Max Flesch-Thebesius

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Max Flesch-Thebesius (born July 9, 1889 in Frankfurt am Main , † April 6, 1983 in Kronberg im Taunus ) was a German physician , surgeon , local politician , art lover and patron .

Career

School and study

Max Flesch was born the son of the Frankfurt lawyer , local politician and city ​​councilor Karl Ferdinand Moritz Flesch (1853–1915) and his wife Ida, née Ebeling. Max had four siblings; his youngest brother was the physician and radio pioneer Hans Flesch . After finishing school at the Goethe-Gymnasium in Frankfurt , Max studied medicine in Heidelberg, Berlin, Jena, Freiburg and Munich. In 1913 he received his doctorate in Heidelberg, after which he worked as an assistant doctor at the surgical university clinic in the Frankfurt district of Sachsenhausen . Ludwig Rehn and Victor Schmieden were among his academic teachers .

From 1914 to 1918 he took part in the First World War. Like many of his contemporaries, he felt German-national and was a patriot .

In the year after the death of his father, in 1916, he married Amalie Thebesius (1894-1984), daughter of a doctor of justice , and took her family name as a second surname. In 1920 the daughter Marlies Flesch-Thebesius was born. There was strict silence within the family about the Jewish origin of the Fleschs, who had settled in Frankfurt am Main since 1530.

Medicine and politics

Max Flesch-Thebesius (left) behind his wife Amelie (seated)

In 1923 Flesch-Thebesius established himself as a specialist in surgery in Frankfurt am Main.

In the course of his medical career, Flesch-Thebesius co-founded the private hospital in Frankfurt-Sachsenhausen and was chief physician in the surgical department of this clinic from 1928 to 1933. The Nazis ensured after their seizure of power because of the Jewish roots of the grandparents for his dismissal as "non- Aryans ". The Nazis did not recognize their Christian ( Evangelical-Lutheran ) baptism , and the Fleschs' vow of silence about their Jewish origins was broken from outside.

After that he worked initially in his private practice and until around 1938 as an attending doctor at the Frankfurt Viktoria Institute (Sanatorium Westendstraße).

After the Second World War , he was director of surgery at the Frankfurt-Höchst City Hospital from 1945 to 1958 . In addition, he was involved in local politics for the CDU , for example as a member of the health and culture committee. From 1946 to 1964 he was a member of the city ​​council of Frankfurt, the last years from 1960 to 1964 deputy head of the city ​​council .

He is considered to be the main initiator of efforts to rebuild the war ruins of the Alte Oper and in this context founded the campaign “Save the Opera House”. He was encouraged by the Nobel Prize for Literature Laureate Thomas Mann , who wrote to him on March 7, 1953: "So count me (...) among those for whom the respectful preservation of the opera building (...) is a true matter of the heart." The writer connect “the memory of early musical and dramatic impressions” with this building, whose architecture “probably belongs to the best that the 19th century, which was in need of historical reference, was able to”.

On May 19, 1965, he held a commemorative speech at the ceremony on the occasion of the 150th birthday of the patron Joseph Hoch (1815–1874).

Flesch-Thebesius was a co-founder of the Society of Frankfurt Doctors, its president and later honorary president. In 1968 he was honorary president of the 71st German Medical Association in Wiesbaden, the capital of Hesse .

In addition, he sponsored various institutions, such as the Federation for Popular Education founded in 1890 as a committee for public lectures (AfV), the Frankfurt home care association founded in 1892, the Friedrichsheim e. V. as sponsor of the clinic of the same name founded in 1914 in Frankfurt's Marienburgstrasse as a forerunner of the Orthopedic University Clinic or the Edinger Institute (Neurological Institute Frankfurt am Main).

Max Flesch-Thebesius was awarded an honorary doctorate in dentistry .

Flesch-Thebesius was a lover of Robert Schumann's music , in 1956 he founded the Robert Schumann Society in Frankfurt am Main together with the pianist Erich Flinsch . Nine years earlier, in 1947, he had selected poems by Felix Schumann , edited them and commented on them with an afterword he had written.

Flesch-Thebesius died at the age of 93 in the Altkönig monastery in Kronberg im Taunus. He was buried in the main cemetery in Frankfurt .

Works

  • Max Flesch-Thebesius: Surgical tuberculosis. Steinkopff. Dresden / Leipzig 1933, DNB 579826996 .
  • Max Flesch-Thebesius (Ed., Selection of poems, epilogue), Felix Schumann: My love is green like the lilac bush - poems. Angel horn. Stuttgart 1947.

Honors

literature

  • Marlies Flesch-Thebesius: The main thing is silence. Societäts-Verlag. Frankfurt am Main 2008, ISBN 978-3-7973-1117-7 .
  • Wolfgang Klötzer (Hrsg.): Frankfurter Biographie . Personal history lexicon . First volume. A – L (=  publications of the Frankfurt Historical Commission . Volume XIX , no. 1 ). Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-7829-0444-3 , p. 213 f .
  • Gerald Kreft: "I'm scared, but I mustn't let anyone notice it". To the diaries (1933–1945) of the "half-breed 1st degree" Professor Dr. med. Max Flesch-Thebesius (1889-1983). In: Medical History Journal. Vol. 33 (1998), H. 3/4, pp. 323-347 ( JSTOR 25805221 ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Frankfurter Biographie, first volume, pp. 213–214.
  2. ↑ Talking about silence. The message of Marlies Flesch-Thebesius from Frankfurt. ( Memento from February 12, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) on: roemer9.de
  3. ↑ Prof. Dr. med. Dr. med. dent. hc Max Flesch-Thebesius. to: juedische-pflegegeschichte.de
  4. ↑ Thomas Bauer, Roland Hoede: In good hands. From the Bockenheimer Deaconess Association to the Frankfurt Markuskrankenhaus. 1876-2001. Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 2001, ISBN 3-7829-0516-4 , p. 80.
  5. ^ Collection name: Max Flesch-Thebesius. Institute for City History Frankfurt am Main. Signature S 1/156. Duration: approx. 1908–1972. Finding aids Rep. 650, 748.
  6. ↑ Anniversary in Frankfurt: Alte Oper reopened 25 years ago. In: Hamburger Morgenpost. August 27, 2006, on: mopo.de
  7. ↑ Commemorative speech by Prof. Dr. med. Max Flesch-Thebesius on May 19, 1965 on the occasion of the celebration of the 150th birthday of Joseph Hoch. In: Foundation Dr. Hoch's Conservatory (Ed.): Joseph Hoch on the 100th anniversary of his death. Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1974, ISBN 3-7829-0152-5 .
  8. ↑ Flesch-Thebesius, Max. Hessische Biographie. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Flesch-Thebesius, Max
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German surgeon and local politician
DATE OF BIRTH July 9, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH April 6, 1983
Place of death Kronberg im Taunus