Vincenz Prießnitz

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Vincenz Priessnitz 1799–1851
Vincenz Prießnitz
Vincenz Priessnitz, lithograph by Andreas Staub , ca.1830

Vincenz Priessnitz , sometimes Vincenz Prisnitz or Vincenz Prißnitz , (* 4. October 1799 in Gräfenberg in Freiwaldau; † 28. November 1851 ) was a German farmer and self-taught natural healer from Austrian Silesia . He is considered (after the "water taps" Siegmund Hahn and Johann Siegmund Hahn ) as the innovator of the cold water cure in Austria and Germany.

Life

Vincenz Prießnitz was born as the youngest of six children of the farmer Franz Prießnitz (1753–1836) and his wife Theresia Kappel (1759–1825) in Freiwaldau-Stadt, house no. Since the father went blind and the oldest brother died early, Prießnitz had to leave school after a short time and work on the parents' farm. He could only read and write to a limited extent, so he was functionally illiterate . At the age of 17 Prießnitz broke two ribs when he was thrown to the ground by his shy horse on the way to the field and then run over by the attached wagon. He helped himself by fixing the injured ribs with an envelope dipped in cold water and tying several tight-fitting towels over them. This was the hour of birth of the Prießnitz envelope ("Prießnitz wrap"). The ribs healed, and very quickly the young Prießnitz had the reputation of being a water doctor in a wide area .

Chapel and tomb of Prießnitz in Graefenberg

In 1828 Prießnitz married Sophie, a daughter of the mayor of Böhmischdorf near Freiwaldau. With her he had a son and six daughters. His water cures did not prevent him from suffering a stroke in 1848 and afterwards, according to the ADB , suffered from "liver shrinkage and dropsy" and therefore with a certain probability the last one had liver and kidney failure. Vincenz Prießnitz died on November 28, 1851 in Graefenberg at the age of 52. The fortune he left was estimated at an impressive 10 million guilders . Since his son was still a child at the time of his death, the water sanatorium was taken over by a son-in-law.

Act

In 1826 the first sick came from outside to Prießnitz. He set up a bath house in which he treated with water, but was accused of quacking by several doctors in 1829 . The process ended with an acquittal for Prießnitz, because he did not treat with drugs, but only with water. In 1830 he received approval from the Austrian government to set up and run a cold water sanatorium. A large pool ten meters in diameter was installed in the bathhouse in which the patients could also swim. It also contained a well. A second institution building with 18 rooms and a hall was built as early as 1832. A total of about 100 patients could be accommodated in the sanatorium at the same time. The water doctor treated around 36,000 patients here until his death . The Prießnitz'sche Kaltwasser-Heilanstalt was continued from 1853 by the doctor Josef Schindler (1814-1890) and his son-in-law Johann Ripper (1830-1912), who had married the daughter Maria Anna Prießnitz. The spa that he founded in Bad Graefenberg (Lázně Jeseník) still exists today.

Prießnitz did not develop a new medical theory, but made hydrotherapy popular with his water cures and air baths. He attributed internal illnesses to "bad juices" that had to be brought out of the body. He used cold water and cold compresses for a wide variety of illnesses, but also prescribed exercise and a diet (water, milk and cold unseasoned dishes). He also relied on hardening , preferably by taking an ice-cold shower , with the water pouring onto the patients from a height of several meters. Further treatment elements were drinking cures , enemas , baths and sweating cures.

He did not publish anything, but in 1847 dictated the Vinzenz Prießnitz family water book to his daughter Hedwig , which is kept in the Institute for the History of Medicine at the University of Vienna to this day .

Fountain in memory of Vincenz Prießnitz in Wiener Türkenschanzpark

In 1846 Prießnitz was awarded the great gold medal of merit for his achievements in the name of the Austrian emperor. In the city park of Jeseník and in the Türkenschanzpark in Vienna , monuments remind of Vincenz Prießnitz to this day . In Leipzig, in today's allotment gardening association Priessnitz-Morgenröte e. V., a memorial also commemorates him. In 1909 the Prießnitzgasse in Vienna- Floridsdorf (21st district) was named after him.

The German Naturopathic Association has been awarding a Prießnitz medal since 1960 .

Trivia

Prießnitz has found its way into the Polish language , in which he has been immortalized through his performance. In Polish, shower means prysznic , a Polonized form of his family name.

See also

literature

  • Max Rumpler: Vincenz Prießnitz. For the centenary birthday. In: German house treasure. Volume 26, No. 5, 1899/1900, No. 5, pp. 87-88 and 90.
  • Ernst von Held-Ritt: Prißnitz on Graefenberg or faithful representation of his healing process with cold water. A manual for everyone who visits Graefenberg and wants to use the water cure there or at home, as well as for those who found healing there. Mörschner and Jasper, Vienna 1837. - Full text online ; Reprint, with an introduction to the history of hydrotherapy and the biography of Prissnitz, as well as with explanations and comments, ed. by Christian Andree , Bergstadtverlag WG Korn, Würzburg 1988.
  • Carl Munde: The Graefenberger water sanatorium and the Prießnitzische curm method. A manual […] for all sick people who get well and for healthy people who want to stay healthy. Fourth, completely revised and enlarged edition. Frohberger, Leipzig 1840. - Full text online: archive.org ; 5th edition, ibid. 1841.
  • Constantin von Wurzbach : Prießnitz, Vincenz . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 23rd part. Imperial and Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1872, pp. 290–295 ( digitized version ).
  • Julius Leopold Pagel:  Prießnitz, Vincenz . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 26, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1888, p. 589 f.
  • Philo vom Walde : Vincenz Prießnitz. His life and work. Shown for the commemoration of his centenary birthday . W. Möller, Berlin 1892.
  • Philo vom Walde: Vincenz Priessnitz as the founder of water and natural healing methods. Berlin 1898.
  • Robert Hohlbaum : The Elector. A Vinzenz Prießnitz novella . Reclam, Leipzig 1940.
  • Alfred Brauchle : The first high point in the development of hydrotherapy and world success. The farmer Vincenz Prießnitz. In: the same: history of naturopathy in life pictures . 2nd ext. Ed. By Große Naturärzte . Reclam-Verlag, Stuttgart 1951, pp. 77-117.
  • Heinz Röhrich: Vinzenz Prießnitz'sche Kaltwasserkuranstalt in Graefenberg . In: Mährisch-Schlesische Heimat, 14.1969, pp. 276–290.
  • Hugo Scholz : healing water. Life novel by the “water doctor” Vinzenz Priessnitz , Leopold Stocker Verlag , Graz and Stuttgart 1978, ISBN 3-7020-0324-X .
  • Priessnitz Vincent. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 8, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1983,ISBN 3-7001-0187-2, p. 278.
  • Horst Prignitz : water treatment and bathing pleasure. A bathing trip into the past . Koehler and Amelang, Leipzig 1986, ISBN 3-7338-0011-7 .
  • Bohumila Tinzova: Vinzenz Prießnitz (1799-1851). Almanac k 200. výrocí narození . Priessnitzovy Lécebné Lázne, Jesenik 1999.
  • Manfred Skopec:  Prießnitz, Vincenz. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 20, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-428-00201-6 , p. 720 ( digitized version ).
  • Jürgen Helfricht : Vincenz Prießnitz (1799–1851) and the reception of his hydrotherapy until 1918. A contribution to the history of the naturopathic movement . Matthiesen Verlag, Husum 2006, ISBN 978-3-7868-4105-0 (Treatises on the history of medicine and natural sciences, issue 105).
  • Hubertus Averbeck: From cold water therapy to physical therapy. Reflections on people and at the time of the most important developments in the 19th century . Europäische Hochschulverlag, Bremen 2012, ISBN 978-3-86741-782-2 , pp. 152–208.
  • Of course water does . In: The Gazebo . Issue 11, 1853, pp. 112–116 ( full text [ Wikisource ]).

Web links

Commons : Vincent Priessnitz  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Roman-Catholic birth register Freiwaldau-Stadt: Volume 1792-1831, page 48, row 3, inventory no. 3143, signature per III 5 (note: call up the link, click on the "continue" button, call up the link again)
  2. ^ JEM Selinger: Vincenz Priessnitz; a biography. Gerold, 1852, p. 21. Restricted preview in Google book search
  3. ^ Julius Leopold Pagel:  Prießnitz, Vincenz . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 26, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1888, p. 589 f.
  4. ^ Gundolf Keil : Vegetarian. In: Medical historical messages. Journal for the history of science and specialist prose research. Volume 34, 2015 (2016), pp. 29–68, here: p. 42.
  5. ↑ prysznic , entry in Słownik języka polskiego, sjpd.pwn.pl
personal data
SURNAME Prießnitz, Vincenz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Farmer and naturopath
DATE OF BIRTH October 4, 1799
PLACE OF BIRTH Graefenberg near Freiwaldau, Silesia
DATE OF DEATH November 28, 1851
Place of death Graefenberg near Freiwaldau, Silesia