Maria Naepflin

Maria Naepflin (* 13. May 1894 in Beckenried at Lake Lucerne , † 1972 in Zurich ) was a Swiss Red Cross - Nurse and author .

Live and act

Maria Naepflin was an orphan shortly before the start of the First World War . The parents 'house in Beckenried on Lake Lucerne was to be sold at her brothers' request so that cash was available. Naepflin then reported to the Red Cross War Nursing Department and trained as a Red Cross helper. According to the law of the time, she lost her Swiss citizenship through her marriage to an Austrian. Before starting her work, the Emperor of Austria, Franz Joseph I , admonished Maria Naepflin to above all comfort and love the wounded, because this is even more important than care.

Maria Naepflin processed her war experiences during the First World War on the Serbian front and in Galicia in her book Fortgerungen - Durchgerungen . She probably self-published the first edition in 1934. Another six editions in a Swiss publisher were to follow. The total print run was 20,000 copies. In this book, Naepflin addressed her conflicts with religion in view of the great suffering in the war. She also discussed her addiction to morphine , which the war had driven her into, in order to at least temporarily alleviate the horror. The soldiers in ragged clothes showed how "beautiful" the life of a soldier really was, she wrote. She also showed understanding for the "slackers" among the soldiers. Medicine and the military accused her of compassion. She assumed doctors to cripple soldiers without need and objects of their desire to experiment.

Maria Naepflin was transferred to Sofia because of her addiction to morphine . Shortly before the end of the First World War, Maria Naepflin worked in Plan / Egerland and used the rest of her inheritance to buy food for a hospital that was neglected by the Czech Red Cross. She also signed up as a transport nurse and began photography during this time . She was awarded a medal for her work in cholera care during the war. After the war, like most Sisters of War, she struggled to find work. Among other things, she worked in private care in Bregenz .

In 1936 she was supposed to undergo a psychiatric examination because her mental state was felt to be confused. Her divorced husband confirmed to the competent authorities that Maria Naepflin was mentally normal. However, she is a woman who has been badly hit by fate and traumatized by the war, who deserves to be left alone at last.

Maria Naepflin played a role in the discussion about conscientious objection by women (e.g. German law on equal treatment of the sexes, August 14, 2006).

Publications

• Struggled, struggled to a gem. A shocking picture of the life of a Swiss nurse from the time of the Great War, the Revolution and unemployment. Self-published, Konstanz 1934; 4th edition: Loepthin, Meiringen 1938.
• A Swiss woman is fighting for her home. Union printing house, Zurich 1936.
• German cities and monuments before the bombing. Splügenverlag, Zurich 1947.
• Homeless, stateless. The adventures of a Red Cross sister in Austria, Hitler's Germany and Switzerland. Splügenverlag, Zurich 1946. (4th edition 1965.)

literature

• Monika Kunz: The image of the nurse in literary evidence of war nursing in the First World War. Master's thesis at the Department of German Studies at the Free University of Berlin winter semester 1990/91, Horst-Peter Wolff Care History Collection (administered by Traudel Weber-Reich), Göttingen 1991, pp. 59–76.
• Horst-Peter Wolff: Biographical lexicon for nursing history - Who was who in nursing history. Volume 2. Urban & Fischer, Munich / Jena, March 2001, p. 164.
• Ilse Lenz (Ed.): The new women's movement in Germany. Farewell to the small difference , VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden 1st edition 2008, 2nd edition 2010, p. 841 on conscientious objection by women: No Florence Nightingale , no Marion von Klot , no Anna Matterfeld, no Maria Naepflin, no Elsa Brandström , no Mathilda Wrede , no “angels of the prisoners and the battlefields” .
• Gudrun Wedel: autobiographies of women. A lexicon. Böhlau Verlag, Cologne 2010, pp. 600–601.
• Christa Hämmerle: Mentally broken, physically a wreck ... Experiences of violence by war nurses. In: Dies .: Heimat / Front - Gender history (s) of the First World War in Austria-Hungary. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2014, ISBN 978-3-205-79471-4 , pp. 27–53, 201–219.

Individual evidence

1. ^ William Kelleher Storey: The First World War. A Concise Global History , Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, Boulder, New York, London 2014, on morphine addiction Maria Naepflin p. 117, ISBN 978-1-4422-2680-7
2. ↑ Conscientious objection (usually men are meant by this)

Web links

• Literature by and about Maria Naepflin in the bibliographic database WorldCat