospital of the German Imperial Navy in Yokohama
The hospital of the German Imperial Navy in Yokohama was a 1878 on behalf of the German Imperial Navy in Yokohama in the Japanese Empire built a military hospital . It was one of the very few hospitals set up outside Germany in peacetime and was open to German navy members as well as private individuals.
history
In the course of the increasing influence of European powers in East Asia , Great Britain and France had already obtained the allocation of land for their fleets for the establishment of independent naval depots in Japan from 1865 . The Netherlands followed suit in 1867. Therefore the Prussian chargé d' affaires in Tokyo , Max von Brandt , felt obliged to assert such claims as well. As a result, a coastal area of around 1200 square meters was allocated. However, the property turned out to be unusable and the plan to build a separate German naval depot in Japan was rejected by the head of the Admiralty , Albrecht von Stosch , in 1877.
However, the plans to build a German naval hospital in Yokohama remained. The plans had been in place since the early 1970s and were detailed each time a German ship visited Yokohama, for example in October 1873 during the visit of the Covered Corvette Nymphe under the command of Louis von Blanc . With the establishment of the hospital, the medical care of the navy members who were particularly at risk in East Asia and who were on duty there at the East Asian station abroad, among others , was to be secured. Construction began in 1877 under the direction of the medical officer Hermann Gutschow , who at that time was in East Asia with the covered corvette SMS Elisabeth , and was able to start operations on July 1, 1878. According to the order in the Marine Ordinance Sheet, the following were to be recorded: “... all members of the Imperial Navy, crew members of the merchant navy, mail and passenger ships…. German nationals ... members of foreign navies ... Native rural residents ... all male. ”The non-military patients had to pay for the hospital services, however. Medical matters, including the supervision of the German and Japanese nursing staff, were the responsibility of the chief doctor of the hospital, but administration was in the hands of a hospital inspector who was provided by the North Sea naval station .
The hospital provided space for four first-class patients, three second-class patients and 48 third-class patients.
From 1885 onwards, the number of patients from foreign merchant ship crews and natives compared to those from the German navy increased more and more. The military hospital was damaged in the very strong Mino Owari earthquake in October 1891, but was able to continue operations. In 1899 a separate operating room was set up.
When the Imperial Navy took possession of the Kiautschou area in the south of the Shandong Peninsula, leased by the Chinese Empire, from 1898 , military infrastructure, including a hospital, was set up there. Under these circumstances, the Yokohama Navy Hospital continued to operate until 1911, when it was closed with the withdrawal of medical personnel.
literature
- WU Eckart: The military hospital of the Imperial German Navy in Yokohama 1878–1911. Published in: E. Kraas, Y. Hiki, I. Umhauer (Ed.): 300 years of German-Japanese relations in medicine. Springer publishing house. Tokyo. 1992. ISBN 978-4-431-68022-2 . Pages 45 to 47.