Wilhelm Mensinga

Wilhelm Peter Johannes Mensinga (born May 14, 1836 in Sijbekarspel, Holland ; † May 10, 1910 in Flensburg ) was a German doctor and a worldwide pioneer in birth control . The Mensinga diaphragm is named after him. At first he published under the pseudonym C. Hasse.

Origin and education

Wilhelm Petrus Johannes Mensinga was born in the province of North Holland as the eldest of nine children of the Remonstrant pastor Johannes Mensinga (1809–1898), the builder of the Remonstrant Church in Friedrichstadt . The Mensinga family is an old, respected Dutch family whose place of origin is Mensingaweer near Groningen . The family coat of arms shows a black rooster in a silver field on a green hill with three black stars and hangs in the Remonstrantenkirche in Groningen.

In 1850 he came to Friedrichstadt, as his father had accepted a call as a remonstrant pastor for the position there, in the midst of the turmoil of the Schleswig-Holstein War . A few months after the family's arrival, the town was besieged by Schleswig-Holstein troops. a. the historic Remonstrant church from 1625 destroyed. The school was also destroyed, so Mensinga received private lessons from his father. In the fall of 1852 he was accepted at the cathedral school in Schleswig , where he graduated from high school in 1856.

Mensinga had originally wanted to become an architect , but then fell in love with 15-year-old Elisabeth Denker in Friedrichstadt, whose close female family members had died of tuberculosis . In order to save the girl from fate, he enrolled at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel for medicine in 1853 , where two years later he was one of the founders of the Teutonia fraternity , of which he became an honorary member in 1860. He quickly familiarized himself with the subject of gynecology and in the following years gained his first experience as a clinical intern in the obstetric polyclinics in Jena and Leipzig . In the spring of 1861 he passed his exams in Kiel, received his doctorate in the same year and then set up as a general practitioner in Trittau .

In 1863 he married his childhood sweetheart Elisabeth Denker and two years later he moved to Flensburg, where he practiced at Norderstrasse 15/17 until his death. He earned his first income as a company doctor and then more and more as a family doctor. In order to be able to help those in need, he scheduled consultation hours twice a week for free treatment. Due to the large number of female patients from poor backgrounds, Mensinga was the first doctor to introduce a health card for every patient treated. The following were noted: date of birth, shape, appearance and nutritional situation, health in infancy and childhood, start of the mensis, constitution before and after marriage, pregnancies, deliveries and their course, childbirth, breastfeeding ability, health of the newborns, possible miscarriages or death of a child. In addition, there was data on the husband such as age, health, social conditions and occupation and, if so, the medical history of the siblings, parents and grandparents. Using the data, he researched tuberculosis, but could not prevent his wife Elisabeth from dying of the same disease in 1870. Her death led him into a deep life crisis and he considered becoming a pastor like his father. He found a distraction in founding the “ Ostseebad Glücksburg ” stock corporation , which after a short time had 80 shareholders who had set themselves the goal of expanding the town to tourism. Following the last wish of his wife, he married Christine Denker, a half-sister of the deceased, in 1871, who encouraged him to remain a doctor and supported him throughout his life.

Birth control pioneer

Occlusive pessary according to Dr. Mensinga

Mensinga now devoted himself to another medical observation from his health passport data: He had been able to record how women, especially from poorer backgrounds, perished in terms of health from large blessings of children because their bodies neither had the necessary constitution nor the financial circumstances were sufficient, the high number to cope with children.

In cooperation with the Flensburg instrument maker Friedrichsen, he developed the "occlusive pessary", a rubber cap with a springy edge that closes the cervix and protects against pregnancy . He had different sizes made, always made the first adjustment personally, and gave each patient an exact written application instruction. He also developed an auxiliary device ("inductor") to simplify the insertion of the pessary. He examined the effects of twelve women over several years before finally going public in 1882 with his book On Facultative Sterility from the prophylactic and hygienic point of view . At the urgent advice and request of the Berlin publisher Louis Heuser, Mensinga published this first publication on birth control, accessible to the general public, under the pseudonym “C. Hate ".

The script met with stiff resistance from the medical community. Also in 1882 the head physician of the Mariaberg Abbey Hospital near Aachen, Carl Capellmann, published his counter-speech under the title About the facultative sterility without violation of the moral law . Mensinga's pessary was rejected as "against nature, contrary to nature and therefore immoral". However, through his publisher, Mensinga received a large number of letters of appreciation and thanks from colleagues all over Europe and many women, so that he finally put his full name under the third edition of his book, published in 1883.

The personal hostility increased in the following period. At an event organized by the medical association in Flensburg, the district doctor threatened to expel him and in the winter semester of 1895/96 he left his Teutonia fraternity after repeated accusations from the ranks of the federal brothers . His publisher Heuser was threatened by public authorities that the textbook orders would be suspended if he continued to publish Mensinga writings. Neither of them were intimidated, however, and between 1885 and 1909 published twelve other papers on the subject of birth control. Since 1886, Mensinga, together with his college friend Eichholz, who was a doctor in Jena, published the monthly gynecology and obstetrics journal. At the beginning of the 20th century, the attacks subsided and the approving opinions from the medical community increased, so that from 1891 Mensinga received and followed a call as a spa doctor in Bad Reichenhall in the summer months.

In 1909, the content of his Facultative Sterility at gynecological chairs was so recognized that in the afterword of his treatise Hundred Women's Life three leading gynecologists commented and emphasized the scientific, social and ethical value of Mensinga's research. The "occlusive pessary" had meanwhile found international distribution, especially in the Scandinavian countries, the Netherlands and the USA, where it was still in use until the 1950s.

In the spring of 1910 Mensinga fell ill with pneumonia, died a few days before reaching the age of 74 and found peace at the family's hereditary burial at the Remonstrantenfriedhof in Friedrichstadt. He left behind his son Jan (1866–1943), who took over his practice as a gynecologist with his wife Frieda Qualen (1878–1957), aunt of the later Schleswig-Holstein finance minister Hans-Hellmuth Qualen (1907–1993), and his grandson Hans (1900–1987) and Inge (1907–1999), grandmother of the politician Christian von Boetticher .

Honors

Norderstraße 15 and 17, Flensburg, building with a memorial sign saying “Dr. Med. Wilhelm Mensinga (born 1836, gest. 1910) pioneer for birth control and health care "

Sign with the wording “Here, Dr. Med. Wilhelm Mensinga (born 1836, gest. 1910) pioneer for birth control and health care "

• In 1975 (on the 65th anniversary of his death) at his place of work at Norderstraße 15/17 in Flensburg, a memorial plaque was hung up in the presence of the two grandchildren: “Dr. med. Wilhelm Mensinga (born 1836, died 1910), pioneer of birth control and health care ”.
• In 1984 a small street on the Museumsberg Flensburg below the Christiansenpark was named after him.

Fonts

• About facultative sterility from a prophylactic and hygienic point of view (pseudonym C. Hasse), Verlag Louis Heuser, Neuwied / Berlin 1882
• Hygiene in women's clothing , Louis Heuser Verlag, Neuwied / Berlin 1885
• From medical life. Advice for prospective and young doctors (pseudonym C. Hasse), Verlag Otto Borghold, 1886
• How best to secure the lives of women / wives , Verlag Otto Borghold, 1888
• A contribution to the mechanism of conception , Verlag Otto Borghold, 1888
• For the beautification and protection of the female body. Hygienic signs , Louis Heuser Verlag, Neuwied / Berlin 1887
• Today's fashion papers and today's fashion , Verlag Louis Heuser Neuwied / Berlin 1887
• On the prognosis of the married life , Verlag Louis Heuser Neuwied / Berlin 1892
• New study on tuberculosis , Louis Heuser Verlag, Neuwied / Berlin, 1892
• Women's life - from cradle to grave , Louis Heuser Verlag, Neuwied / Berlin, 1892
• Catechism of the marital status for younger and older people , Verlag Louis Heuser, Neuwied / Berlin, 1894
• Against the disfigurement and damage to the female body. Hygienic advice for general practitioners and laypeople , Louis Heuser Verlag, Neuwied / Berlin, 1896
• From taking care of oneself / congressus interruptus. Forced traffic studies from 45 years of practice , Louis Heuser Verlag, Neuwied / Berlin, 1905
• My life's work , Louis Heuser Verlag, Neuwied / Berlin, 1907
• 100 Women's Lives in the Illumination of Section 1354b , Verlag Louis Heuser Ww.-Co, Neuwied / Berlin, 1909
• Sterilization by Hysterokleisis , Verlag Louis Heuser Ww.-Co, Neuwied / Berlin, 1909

literature

• Christa Kollhorst: Wilhelm Mensinga in a small series of the Society for Flensburg City History, issue 12, pp. 56-78.
• Richard Kühl: Wilhelm Peter Johannes Mensinga , in: Volkmar Sigusch , Günter Grau (Hrsg.): Personal Lexicon of Sexual Research . Frankfurt am Main: Campus, 2009 ISBN 978-3-593-39049-9 , pp. 485-488