Jewish Medics in Poznań during the Cholera Epidemics (1793–1866)

Praca została sfinansowana z grantu Narodowego Centrum Nauki „Epidemia cholery w 1866 r. jako przełom w dziejach Poznania”, UMO–2021/41/B/HS3/00594.

Narodowe Centrum Nauki, UMO–2021/41/B/HS3/00594.

The article presents the contribution of Jewish surgeons, barber surgeons, feldshers, dentists, and university-educated physicians in providing health care to the residents of Poznań in 1793–1866. The paper is based on archival and printed sources, including 19th-century dissertations by Jewish physicians, and also takes into account English-language literature analyzing the phenomenon of Jews entering the field of medicine in Prussia. In 1793, when the Prussians annexed Poland’s western territories, more than a half of the population of Poznań was Polish, and the remaining residents were Germans and Jews in equal proportions. Faced with a shortage of physicians in the annexed lands, the new authorities introduced the same sanitary guidelines for medical workers which were already in force in Prussia with the help of Jewish medics from the Poznan diaspora. The process of integrating Poznań Jews into German society, initiated in 1833 by Eduard Flottwell, the governor of the Poznań Province, allowed them to move freely and study in the hinterland of Prussia. At least a dozen Jews from the Poznań diaspora took advantage of these opportunities, graduating from medical school, launching their practice, and taking up positions in the Prussian civil service or the garrison in Poznań. The professional activity of Jewish physicians was reflected in their participation in the fight against the cholera epidemics that marred Poznań in 1831–1866. As research has shown, the epidemics only marginally affected the local Jews, but this was not due to the actions taken by doctors.