Ferdinand Ludwig Herff

Ferdinand Ludwig Johann Arnold von Herff, from 1849 in the United States shortly Ferdinand Herff (* November 29, 1820 in Darmstadt, Hesse, † May 18 1912 in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, USA ) was a German American doctor, the first surgeon in Texas and "Father of the Texas hospital system ".

Family

He was the son of the landowner and the Grand Duke of Hesse receding Christian von Herff (1784-1853), Government ( Judicial ) on hessian top of Appeals and the Court of Cassation, Mr. on Neutsch i Odenwald and the Baroness Elisabeth von Meusebach ( 1795-1871 ) from Dillenburg, a cousin of Otfried Hans Freiherr von Meusebach (1812-1897), Commissioner General of the Mainz noble association. Herff father had been raised on 29 July 1814 in the Grand Duchy of Hesse Darmstadt nobility.

Herff married on 1 May 1849 in Germany Mathilde Klingelhoeffer ( born January 30, 1823 in Giessen, Hesse, † July 9, 1910 ), the daughter of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hermann Klingelhoeffer ( 1796-1821 ) and Emilie Hoffmann ( 1803-1835 ).

Life

During his studies at the University of Bonn Herff lived with his uncle, the president of this university, which he met many celebrities. He was also a member of the Corps Palatia. Later he studied at the University of Berlin at the best physicians -art concepts and techniques of medicine and decided his studies in 1843 at Giessen University with a doctorate. In Giessen, he became a member of the Corps Starkenburgia.

During his subsequent service as a medical officer in the Hessian army (1843-1847) he developed himself new techniques in plastic surgery and in the treatment of tuberculosis. Thus he was already known as a young doctor and internationally in the highest circles of the European nobility.

Because of domestic political unrest in Germany emigrated Herff like many other intellectuals (see: Thirties and Forty- Eighters ) and persuaded by his friend Hermann Spiess, the then Commissioner General of the " Mainzer Adel Association " in 1847 to the United States, escorted out by spit emigrant group and then assisted in Texas with Gustav Schleicher, a group of intellectuals, the " society of the forties ", at the founding of too utopian, because noble - communist or socialist settlement Bettina (Texas ) on the north bank of the Llano River ( Llano County) near the village of Castell ( Texas). Since this group consisted of only politically interested intellectual, technically but completely untalented and not farmers, had this municipality, which they had named after the poetess Bettina von Arnim, a few months inventory.

Herff belonged to a group of German idealistic socialists (see: free-thinker ), including Eduard Degener, Ernst Kapp and Edgar von Westphalen belonged to the brother in law of Karl Marx.

In 1848, Herff returned to Germany, although briefly, but in the consciousness, Texas would be his new home. He served briefly in the army as a medical officer, where he was very successful again: There he stayed on the strictest cleanliness, washed with soap before each operation and its instruments sterilized, were the usual infectious diseases only in incomparably small extent.

He then returned in 1849 with his wife Mathilde about New Orleans ( Louisiana) to Texas back, was naturalized there and henceforth renounced his noble title. Initially, the couple settled in New Braunfels, then they moved in 1850 to San Antonio, where Herff began his distinguished career as a medical doctor.

Herff was the first doctor who performed a successful cataract surgery in an Indian chief and 1854 for the first time in Texas an anesthetized patient (see anesthesia) has been operating.

Herff developed the Texas Medizinalwesen that was practiced at that early period of colonization majority will be in the open air, in private houses or hotels, which is why he was also instrumental in the founding of the first hospital in San Antonio.

He was co-founder of " Bexar County Medical Society ," the " West Texas Medical Association ", the " Texas Medical and Surgical Record" and the " Texas Medical Association " and belonged to the " Texas State Board of Medical Examiners " to.

The family owned a farm near Boerne in Kendall County ( Texas) and also promoted the development of the city, which is why the people there erected an obelisk in memory of Herffs favorite place on the Mala Head Mountain, which, after he had weathered, in 1952 by the grandchildren John B. and Peter Ferdinand Herff was restored and in 1982 in the list of monuments of Texas ( " Texas Historical Marker " ) was recorded.

On his farm he also allowed in 1865 the German aircraft pioneer Jacob Brodbeck ( 1821-1910 ), his experiments to build a new " airship " to carry out and supported him actively involved.

The couple is buried with family members at the city cemetery of San Antonio ( Plot 16 A & B).

Honors

Herff learned many honors, among them an honorary doctorate from the University of Giessen and the " St. Louis College of Physicians and Surgeons ".

Works

• The Regulated Emigration of the German Proletariat with Special Reference to Texas: Being Also a Guide for German Emigrants. German edition: Franz Varrentrapp Verlag Frankfurt am Main 1850 - English translation:. Arthur L. Finck Jr., Trinity University Press, San Antonio ( Texas) 1978