Michael Guhr

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Michael Guhr (born March 11, 1873 in Großschlagendorf ; † August 23, 1933 in Georgenberg ) was a Carpathian-German doctor of Polish, Hungarian, and later Czechoslovak nationality. He was the operator of the Dr. Guhr sanatorium for respiratory diseases in Westerheim in the Zips county below the High Tatras .

Life

Before 1880, the large farmer and tradesman Paul Wester (1843–1921) built an initially wooden hunting lodge, the Sommerfrische Westerheim, near the town of Poprad at the foot of the High Tatras at about 1000 meters above sea level. He quickly expanded the property in a park landscape. Further guest houses and a first hotel were built. Paul Wester supported his nephew Michael Guhr's medical studies and financed educational trips for him after graduation. Guhr traveled to Switzerland and was interested there in the development of spa businesses, but also in Norway . Here he appraised the establishment and expansion of winter sports businesses .

Guhr Sanatorium, today a trade union home

In 1898 a water sanatorium was built , in 1903 a villa with 40 rooms and in 1906 a two-story sanatorium with 60 rooms and central heating. Under Guhr's leadership, the focus was on the treatment of respiratory diseases such as tuberculosis and asthma . This made it a pioneer in climatic therapy, which was still in its infancy (at that time there were barely half a dozen patients in Davos ). Tuberculosis, in particular, had epidemic proportions in Europe at that time. With the first sports facilities, the development of a varied range of winter sports was prepared at the same time. During the First World War, Westerheim became a military hospital.

At the end of the First World War, the Zips was separated from the defunct Kingdom of Hungary and added to the newly formed Czechoslovakia. With that you suddenly belonged to a victorious state and inflation and economic collapse became marginal phenomena. The official name of the settlement changed. Westerheim became the Slovak "Tatranská Polianka". After the death of the founder Paul Wester (1843–1921) Michael Guhr took over the entire business.

He purposefully expanded the sanatorium and in 1928 opened the "Dr.Guhr Sanatorium". He expanded and intensified the areas of application. In addition to climate therapy for tuberculosis and asthma, he offered additional treatments for thyroid diseases and Graves' disease . He trained his nephew Paul Kunsch (1891-1959), a grandson of the founder Paul Wester, to be his assistant chief physician. Guhr himself promoted the successful activities of his sanatorium on numerous lecture tours in Europe and the United States, in particular the climatic healing of Graves' disease . He also organized the first ski competitions and built a small ski jump as well as a toboggan and bobsleigh track on his property. Through his work, a center of winter sports and spa in the High Tatras was established here. Michael Guhr died suddenly in 1933. His nephew Paul Kunsch succeeded him and remained so until 1944.

After the escape from the Soviet Army and expropriation by the Beneš decrees , the former Dr. Guhr sanatorium continued to operate under the name Jiří Wolker union sanatorium . The last former owner, Paul Kunsch, ran his own internal medicine practice in Linz- Steg and was the chief physician of the small hospital there. His son Paul Kunsch junior (* 1927) became senior medical officer , his grandson was med. Paul Kunsch III also a medical doctor.

literature

  • Nemény, Wilhelm: Thirty years in the service of suffering humanity: Jubilee d. Chief Physician Dr. Michael Guhr, Weßterheim , Kesmark Verlag: Karpathenverein, 1928
  • Guhr, Michael: climatotherapy of Basedowi's disease Urban & Schwarzenberg, 1930

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ernst Hochberger, Anton Scherer , Friedrich Spiegel-Schmidt: The Germans between Carpathians and Krain , Langen Müller, 1994, ISBN 3-7844-2478-3 , page 57f
  2. ↑ Ars medici: Monthly journal for general medicine, Volume 21, 1931, page 344
personal data
SURNAME Guhr, Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Carpathian German doctor
DATE OF BIRTH March 11, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Großschlagendorf
DATE OF DEATH August 23, 1933
Place of death Georgenberg