Leon Wachholz

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Leon Jan Wachholz (born June 20, 1867 in Cracow ; † December 1, 1942 there ) was a Polish forensic doctor and medical historian.

Life

Wachholz 'parents were the Silesian historian Antoni Wachholz (1814–1873) and his wife Joanną b. Zagórską.

Even as a child he loved nature and collected insects. At the Cracow secondary school he was interested in literature and theater. He wrote diaries. After graduating from high school, he studied medicine at the Jagiellonian University . He graduated in 1890 and received his doctorate in universal medicine in 1891. At the same time, he received an assistant position in the Department of Forensic Medicine at Jagiellonian University. At the Department of Forensic Medicine Vienna, he specialized in forensic medicine , psychiatry and medicinal chemistry in 1892/93. Habilitated in Cracow since 1894, he was appointed head of the Forensic Medicine Department at Jagiellonian University in 1895 and Associate Professor in 1896. The University of Kraków appointed him to the chair of forensic medicine in 1898 at the age of 30 . For over 40 years he headed the Institute for Forensic Medicine. He was dean twice at the Jagiellonian University , once at the Faculty of Medicine and then at the Faculty of Law.

Every day he met a friend in a café. The result was a club that brought together Krakow scholars, artists and writers of the time. The painter Jacek Malczewski visited Wachholz in his institute and made corpse studies. In 1904 Wachholz was one of the founders of the German Society for Forensic Medicine . In 1913 he became a member of the Forensic Medicine Society in Vienna. 1935 emeritus , he was in 1938 in Bonn Deputy Chairman of the International Academy of Legal and Social Medicine selected. The German Consulate in Cracow wrote to the Foreign Office on June 19, 1939:

"Prof. Dr. Leon Wachholz in Cracow did not come out Aryan and in no way politically. His behavior towards Germany can be described as impeccable. Wachholz is a respected and valued personality in Krakow. "

- German Consulate in Krakow

In a letter dated August 5, 1939, the Reich Ministry of Science, Education and Public Education approved the acceptance “without hesitation”. During the German occupation of Poland 1939-1945 , he was arrested on November 6, 1939 with 182 professors from the University of Krakow and the Cracow Mining Academy in the Collegium Novum . Despite his 73 years of age and severe arteriosclerosis , he was brought to Sachsenhausen concentration camp (Block 46, No. 5215) at the end of the month . At the request of his wife, Emil Abderhalden asked Governor General Hans Frank to release Wachholz. He was then released on February 8, 1940 with 101 prisoners from Krakow. After returning from the concentration camp, he was sick and exhausted. Since the financial situation was also bad, he worked a little. His health remained unchanged. At the age of 75, he died of exhaustion. In Krakow he lived at Wyspianskiego 8.

Works

Many of his 200 publications on forensic and general medicine as well as the history of medicine are written in German. Scientific focus is drowning , hemoglobin and carbon monoxide intoxication . His students include Włodzimierz Sieradzki and Stefan Horoszkiewicz . As a great humanist , he translated Friedrich Schiller and Goethe's Faust into Polish . He wrote 24 biographies for the Polish Biographical Dictionary .

Leopoldina

The air raids on Halle (Saale) destroyed all the files of the end of the war the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina . Only a few letters and documents on Wachholz have been preserved in the archive, including the appointment by Abderhalden on August 14, 1939. A curriculum vitae is missing. A memorial stele of the Leopoldina in memory of nine members of the academy who were murdered in the concentration camps of the National Socialists or died of the inhumane and cruel conditions of the camp imprisonment also reminds of Leon Wachholz.

Works

  • About cyanmethaemoglobin and cyanhaematin . Berlin 1894.
  • About changes in the respiratory organs as a result of carbolic acid poisoning . Berlin 1895.
  • Experimental contributions to the theory of carbon oxide and luminous gas poisoning from a forensic point of view . 1896.
  • Suicide by strychnine (alleged antipyrine poisoning): Investigations into the nature of rigor mortis and the relationship of its occurrence to some poisons . Berlin 1897.
  • On the case history of suicides by gunshots . Berlin 1899.
  • From the history of poisons and poisoning . 1903.
  • Hundred years of forensic medicine chair at Jagiellonian University . 1905.
  • The violent deaths: death by poisoning . Berlin 1905.
  • Experimental contribution to the theory of frostbite . Berlin 1906.
  • The diagnosis of drowning death . Berlin 1907.
  • On the case history of the so-called meat poisoning . Berlin 1908.
  • Suicide by Coal Poisoning: A Contribution to the Doctrine of the Duration of Detectability of Carbon Oxide in the Blood of Surviving Individuals . Berlin 1908.
  • From the past of the Lviv University Medical Faculty . 1912.
  • Medycyna sądowa [ Forensic Medicine], 1919, 1925.
  • with S. Ciechanowski: Technika sekcji zwłok [autopsy technique ], 1919.
  • Psychopatologia sądowa [Forensic Psychopathology], 1923.
  • Krakow Hospitals 1220–1920 . Krakow 1924.
  • Violent death from criminal castration or natural death from aortic rupture . Leipzig 1928.
  • About establishing virginity . Springer, Berlin 1928.
  • About sensational cases of sudden death from natural causes . Leipzig 1929.
  • On the case history of pathological alcohol intoxication . Leipzig 1931.
  • with Jan S. Olbrycht: Forensic significance of writing changes due to illness . Springer, Berlin 1934.
  • Spectroscopic studies of some hemoglobin derivatives . Springer, Berlin 1934.

Honors

See also

literature

  • Arnim Max (greeting), Franz Hodes, Gerhard Bock: Internationale Personalbibliographie , Stuttgart 1952, p. 619.
  • Karolina Zamiara: Leon Wachholz - twórca nowoczesnej polskiej medycyny sądowej . Farmacja Polska 66 (2010), pp. 425-428.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Karolina Zamiara: Leon Wachholz - twórca nowoczesnej polskiej medycyny sądowej . Poznań 2010
  2. ↑ Historia - Medycyna Sądowa (Wydział Lekarski, Uniwersytet Jagielloński)
  3. ↑ Leopoldina erects a stele in memory of Nazi victims (2009)
  4. ↑ "For the services in the scientific field." MP from 1929 No. 276, poz. 638
  5. ↑ "For outstanding service in the scientific field and for the education of young people in the spirit of patriotism 1905–1918." MP from 1936 No. 263, poz. 464
personal data
SURNAME Wachholz, Leon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wachholz, Leon Jan (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish forensic doctor and medical historian
DATE OF BIRTH June 20, 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH Krakow
DATE OF DEATH December 1, 1942
Place of death Krakow