Theophile Christians

Theophil Friedrich Christen (born April 1, 1873 in Basel ; † May 6, 1920 in Lake Geneva ) was a Swiss doctor , mathematician and physicist . He also worked as an economist in the context of the free economy developed by Silvio Gesell , was a committed Esperantist and life reformer .

Life

Christians came from a merchant family. His father was Theophil Christen-Weber, his mother a great-granddaughter of the well-known Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler .

Theophil Christen graduated from high school and then studied mathematics at Basel University . Studies in Leipzig followed. Additional focal points here were physics , chemistry and meteorology . He then received his doctorate in Basel with his contributions to the use of the free integration path .

During a two-year stay in France he worked at the Paris observatory . In 1898 he returned to Switzerland and worked at the Zurich Polytechnic until 1901 . Here, Christians became acquainted with the methods of physical medicine and decided to start studying general medicine in Bern . After successfully passing his exams, he opened a country doctor's practice in Uetendorf-Kirchdorf near Thun . In 1905 he received his doctorate in medicine with studies of ascites and pericardial fluid . A time as a spa doctor in Albisbrunn followed. In addition, he acquired knowledge of general surgery in La Chaux-de-Fonds . Study visits to London and Philadelphia followed.

In 1908, Christen took over a doctor's practice in Bern and was preparing for his habilitation on the side. In 1909 the Bern Medical Faculty granted him the license to teach in the field of internal medicine and, in particular, in the field of physical therapy . The topic of his habilitation lecture was: "The clarity of the X-ray image as an absorption problem". In 1915 Theophil Christens moved to Munich . Here he headed the institute for radiation research set up especially for him .

In addition to his academic work, Theophil Christen was a committed vegetarian in the so-called life reform movement . He was also a committed Esperantist . In 1901, Christians came into contact with Silvio Gesell and the free trade movement he founded . He then later joined the Swiss Free Land Free Money Federation and began there with the scientific processing of society's money and land reform ideas. In 1918 he participated in the Munich Soviet Republic as Silvio Gesell's secretary . After their failure, Christen was arrested along with Gesell and Karl Polenske and charged with high treason. The court martial , however, acquitted the three of them after several months of pre-trial detention, whereupon Christians returned to Switzerland.

A massive trigeminal neuralgia , from which Theophil Christen increasingly suffered, led to severe mental disorders. In 1920 Christians sought and found suicide in Lake Geneva.

meaning

Theophil Christen has researched and published in a broad scientific spectrum.

His most important work dealt with electrotherapy and radiology . In 1913 his monograph was published under the title Measurement and Dosing of X-rays . For the first time it described the application problems of X-ray technology in a coherent manner and was considered a basic work until the early 1950s. Christians also published important monographs in other medical fields, including: The Doctrine of Fractures and The Dynamic Pulse Examination .

As a life reformer, he was mainly involved in the field of food and drink reform. His most important popular scientific writings are: Our Great Nutritional Folly and Human Reproduction and The Great Diseases of Our Time . In various writings and lectures, he also dealt with cancer .

Since 2006 the Swiss Society for Radiobiology and Medical Physics has awarded the Theophil-Christen-Medal for special achievements in these areas.

Selected works

medicine

• Measurement and dosage of X-rays , in: Röntgenforschung, Vol. 28. (Atlas of normal and pathological anatomy in typical X-ray images, edited by v. Albers-Schönberg), Hamburg 1913
• The Doctrine of Fractures.
• The dynamic pulse examination. , Leipzig 1914
• About the application of two physical laws to the bloodstream. , brosch., Berlin 1910
• The pulse diagnosis on a mathematical-physical basis. , Berlin 1909

Life reform

• Our big nutritional follies.
• Human reproduction.
• The great epidemics of our time.

National economy

• The purchasing power of money and its importance for the national economy., Munich 1915
• From the Munich revolution days. , Zurich 1919
• Switzerland in the world revolution., Bern 1919
• Free economy without exploitation: Free from private exploitation! - Free from state tutelage! - Strong for personal responsibility!
• The political women's primer., 1919
• The monetary system: a dynamic system., Bern 1920
• Free Economy: An economic order based on competition and private enterprise but eliminating the social injustice of unearned income. (translated and expanded by Philip Pye), Botosani / Romania 1929
• The monetary system. A dynamic system. , 2nd edition, Vienna 1932
• The Alternative to Capitalism and Socialism. (translated and expanded by Philip Pye), San Antonio 1940

Selected literature

• Uwe Busch, Werner Batz: Pioneers of Medical Physics - Theophil Christen (1873–1920) , in: Journal for Medical Physics, Vol. 15, Issue 1, 03-2005, pp. 59–60

• Wilhelm Merks: A tyrant - the miracle of Wörgl. Play with a prelude and four acts based on historical events. , Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1951 - The prelude to this play takes place in the summer of 1919 and shows Theophil Christen and Silvio Gesell before the court martial in Munich.

• Günter Bartsch : The social illness and its healing. Attempt of a portrait of Theophil Christians. In: Zeitschrift für Sozialökonomie, Issue 93 (June 1992), pp. 35–42

Web links

• Literature by and about Theophil Christen in the catalog of the German National Library
• Life picture from the perspective of the free economy movement
• Short biography on the official website of the Swiss Society for Radiation Biology and Medical Physics