Paul Weinhart

Paul Weinhart

Paul Weinhart (* September 1570 in Augsburg ; † February 21, 1648 in Innsbruck ) was the most famous plague doctor at the Innsbruck court.

Life

Little is known about Paul Weinhart's youth. It is certain that he saw the light of day in Augsburg around September 1570. His parents were probably wealthy citizens of Augsburg. This is evident from the fact that not only Paul, but also one of his brothers, Leonhard Weinhart, were able to study at universities.

At which university Weinhart earned his medical doctorate is unknown. However, he seems to have finished his studies around 1598, since he was already working as a doctor in Augsburg at the same time. But he was not a member of the Medical College there. In 1600 he finally came to Innsbruck and became the personal physician of Margrave Karl von Burgau. In this position he worked for six years at Ambras Castle , where he also temporarily ran the library.

The oldest known autograph by Paul Weinhart also dates from these years. It is his entry in the younger Ambras drinking book (= parchment), which is still in Ambras Castle, and dates from May 20, 1601.

In 1606, Margrave Karl then apparently closed his Ambras court for good, after having already set up his actual residence in Günzburg and having decided to sell Ambras Castle to Emperor Rudolf II or the House of Habsburg.

The personal physician, now “exempted” from his service, had already acquired such a good reputation in his field in the few years of his medical activity that he did not have to worry about a new “appointment”. In 1606 he received "good conditiones" from Archduke Ferdinand, who later became Emperor Ferdinand II. From Graz, from Duke Maximilian of Bavaria from Munich, and from Prince Archbishop Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau from Salzburg. In addition to these, the Innsbruck government also applied for the doctor Paul Weinhart.

His first wife Anna Juliana Hildtprandtin succumbed to the plague in 1611, which was raging in Tyrol at that time. On June 4, 1612 he married his second wife, Anna Burgkhlehner († 1642). Since the only son from Weinhart's first marriage had died before 1617, she became the ancestor of the entire Deszendenz Dr. Paul Weinharts.

From this marriage three sons and five daughters were born: Ignaz Weinhart , the bishop Franz Weinhart and the doctor Paul Weinhart the Younger, Seraphica, Sabina, Anna, Juliana and Maria. Three of the five daughters went to the monastery, one of them to the women's monastery in Lienz. The youngest daughter, Maria, who was born on February 22nd, 1626, remained single and lived with her brother Franz.

In Weinhart's Necrologium of 1648 it is mentioned that Paul Weinhart was very religious, he received "the sacraments of confession and communion " two to three times a month. He prayed the Divine Office with his sons daily, and when they were absent for study in the last years of his life, he performed these prayers with one of his daughters.

He could rightly be called a father of the pious and of all the poor, for no one who had asked him for alms left his house empty-handed. Weinhart's above-mentioned religiosity was also reflected in the upbringing of his children. All of his four sons, one of whom (Franz) even became a priest or bishop, as well as almost all of his children, were active members of the "Congregatio Oenipontana Studiosorum".

Worked as a plague doctor 1611–1627

As early as the turn of the century, plague epidemics and epidemics occurred in the immediate vicinity of Tyrol, in Augsburg and Salzburg. In the years that followed, these "dead beasts" seem to have subsided again, but the fear of them remained. So it shouldn't surprise us that already in the carnival of 1609 all “masquerades, loud games of joy, dissolute dances etc. because of bad times to be expected” were banned, which is probably due primarily to the political and religious situation of that time was. No matter how these "bad times" are now understood, they came for Tyrol two years later in the form of the plague.

As is known, the plague first lived in Schwaz . Here this epidemic began right at the beginning of 1611, stopped for a short time and raged even worse at the end of March. On May 4th it was therefore asked that a sensible medicus should take care of the matter. The government therefore recommended that Paul Weinhart be entrusted with this task. Three days later he was actually ordered to Schwaz for a few days and specifically instructed that he should actually inquire about the "things and wanted condition, and also (should) arrange that the sparkling wine and other such sicknesses arouse or those ubl Procured a schedule want to be abolished ”(original wording).

In the following weeks the disease spread in spite of all precautions in Rattenberg and in the Zillertal (Zell, Fügen and Schlittenberg). This was particularly ominous for the people of Zillertal, as they usually got their medicines almost exclusively from the pharmacy in Schwaz. But in order to be able to provide help to them too, Weinhart was now commissioned to make a compendium out of his Schwaz order , in which he wrote down all the recipes, whereby the language should be understandable even for the simplest people.

In the meantime, extensive precautions were taken in Innsbruck, on the one hand to prevent the disease from penetrating the city, but on the other hand to be largely prepared in the event of an adverse event. Like everywhere else in the country, guards were posted at the entrances. Paul Weinhart worked as a plague doctor in Innsbruck for months. In his nursing care, however, he was concerned not only with the physical well-being of the sick, but also especially with their mental well-being. Weinhart's activity as a plague doctor was by no means over. New infections in the following years or the almost constant fear of such gave him ample opportunity to use his experiences from 1611 to good effect.

On January 2, 1615, the Archduke Maximilian appointed him to his council and also responsible for the Upper Austrian court regiment. Paul Weinhart was raised to the nobility on December 9, 1617.

In 1627 Paul Weinhart became the personal physician of the Princely Highness of the Prince and his family. This ended his activity as an active plague doctor and he was only used as an experienced consultant. His successor as contagion doctor was Christoph Gatterer in 1628, who retained this position until his death in the winter of 1645/46.

literature

• Franz-Heinz Hye : The Innsbruck family Weinhart in the Tyrolean intellectual life (1600-1833). University publishing house Wagner, Innsbruck / Munich 1970.