Medical Corps (German Reich)
The medical corps was part of the North German Confederation and the German Empire . From 1873 it included all soldiers in the medical service .
Emergence
The Crimean War made all participating states aware of the central importance of efficient medical services . Prussia systematically built up its own after the experiences in the German Wars of Unification .
1867-1869
On the basis of the constitution of the North German Confederation of June 24, 1867, the most important new Prussian policy documents should be binding for the troops of all member countries. According to the army division of September 14, 1867, these troops were divided into the Guard Corps , Army Corps I to XI and the XII. (I. Royal Saxon) Army Corps structured. On February 20, 1868, the very highest cabinet order for the "Ordinance on the Organization of the Medical Corps" was issued. After that, all military doctors with the rank of officers and non-commissioned officers in active service and those on leave of absence of the army and the navy were united in a medical corps. They were considered to be soldiers. All military doctors became superiors of their subordinate hospital assistants and military nurses. Military doctors in higher positions received disciplinary penalties. All military doctors with officer rank wore two golden braids on the collar of their blue tunic as a mark. The hospital assistants were declared combatants on November 7, 1867 . After five years of activity, they were allowed to be given a medical certificate of proficiency without a special test .
On April 29, 1869, the instruction on the medical services of the army in the field came into force. She confirmed the introduction of the division doctors and placed the medical detachments and field hospitals under the command of the corps doctors. In the event of war, it envisaged the establishment of stage hospitals, standing war hospitals and reserve hospitals. From the series of subsequent documents the following should be emphasized: the highest cabinet order of June 2, 1869 for the creation of a central committee of the German associations for the care of wounded and sick warriors and the appointment of a Kgl. Commissioners and military inspectors of voluntary nursing, the military replacement instruction for the North German Confederation of March 26, 1868 and the decree of July 1, 1868 on the employment of corps staff pharmacists as well as the transfer of the auditing of medicines and bandages to the corps general physicians. In the event of mobilization , military pharmacists on leave of absence should take over the tasks of supplementing and supplying medicines and bandages for the corps in the field as deputy corps pharmacists at the deputy general command .
1873
In § 1 of the ordinance of February 6, 1873, the Prussian War Ministry stipulated:
“The military doctors on active duty and those on leave of absence of the army and the navy form the medical corps with the hospital assistants and military sickmen. The same therefore consists of
- the military doctors standing in the officer's ranks - the medical officer corps
- the military doctors standing in the rank of non-commissioned officers, the hospital assistants and military nurses. "
Since the promulgation of this ordinance, the medical corps has gradually been elevated to the rank of a technical weapon . What Adolph Leopold Richter demanded in the 1840s and what Gottfried Friedrich Franz Loeffler and Christian Wilhelm Ludwig Abel had propagated in the Prussian Military Medical Newspaper they founded in 1860 became reality . After the German War one had to be content with the fact that only the military doctors were assigned to the Prussian medical corps. Although they had been declared soldiers, they retained their official status. In 1868 the military pharmacists , the hospital assistants and the military nurses and porters were not included in the corps. Until 1873, the corps only had political significance. He lacked a uniform service organization. In 1868 the formation of the medical department in the Prussian War Ministry was a great step forward; but the multiple subordination of medical staff and facilities with all negative effects remained. It was only after the Franco-Prussian War that the emperor, as the supreme warlord, and the generals, no longer had any doubts that the medical corps was to be accorded the status it had already achieved in the theaters of war and at home.
guide
Since 1873 the general staff doctor of the army was the chief of the medical corps. He was also head of the medical department in the Prussian War Ministry. He coordinated all matters relating to the military medical services in the German Empire . He also proposed the military regulations that transferred health regulations applicable throughout the Reich to the army. According to the instruction on the stage system of July 20, 1872, the Prussian general staff doctor also took over the function of the chief of field medical services in the event of war. According to this, during the war all of the military medical services of German troops in the field were subordinate to him.
structure
In peacetime the medical corps was divided into military medical authorities and the medical personnel of the divisions . In 1891 the empire was divided into four Army inspections (five in 1900, eight in 1914) . From 1906 they had their own medical authority (medical inspector / senior general practitioner and a medical officer).
Since Helmuth Karl Bernhard von Moltke , the entire organization of the German Army was geared towards the corps as a tactical unit. This also applied to the medical services. The corps doctor was in charge of the medical service of an army corps . In peacetime he also headed the medical office (the former medical directorate) of the corps, the military medical authority in the stationing and catchment area of the corps. It was the governing body of the corps doctor for all questions of military replacement and material procurement.
Responsibilities
Of great importance was the definitive stipulation of the sole responsibility of military doctors for their specialist field.
"The general doctor of an army corps heads the association which the military doctors in his corps area form regardless of their use in the troops, in the garrisons or in military institutions."
The authority of the division physicians to lead was shown even more clearly . At first they were only referred to as technical advisors to the division commander. The position of "division doctor" was only finally introduced in 1898. The unity of the division took precedence over deployment competencies .
Disciplinary authority
The disciplinary power of the chief physicians in the hospitals and the staff physicians in the medical detachments was laid down in Section 17 of the ordinance. She was responsible for the military doctors in the officer rank , the sub-doctors, the one-year volunteer doctors, the students of the military medical educational institutions, the hospital assistants, the military nurses as well as the pharmaceutical and civil servants of the hospitals. The chief physicians of field hospitals were also given disciplinary authority over the NCOs and crews who were on duty there and who were patients. In principle, all military doctors remained subject to the disciplinary authority of their immediate military superior.
Medical Officer Corps
The standing officer rank in the military doctors were in the Medical Corps medical officer corps . It stood "in consideration of its rights and duties alongside the officer corps of the army". The regulations applicable to the rank and service relationships of officers were applied accordingly in the medical officer corps. This concerned the election and promotion of officers , pension entitlements, the complicated calculation and accounting system for salaries, housing allowances, travel expenses, etc. Like the officers, the medical officers had to obtain approval for the marriage from the king and emperor through official channels . The medical officer corps had its own rank designations (batches), to which an officer comparative rank was assigned; the disciplinary powers were not automatically the same and the salary was lower (not higher than today).
Emergency medical service
In 1874 the empire had 14 Prussian, 2 Bavarian , 1 Saxon and 1 Württemberg army corps. 281 regimental doctors , 300 battalion doctors and 666 assistant doctors served in the troop medical service . In 1893 the length of service for conscripts was reduced to two years. The army's peacetime strength was over 500,000 men.
offspring
For the Army and the Imperial Navy , the medical officer corps was complemented by the graduates of the Kaiser Wilhelms Academy for military medical education . In exceptional cases , licensed one-year volunteer doctors and sub-doctors on leave could be taken into active service. The prospective doctors in the Bavarian Army generally studied at Bavarian universities and were subject to their own training method.
memory
In front of the main entrance to the New Cemetery in Potsdam , a memorial was erected for the paramedics who died in the First World War . It was inaugurated in October 1929. The sculptor was Hans Hubert Dietzsch .
literature
- Peter Kolmsee : Under the sign of Aesculapia. An introduction to the history of the military medical service from the very beginning to the end of the First World War . Articles military medicine and military pharmacy, Vol. 11. Beta Verlag, Bonn 1997, ISBN 3-927603-14-7 , pp. 130 ff.
- Paul Musehold (ed.): Streiflichter from the work of the medical corps in the world war (= memorial sheets of German regiments. Troops of the former Prussian contingent . No. 196 ). Stalling, Oldenburg iO / Berlin 1927. Available online: Württembergische Landesbibliothek
Web links
- Friedrich Loeffler : The Prussian military medical system and its reform after the war experience of 1866 (GoogleBooks)