Rudolph Dohrn

Hans Heinrich Alfred Rudolph Dohrn (born August 24, 1836 in Heide , † December 2, 1915 in Dresden ) was a German gynecologist.

Live and act

Rudolph Dohrn was a son of Nicolaus Dohrn (* March 24, 1789 in Beidenfleth ; † February 7, 1858 in Heide) and his wife Charlotte, née Dede (* December 27, 1797 in Altona ; † November 29, 1873 ibid). The father was a doctor and physician in the Norderdithmarschen region. The maternal grandfather was the businessman Christian Detlef Dede.

There is evidence that ancestors of the Dohrn family lived in the Wilstermarsch from the late Middle Ages . Branches of the family lived in Neuenkirchen, St. Margarethen , Wewelsfleth , Neuenbrook and Beidenfleth . Since the 19th century, several doctors came from the Dohrn family.

Dohrn attended the Meldorfer School of Academics , which he left with the Abitur in 1853. In 1854 he began studying theology at the University of Tübingen. In the same year he moved to the University of Kiel and studied medicine there - later in Leipzig. During his studies he became a member of the Germania Tübingen fraternity in 1854 and a member of the Teutonia fraternity in Kiel in 1855 . In 1859 he received his doctorate from Kiel University. He then worked as an assistant doctor at the obstetric clinic with Carl Conrad Theodor Litzmann and Jakob Heinrich Hermann Schwartz . Litzmann's research particularly influenced him.

After his habilitation with Litzmann in 1860, Dohrn went on a longer study trip. In 1863 he received a call from the University of Marburg as a full professor for obstetrics and director of the maternity hospital. He succeeded his former teacher Schwartz. In 1863 he received a call from the University of Rostock, and around 1866 another call from the University of Giessen. Since Marburg University had promised to build a new women's clinic, Dohrn turned down both offers.

In 1883 Dohrn accepted a call from the University of Königsberg. Due to an illness that led to severe language disorders, he had to stop teaching in 1894. He retired in 1897. In 1898 he went back to Kiel, where he wanted to continue his research, which his colleagues refused. In 1900 he therefore moved to Dresden, where he published extensively scientifically. Here he wrote, among other things, in 1903/04 the two volumes “History of the New Age Obstetrics”.

Dohrn had been married to Bertha Henriette Asher (born January 19, 1842 in Hamburg; † July 28, 1926) since their wedding on April 20, 1865 in Hamburg . Her father Carl Wilhelm Asher was a lawyer, Hamburg Senate Secretary and married to Bertha Henriette, née von der Hude (around 1809–1843). The Dohrn couple had two daughters and three sons.

Working as a medic

At the beginning of his career, Dohrn found the complicated conditions that were common at that time, as at other universities, in Marburg. In the beginning he had an assistant, a midwife who was also in charge of the kitchen, and a servant. A certain state of knowledge was that childbed fever was caused by the indirect transmission of an agent . A bacteriological proof of this theory did not yet exist.

One of the most important tasks of the gynecologists was the systematic instruction of doctors, students and midwives regarding the hygiene of the hands and the instruments used. Dohrn systematically pursued this topic. He himself mistakenly thought that crib fever was airborne. Nevertheless, with the new building of the gynecological clinic under his management, the external basis for the prevention of infections was created in Marburg.

At the same time, Dohrn was committed to an orderly midwifery system. This was the basis for effective rural obstetrics in particular. As an obstetrician, he himself worked strictly conservatively. He refused hasty interventions in which, due to the lack of knowledge about the bacteriological background, only unclear conclusions about pathogens and hygiene were possible. From his point of view, such interventions always increased the risk of the parturient.

During his time in Königsberg, Dohrn was particularly concerned with training midwives. Here he worked based on developing bacteriology. He also helped to organize the midwifery system, which for the most part did not yet exist in East Prussia. Shortly after starting work, he started a midwifery association. In 1892 he wrote the "Prussian Midwife Textbook" for the Minister of Spiritual, Educational and Medical Affairs. He wrote with exemplary care and always took into account the existing education of the midwifery students and the actual professional life.

literature

• Dietrich Korth: Dohrn, Rudolph . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 7. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1985, pp. 47-49.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hugo Böttger (ed.): Directory of the old fraternity members according to the status of the winter semester 1911/12. Berlin 1912, p. 38.