Ludwig Fliegel

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Ludwig Fliegel (born July 31, 1865 - † April 21, 1947 ) was a Swiss dentist and fighter against animal experiments .

Life

Ludwig Fliegel was next to Anton von Steiger-Jeandrevin and Jules Charles Scholl (1850–1886) one of the “fathers” of the Swiss anti-animal experimentation movement. The first experience that Fliegel had with farm animals was groundbreaking for him: when he witnessed a slaughter in 1890, he decided never to eat meat again, although there was little information about vegetarianism in his time. The view that people would inevitably have to reckon with illness, incapacity for work and premature death by completely avoiding meat was widespread in the 19th century.

Two years later, while studying dentistry at the University of Zurich , Fliegel heard that Prof. Justus Gaule (1849–1939) was carrying out experiments on non-anesthetized pigeons during his lectures to show that their ability to move depends on the integrity of certain parts of the brain. Thereupon he decided to found an organization whose aim it should be to obtain a legal ban on all scientific animal experiments (then: vivisection ).

After Ludwig Fliegel had existed in 1893 his dental exam at the age of 28, he founded in spring 1894 with the pastor Jakob von Bergen from Bassersdorf the club to combat scientific animal torture (vivisection) Zurich. Only then did he find out that there had been an anti -ivisection association in Bern and Geneva since 1883 and that similar organizations had existed for several years in the German Empire and in England. On December 6, 1894, at the first annual meeting of the association founded by Fliegel and von Bergen, which now had 600 members, it was decided to launch a popular initiative to ban vivisection in the canton of Zurich. The initiative failed in 1895 because the vote was in favor of vivisection.

Ludwig Fliegel's commitment was to shape the Swiss anti-animal experimentation movement for 50 years: He wrote articles critical of animal experiments for brochures, leaflets and magazines (often anonymous); collected press articles and excerpts from medical and physiological textbooks; gave speeches; organized events and the funding, printing and distribution of leaflets. The writer Magnus Schwantje , who first visited him in Zurich in 1903, reported in an article on Ludwig Fliegel's 70th birthday in 1935 that, in addition to his work as a dentist, he carried out his anti-divisectionist activities every day into the night, and then until dawn study new scientific works.

"1000 Doctors Against Vivisection"

In 1935 the book 1000 Doctors Against Vivisection was published , which is still considered to be Fliegel's main work. It contains around 500 citations collected over several decades, in which mainly medical professionals - including Charles Bell , Charles Clay , Hans Much , Lawson Tait (1845–1899), Erwin Liek , Ernst Grysanowski , Charles Bell-Taylor (1829–1909 ), Nikolai Iwanowitsch Pirogow , Gennaro Ciaburri , Herbert Lumley Snow (1847–1930), Anna Kingsford , Frederick Treves - speak out against animal experiments. In addition to the members of the Society of Doctors Opposing Vivisection in Austria , the names of around 700 doctors are listed who have petitioned the Austrian Reichsrat and the German Reichstag for severe restrictions on vivisection.

When compiling the book, Ludwig Fliegel received support from Magnus Schwantje, who fled the National Socialists to Switzerland on December 23, 1934 . Schwantje also wrote the foreword in which he names 48 other well-known personalities (philosophers, poets, free thinkers, artists, writers, historians, naturalists, politicians, reformers) who were not medical professionals and who condemned vivisection.

On November 1, 1935, the Reich and Prussian Minister of the Interior (Berlin) sent an official letter to the World Association against Vivisection and for the Protection of Animals (Zurich) regarding the book 1000 Doctors Against Vivisection by Ludwig Fliegel. With reference to a petition to the Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, it was stated that the question of experiments on living animals for scientific purposes had been uniformly regulated for the German Reich by the Animal Welfare Act of November 24, 1933. Accordingly, it was asked to refrain from distributing this book in Germany.

51 years later, the Swiss writer Hans Ruesch published the book 1000 Doctors Against Animal Experiments , which contains a facsimile of Ludwig Fliegel's 1000 Doctors Against Vivisection and an expanded collection of quotations from the period 1824–1985.

Fonts

  • Pasteur's alleged cure for dog fury. Zurich, October 1985.
  • The failure of animal experiments in medicine, especially in combating epidemics (with contributions from: Dr. G. Ciaburri, Manfred Kyber , Dr. F. Landmann, Prof. Dr. Theodor Lessing , Prof. Dr. Oehninger, Dr. E . Schlegel). Association against the vivisection of Basel, Bern and Zurich / International Association to Combat Scientific Animal Torture, Dresden / Association of Swiss Vaccination Opponents, Zurich 1931.
  • 1000 doctors against vivisection (scientific animal torture) because of its cruelty and uselessness. Association of Swiss associations against vivisection (Basel, Bern, Geneva, Neuchâtel, Vaud, Zurich) 1935.
  • Systematic misleading of the public by newspaper editors in questions of vivisection (animal torture) and medicine. Scandalous behavior of newspapers in the service of vivisector fools, barbarians, parasites and criminals. Bodan Buchfabrik AG, Kreuzlingen 1947.
  • Critical considerations on diphtheria serum. o. O. and J.
  • Pasteur exposed. o. O. and J.
  • On the 100th birthday of Billroth (On the futility of animal experiments in surgery). o. O. and J.

literature

  • Roland Neff: The dispute over the scientific animal experiment in Switzerland in the 19th century. Schwabe & Co. AG, Verlag, Basel 1989, ISBN 3-7965-0865-0 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Magnus Schwantje: On the 70th birthday of Ludwig Fliegel, the founder of Switzerland. Movement against vivisection (scientific animal torture). In: happiness and prosperity. Weekly for vegetarianism and successful lifestyle. No. 42, Bern, September 6, 1935, pp. 331-332. Also in: Vegetarian Press. 18th year, issue 9, September 1935, p. 101.
  2. ^ A b Roland Neff: The dispute over the scientific animal experiment in Switzerland in the 19th century. Schwabe & Co. AG, Verlag, Basel 1989, ISBN 3-7965-0865-0 , p. 14.
  3. ^ Roland Neff: The dispute over the scientific animal experiment in Switzerland of the 19th century. Schwabe & Co. AG, Verlag, Basel 1989, ISBN 3-7965-0865-0 , p. 36.
  4. ↑ Magnus Schwantje: On the 70th birthday of Ludwig Fliegel, the founder of Switzerland. Movement against vivisection (scientific animal torture). In: happiness and prosperity. Weekly for vegetarianism and successful lifestyle. No. 42, Bern, September 6, 1935, p. 333. Also in: Vegetarian Press. Volume 18, No. 9, September 1935, pp. 101-102.
  5. ↑ Various sources (including the re-publication from 1986) indicate 1930 as the year of publication. This is proven to be wrong. First: In 1935 Magnus Schwantje announced in the weekly publications Glück und Wohlstand (No. 42 of September 6, 1935) and Vegetarian Press (No. 9, September 1935) a review of the new book 1000 Doctors Against Vivisection by Ludwig Fliegel, its printing on July 31, 1935, the 70th birthday of Fliegels, ended. This first review of the book was published in Fortune and Prosperity, No. 47, October 11, 1935. Second: Schwantje and Fliegel had put the book together over several months, but this was only possible after Schwantje's flight from the National Socialists to Switzerland on December 23, 1934. Third: The most recent quotations in Fliegel's book are taken from sources that were only made public in late 1934 and early 1935.
  6. ↑ Magnus Schwantje: Collected works. Volume 1: Vegetarianism. Franz Hirthammer Verlag GmbH, Munich 1976, ISBN 3-921288-21-5 , p. 19.
  7. ↑ Our book: “1000 Doctors Against Vivisection” is not wanted in Germany! In: The vivisection opponent. Vol. 7, No. 4. Association of Swiss Associations against Vivisection, Bern, December 1935, p. 16.
  8. ↑ 1000 doctors against animal experiments. With an introduction by Hans Ruesch and a facsimile of the book 1000 Doctors Against Vivisection by Ludwig Fliegel. Civis, Klosters 1986, ISBN 3-905280-03-7 .
personal data
SURNAME Fliegel, Ludwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss dentist and fighter against animal experiments
DATE OF BIRTH July 31, 1865
DATE OF DEATH April 21, 1947