Geschichte der Medizinischen Fakultat Greifswald: Geschichte der Medizinischen Fakultat von 1456 bis 1713 von Christoph Helwig D.J., und das Dekanatsbuch der Medizinischen Fakultat von 1714 bis 1823 (review)

H. G. Thümmel's work of editing and publishing the archival material on the history of the medical faculty of the University of Greifswald is a remarkable achievement. He presents this history from the founding of the university in 1456 until the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Earlier publications on this topic have been fragmentary, which is not surprising given the marginal importance of Greifswald medicine in the overall context of medical history. Apart from the original text in Latin the book contains an excellent German translation, which will make this part of German university history accessible to a wider audience of both English and German readers. Now the original text is finally available in printed form for further research, although we note that the individual authors used the vulgate academic Latin of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The translator in particular deserves our gratitude.

Christoph Helwig's handwritten history of the medical faculty and the Dekanatsbuch belong as closely together as their format suggests—they share the same volume. Hence both parts suffered the same fate: the book was severely damaged when it was evacuated during the Second World War. The first pages contain the statutes of the medical faculty of Rostock and two versions of the statutes of Greifswald that were probably derived from the former. Since at the beginning of the eighteenth century the remainder of the book consisted of empty folios, Helwig used it in 1709 for the presentation of the history of his faculty, supplemented by further entries until his death in 1714. Subsequently, reports from individual Dekanaten were added.

With respect to content, the historical presentation of the medical faculty until 1713 is much more a history of the Pomeranian state university, and of Pomerania itself and its sovereigns. It is thus a revealing cultural history. (To a limited extent, this is also valid for the Dean's Book.) Apart from information about Greifswald or whales stranded in the bay, the sections on devastating epidemics are most interesting. There is an informative chapter on the Reformation and the influence of the University of Wittenberg, as well as on the revival of the medical faculty, which had been almost decimated in the early sixteenth century. There is also discussion of the devastating Thirty Years' War and the decision of Greifswald to opt for Swedish rule—enthusiastically welcomed by Helwig—after the Westphalian Peace.

For medical historians the book will be a bit disappointing for there are not many sources available. What is striking, though, is the repeated mention of staff shortages that resulted in Licentiaten's being given vacant professorial chairs in medicine that the university had long been unable fill. There is no information about the number of students, nor about outstanding medical achievements or research.

The Dean's Book continues the history for the following century. Individual chapters report on major problems and events. The recorded events are stereotypical university practice, such as lesson requirements for the following semester, elections for the university president, arguments with superior authorities, and doctoral theses and their topics. The latter will provide medical historians with an insight into the medical thinking of the time at this northern German university. Extraneous items are covered as well: one of the final parts of the book was written by a reporter fascinated by contemporary events, who describes the Napoleonic campaigns at the turn of the nineteenth century.

Throughout, there is a concentration on chronological sequence rather than an integrative...