Wiener Medizinische Schule#

Vienna School of Medicine: A new epoch in health legislation and the teaching of medicine in the Austrian hereditary lands began with the arrival of Gerard van Swieten in Vienna in 1745. Vienna possessed a medical hospital as early as 1754; the heads of the hospital A. de Haen and M. Stoll were pioneers in the field of medicine. L. v. Auenbrugger invented the percussion method; another assistant of Haens, the Swabian A. Stoerck, who succeeded van Swieten as protomedicus, is said to have been a pioneer in experimental pharmacology. Under Emperor Joseph II the Vienna General Hospital was opened, which was to become the home of Viennese medicine. The head of the hospital, J. P. Frank introduced hygiene and forensic medicine as subjects of instruction. J. L. Boer was a conservative obstetrician at the General Hospital, who believed in letting nature take its course and dispensed with surgical interventions whenever possible. In 1812, G. J. Beer founded the world's first chair of ophthalmology. C. v. Rokitansky taught how to establish the nature of a disease from tissue changes. J. Skoda fundamentally improved Auenbrugger's percussion method and the auscultation method (sounding a patient with a stethoscope), which had been known since 1818. Skoda's assistant in the "rash department", F. v. Hebra, identified pathological changes in the anatomy of the patients themselves and thus founded scientific dermatology in Vienna. I. Semmelweis, the "saviour of mothers", found compelling evidence that an infection caused by external factors was the cause of childbed fever and perhaps even the cause of every suppuration. Decades after his death the new science of bacteriology proved that his teachings had been right. T. Meynert was the most important "psychiatrist" of the time; he thought that mental illnesses were caused by alterations of brain tissue. L. Tuerck and J. N. Czermak gained worldwide reputation for the application of the laryngoscope. T. Billroth was called to Vienna in 1867. J. Lister's antisepsis and the recently invented ether anaestesia improved the conditions in his field. Billroth successfully carried out the first laryngectomy (1874) and the first gastric resection (1881). L. Schroetter was the first to make the bifurcation of the trachea into the primary bronchi accessible. The Eyeground endoscopy was developed by E. von Jaeger (1818-1884), who used the ophthalmoscope invented by H. Helmholtz (1821-1894) based on the ideas of E. W. Bruecke. F. v. Arlt, C. v. Stellwag-Carion (1823-1904) and later C. Koller continued the great tradition of Viennese ophthalmologists.

Surgery and its related fields had already made important steps forward when H. Nothnagel made great strides in internal medicine. S. Basch (1837-1905) and G. Gaertner built the first sphygomanometers. The gynaecologists F. Schauta and E. Wertheim developed revolutionary methods for gynaecological operations. The school of Billroth spread all across Europe, and his assistants were appointed to many professorships all over the continent. E. Fuchs achieved a worldwide reputation with his textbook of ophthalmology, which was translated into many languages. J. Wagner-Jauregg was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1927 for the development of a method to fight diseases with fever (malaria therapy in cases of paralytic dementia). K. Landsteiner discovered the blood groups in Vienna and was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1930. R. Bárány also received the Nobel Prize for his research on the vestibular organ in 1914. A. Lorenz is considered the founder of modern orthopaedics due to the development of a non-surgical repositioning of the congenital dislocation of the hip-joint and other research. K. F. Wenckebach was one of the greatest cardiologists in Europe and the head of the department of medicine during and after World War I; he was one of the pioneers of electrocardiography. G. Holzknecht applied X rays, which had previously been used primarily in surgical diagnostics, to internal medicine as well. L. Freund was the first to use X-rays as a therapeutic measure against skin diseases. The paediatrician C. v. Pirquet developed a new serological examination method for tuberculosis and discovered the allergies, a new group of illnesses caused by protein alterations.

In the aftermath of World War I, Vienna lost much of its importance as a world renowned centre of medical research, but owing to the achievements of the Vienna Medical School it was able to maintain a high level of medical care in the years of economic crisis during the First Republic, in World War II and in the period of reconstruction. At the same time medical schools of international reputation developed at the universities of Graz and Innsbruck. T. Antoine, L. Arzt, L. Boehler, W. Denk, E. Deutsch, K. Fellinger, V. Frankl, H. Hoff and L. Schoenbauer are only a few of the many personalities who proved influential on the Vienna school of medicine in the 20th century.

Literature#