Max Girschner

Max Girschner

Max Girschner (born March 12, 1861 in Kolberg / Pomerania ; † September 4, 1927 there ) was a German doctor , ethnologist and colonial doctor and civil servant.

Childhood, youth, studies, work

Girschner was born as the son of high school professor Nestor Girschner (1821-1885). He graduated from high school in March 1883 in Belgard . Afterwards he will have completed the one-year voluntary service . In the winter semester of 1885/1886 Girschner enrolled to study medicine at the University of Rostock , which he finished in 1890. In 1893 he received his license to practice medicine . In October 1893 Girschner initially took on an assistant position in Schönberg (Principality of Ratzeburg) before he took over the practice of Max Marung (1839-1897) in 1894 , who was no longer able to continue it. From January 1895 Girschner was established as a general practitioner , surgeon and obstetrician at Marienstraße 16 in Schönberg.

Colonial doctor and official on Ponape

Girschner's commitment as a doctor in Schönberg ended in the summer of 1899. He had probably applied when the purchase of the Caroline Islands and other islands in the South Seas of Spain was approaching and officials were already being sought. Girschner traveled from Schönberg directly to Ponape . On July 25, 1899, the departure of the ship with the officials for Ponape took place in Naples . After a stopover in Singapore and a two-week stay in German New Guinea , Girschner and his colleagues reached Ponape on October 11, 1899. Max Girschner, who lived on Ponape in 1902 with 52 whites (23 Germans, including six civil servants, five merchants, two seafarers, one planter, six wives, three children), showed the indigenous population "benevolent respect" from the start. He was considered gentle, level-headed, calm, constant helper, good doctor, master of language. By Albert Hahl , governor of Ponape from 1902 to 1914 , and other higher officials, however, he was assessed as indecisive, soft, weak. On Ponape he had a high status as a German colonial official. He was the only doctor on Ponape and was also responsible for the neighboring islands. The health of the entire population was entirely in Girschner's hands. Girschner was almost 16 years, only two holiday trips to the home interrupted (from February 1904 to September 1904 without representation; February 1908 to March 1909 with representation), Doctor on Ponape and that was probably the only German physician of his activity in the colonies exercised for so long.

For his "level-headed" behavior during the uprising of the Sokehs on Ponape between October 1910 and February 1911, Max Girschner received the Order of the Red Eagle, fourth class with swords, from the German Emperor in 1912 .

Return to Germany

In 1915 Max Girschner and his family from Ponape returned to Germany via Japan . He was the only German civil servant who had agreed to continue working for the Japanese. After about six months, however, he decided to return to Germany with his wife and two daughters. In Germany, Girschner found it difficult to reintegrate into the war- torn country. For several years he headed the hospital in Kolberg. After that he was a doctor in Stolzenberg for five years . Here, like on Ponape, he was the only doctor in a small town (then counting about 1000 inhabitants) and about 30 villages in the area.

Girschner as an ethnologist

As an ethnologist, Girschner was attracted to the "primitive population" and treated them with respect and esteem, which led to his being recognized and popular on Ponape. Girschner collected vast amounts of material, the extent of which suggests that he spent more time with the Ponapeers than with the Germans in his colony. Girschner's main pursuit was almost exclusively collecting, and he was very different from the travelers, who collected everything they could achieve in a short time. Due to his long stay on Ponape and his friendly relationship with the residents, he got information that travelers never received. Girschner's ethnological writings are diverse and complex. He tried to reproduce exactly and almost pedantically all the facts that he learned about the Ponapeer. He not only observed, but questioned the Ponapeer a lot and carefully. Since Girschner was not a trained ethnologist or researcher, colleagues rate his writings as carefully prepared material, but lacking "a recognizable theoretical orientation and an explicit description of method and system". His publications lacked overarching questions and connections, which led to Girschner's writings not being ethnographies in today's sense . One only admits that they are good collections of material which, despite the lack of current survey methods, are astonishingly objective and of great ethnographic honesty.

Girschner's main activity was working on his main work, which he finished in 1922. The publication of his main work failed despite many attempts. Ultimately, he sold his handwritten manuscript to the Oriental Institute in Berlin .

Girschner wanted to gain recognition as an ethnologist, but he did not succeed to the desired extent. However, he saw himself as the best expert on the language and culture of the indigenous people in the South Seas.

He was also denied academic recognition. In 1919 he applied to the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Rostock for recognition of his ethnological writings as an equivalent for a dissertation . However, this application was rejected and Girschner was referred to the ethnological institute of the University of Hamburg . Girschner did not receive a doctorate until his death.

family

Girschner married Auguste Frieda Christiane von Huth (1867–1926) on August 11, 1900 on Ponape, who had arrived on the island the day before with Robert Koch . Koch, with whom Girschner exchanged letters for years, was the couple's best man. The two daughters Emmy Sigismunde (* March 6, 1902, † January 8, 1979) and Anna Lydia Sigismunde (* September 20, 1903, baptized July 6, 1904 in Yokohama ) were born on Ponape.

Fonts

• Grammar of the Ponape language. In: Communications from the Seminar for Oriental Languages ​​9, Dept. 1, East Asian Studies, pp. 121–130
• Legends, songs and fairy tales from Ponapé: translated from the island language. In: Globus, Vol. 95, No. 15, pp. 235-239
• The Karolineninsel Namoluk and its inhabitants, 1. In: Baessler Archive: Contributions to Völkerkunde, Vol. 2 (1912), pp. 124–215
• The Caroline island of Namoluk and its inhabitants, 2: Linguistic part. In: Baessler Archive: Contributions to Völkerkunde, Vol. 3 (1912), pp. 165–190

Awards

• Order of the Red Eagle fourth class with swords (1912)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See the entry of Max Girschner's matriculation in the Rostock matriculation portal

literature

• Paul Staudinger : The material and spiritual culture of the Ponapeer: A legacy of Max Girschner. In: Communications from the German protected areas: using official sources, Vol. 36 (1928/29), 2, pp. 107–111
• Eveline Drexelius: Ponape - an unpublished monograph by Max Girschner. Master's thesis University of Hamburg 1985
• Wolf Völker: Max Girschner (1861–1927) - a life in freedom and solitude. Lecture at the conference "Colonial Medicine, Colonial Education, Colonial History of Germany in the South Seas 1884-1914" on 4th / 5th November 2011 in Rostock