Württemberg medical association

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The Württemberg Medical Association was an aid association for wounded soldiers in the Kingdom of Württemberg . It was founded on November 12, 1863 in Stuttgart to take on the tasks of a voluntary aid society in Württemberg, as provided for in the resolutions of the Geneva Conference of October 29, 1863. The impetus for this conference was provided by the International Committee of Aid Societies for the Care of the Wound , founded in Geneva in February of the same year , from which the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) emerged in 1876 .

The Württemberg Medical Association, which was recognized by the International Committee on December 16, 1863 as a voluntary aid society in the sense of the conference resolutions, was the first national Red Cross Society in history. The association for the care of wounded warriors, founded in the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg , followed shortly afterwards . The pastor and teacher Christoph Ulrich Hahn , who, at the suggestion of Henry Dunant and with the support of King Wilhelm I of Württemberg , published an appeal to this effect, played a major role in the establishment of the Württemberg Association .

history

From the beginning, Hahn's ideas envisaged that the Württemberg Medical Association should dedicate itself to providing assistance in peacetime disasters in addition to the care of wounded soldiers in war, which was specified as a task by the resolutions of the Geneva Conference and the Geneva Convention concluded in 1864 should. Further activities, also at Hahn's initiative, were the training of nurses and the establishment of hospital associations . Olga Nikolajewna Romanowa , the wife of King Charles I , took over the management of the association in 1865. The club had its first extensive missions in 1866 during the Austro-Prussian War and the Franco-Prussian War from 1870 to 1871. On April 17, 1868, the club appointed Henry Dunant as its honorary president. From May 1872, nurses were trained in courses at the Heilbronn municipal hospital in coordination with the association. The latter took over part of the training costs if the graduates agreed in return to make themselves available for the medical association's work in the event of a war. The community of Olga Sisters , named after their first patroness, Queen Olga of Württemberg, developed from these nursing courses .

From April 17, 1881, the association was named "Württemberg Voluntary Sanitary Corps". For the first time around 1887 and officially from 1896 on, the term "Württembergischer Landesverein vom Red Cross" was used. In 1882 a medical column was founded in Stuttgart. 20 years later there were 22 medical columns with around 1,100 members in the Kingdom of Württemberg. During the First World War , the association operated 125 military hospitals and 50 rest homes for war wounded. On January 25, 1921, the Württemberg Regional Association of the Red Cross was merged with the Red Cross associations in the other German states under the newly founded German Red Cross (DRK) as an umbrella organization . In the following years it became a regional association of the DRK.

literature

  • Alfred Quellmalz: Pastor D.Dr. Christoph Ulrich Hahn. In: 150 Years of Welfare Care in Baden-Württemberg. Festschrift for the 150th anniversary of the state welfare organization for Baden-Württemberg, initially central management of the charity in Württemberg, Stuttgart 1966, pp. 83–86
  • Walter Gruber: The parent organizations of the Red Cross in Baden-Württemberg. In: 150 Years of Welfare Care in Baden-Württemberg. Festschrift for the 150th anniversary of the state welfare organization for Baden-Württemberg, initially central management of the charity in Württemberg, Stuttgart 1966, pp. 86–89
  • Arnold Weller: Social history of Southwest Germany with special consideration of social and charitable work from the late Middle Ages to the present. Stuttgart 1979, pp. 179-184