Cliveden: The Canadian Red Cross Hospital, William Osler and the 'Taplow Affair'

At the start of the First World War, the estate of Cliveden was offered as a hospital to the Canadian Government by its owner William Astor. This article describes its history, Sir William Osler's involvement in the hospital, and the involvement of other doctors and some of their research. The rehabilitation programs to help the injured soldiers are described, including the physical, occupational, sporting and social activities undertaken in order to help them towards their return to civilian life. Political ambitions in Canada and friction between the owner of Cliveden, Nancy Astor, and the medical/military establishment led to turmoil which engulfed Osler and is known as the 'Taplow Affair'. The hospital was dismantled after the war but became re-activated in the Second World War and is now a National Trust property.

[The Red Cross, Pan-Americanism and health in the inter-war period]

The Red Cross, an international organization originally founded in Europe, promoted in different Latin American countries the formation of national societies under the humanitarian and neutral principles in relation to the treatment of prisoners in times of armed conflicts. After the First World War and under the influence of the United States, the League of the Red Cross Societies was fostered to design and apply sanitary and social actions in times of peace. Based on that boost, different Pan-American Congresses were held in the twenties and thirties in Buenos Aires, Washington and Rio de Janeiro, which had an agenda that coincided with the principles of this international organization and, at the same time, allowed the elites and the state and private organisms of different fields to unify in pursuit of intervening in different social sectors.

Korean Red Cross Hospital (1905-1907): Focused on its Establishment, Management and Abolition

The Korean Empire, its state sovereignty threatened by the Empire of Japan, joined the Geneva Conventions in 1903 for the purpose of neutral diplomacy and established the imperial Korean Red Cross Hospital in 1905. This hospital was a result of the effort of the Korean Empire to seek a new medical system based on the Western medicine. However, after the Russo-Japanese War, Japan interfered straightforwardly in the domestic affairs of Korea and eventually abolished the Korean Red Cross Hospital in 1907 to create Daehan Hospital under Japanese colonial rule. With newly-found historical records, this study investigates the whole process of the Korean Red Cross Hospital, which has remained unknown so far, despite its importance. From the very beginning, the Korean Red Cross Hospital was under strong influence of the Empire of Japan. The site for the hospital was chosen by a Japanese army doctor, Junryō Yoshimoto, and the construction was supervised by Rokurō Katsumata, who also later on are involved in the construction of Daehan Hospital. Moreover, all the main positions for medical treatments were held by Japanese practitioners such as Gorō Tatami and Kaneko Yano. Nevertheless, the Korean government had to shoulder the all operating costs. The office of the Korean Red Cross was relocated away from the Korean Red Cross Hospital, and the government of the Korean Empire was not willing to burden the expenses of the Hospital. Moreover, the list of employees of the Korean Red Cross and that of the Korean Red Cross Hospital were drawn up separately: the former is left only in Korea and the latter in Japan. These facts suggest that those two institutes were managed dualistically unlike any other nation, implying that this may have been a means to support the Daehan Hospital project. According to the statistics, health care services in the Korean Red Cross Hospital seems to have been carried out successfully. There had been an increase in the number of patients, and the ratio of female patients was relatively high (26.4%). Only Western medications were prescribed and surgical operations with anesthesia were performed routinely. The approach to Western medicine in Korea was changing during that period. The rise and fall of the Korean Red Cross Hospital represent the urgent situation of the Korean Empire as well as the imperialistic methodology of the Empire of Japan to use medicine as a tool for colonization. Although the transition process of medical policy by the Japanese Resident-General of Korea still remains to be fully elucidated, this paper contributes to a better understanding of the history of modern medicine in Korea.

[Red Cross war hospital in Rijeka (1914-1918)]

The article describes how the system of medical care for wounded soldiers in Rijeka during the First World War was organized. In the Austro-Hungarian Empire the hospital care for sick and wounded soldiers, except of a military health care, was under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Red Cross. The Municipal Committee of the Hungarian Red Cross in Rijeka, established in 1881, renewed its previously suspended activity in August 1914, with the task of starting a war hospital for wounded soldiers. For this purpose, the former Hotel for emigrants, a large modern building opened in 1908, was converted. It became the center of hospital care for wounded soldiers in the city. Also, under the supervision of the Red Cross in Rijeka several smaller auxiliary dispensaries were organized. The other city health care facilities and the most of the physicians in Rijeka were included in the care for the wounded. The head of the volunteer nurses of the Red Cross was the president of the Red Cross in Rijeka, Countess Sofia Wickenburg, the wife of the governor and at the same time the president of the Red Cross city branch. The medical staff in Rijeka was particularly noted for its successful and rapid suppression of a typhus epidemic in February and March 1915. The paper is based on research of archival funds in the State Archives in Rijeka and part of the Rijeka and Zagreb press.

[Red Cross hospital in Krapina, during the First world war from 1914 to 1918]

Red Cross Hospital in Krapina, during the First World War, was active from 1914 to 1918. Hospital led by Dr. Mirko Crkvenac, oriented humanist. The hospital is operated thanks to the help of municipalities and citizens. The hospital staff concern is for civilian and military victims of the First World War. Dr. Crkvenac, with the support of the City of Krapina and Mayor Vilibald Sluga, he succeeds to the organization and operation of the hospital to an enviable level. Across the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Croatian, Hospitals Red Cross, had a significant role in caring for the wounded, injured and sick soldiers and civilians. Red Cross Hospital in Krapina, is an example of a well-organized hospital in the toughest conditions. Such an organization was not simple in its implementation, and left the valuable lessons and experience.

[The Spanish Red Cross, the repatriation of soldiers during the colonial wars and the development of medical science in Spain, 1896-1950]

This article examines the role played by the Spanish Red Cross (founded in 1864) in the introduction and spread of humanitarian technologies and the development of medical science in Spain, using the case study of medical care for sick and wounded soldiers repatriated during the wars in Cuba, the Philippines and Morocco, and analyzing the impact these measures had on health care and public health among the civilian population. The article shows how this organization set up health care for Spanish soldiers, establishing a network of specialized medical centers that were later also used to provide medical care for civilians and to address new public health problems.

[A state of need: the Spanish Red Cross in Morocco, 1886-1927]

This article studies the central role of nation-states in the Red Cross during the interwar period. In the late nineteenth century, Spain pioneered the creation of European-style humanitarian institutions in Morocco. However, its perennial instability as a state, aggravated by the colonial disaster of 1898, put an end to the regenerationist project of a Moroccan Red Cross. When the Spanish protectorate was established in 1912, the Spanish Red Cross was overshadowed by competition from its French counterpart, the internationalization of Tangiers and resistance from the local inhabitants. This culminated in the so-called Rif War of 1921-1927, a mixture of anticolonial revolt and international war that vividly exposed the ingrained deficiencies of the Spanish State and its Red Cross.

[Scientific communication and technological innovation in the first Red Cross, 1863-1876]

The early years of the international Red Cross movement coincided with great technological changes in war medicine. The organizational peculiarities of the International Association for Relief of Wounded Soldiers in Campaign, set up by the Geneva Committee, and by the Red-Cross' national committees; the convergence in various professional conferences and publications of doctors from different national societies of this association; and the construction of a body of shared practical expertise tested during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) provide keys for understanding the technological innovations introduced by the Spanish Red Cross during the third and last Carlist War (1872-1876).

The Red Cross and the Liverpool Field Hospital, Hope and Despair during 1915

The outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 was met with much jingoistic enthusiasm by the Australian population. Men volunteered in their hundreds for service for God, King, and Country; to defend the Empire; for adventure; and to see the world. Women on the homefront formed up Red Cross branches across the country in small country towns and city suburbs to serve ‘their boys’. Unfortunately for the men who enlisted their desire to serve the Empire was not met with a similar level of organisational efficiency by authorities in Australia. The military were completely overwhelmed by the progress of the war, especially the level of casualties that resulted from the Gallipoli campaign.

[The Hospital in the Rock under the Buda Castle, and the International Red Cross 1944-1945]

The so called “Hospital under the Rock” in the Buda Castle district served during the siege of Budapest as an emergency hospital. In 1945 the hospital was closed, it opened its doors again only in 2007 as a museal institution. This article focuses on the role of the International Red Cross and that of Friedrich Born (1893-1963) in the history of the hospital. Born, as a functionary and representative of the International Red Cross begun his activity in Budapest two months after the German occupation of the country, in May of 1944. Thanks to Born's agility more than 15 000 people, Jews, fugitives, deserted soldiers, orphans escaped the darkest times. Bom arrived at the hospital on 30. December 1944. Though the hospital formally didn't stand under the protection of the Red Cross, Bom, thanks to his special abilities and connections succesfully managed the only “Civil" hospital of the capital during the siege of Budapest, and also under the beginning of the Soviet occupation. After the special mandate of Bom had been revoked on 19 September 1945, he retired to Switzerland.

The Colour Treatment: A Convergence of Art and Medicine at the Red Cross Russell Lea Nerve Home

When the Red Cross opened its new convalescent home at Russell Lea in Sydney in 1919, it contained a coloured room designed for treating ‘nerve cases’. This room was painted by Roy de Maistre, a young artist, and was modelled on the Kemp Prossor colour scheme trialled at the McCaul Convalescent Hospital in London for the treatment of shell shock. Dubbed the ‘colour cure’ by the popular press, this unconventional treatment was ignored by the Australian medical profession. The story of de Maistre's colour experiment is not widely known outside the specialist field of Australian art history. Focusing on the colour room as a point of convergence between art and medicine in the context of the First World War, this article investigates Red Cross activities and the care of soldiers suffering from nervous conditions.

Navigating the profits and pitfalls of governmental partnerships: the ICRC and intergovernmental relief, 1918-23

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is today a staunch proponent of the need for humanitarian organisations to remain independent of state interests, yet it deliberately solicited intergovernmental intervention in international relief after the First World War of 1914-18. This paper examines why an organisation committed to upholding the independence and impartiality of humanitarian action might still choose to partner with governmental bodies. It also highlights the historical beginnings of a linkage between international aid and geopolitics. To secure governmental funding for refugee relief during the 1920s, the ICRC argued that the humanitarian crises of the post-war years were a threat to the political and social stability of Europe. While this has become axiomatic, the interwar history of the ICRC demonstrates that the perceived connection between relief and geopolitical stability is historically constructed, and that it must continue to be asserted persuasively to be effective.

[When Sweden's point was health care--Swedish medical efforts in the Finnish Winter War in 1939-1940]

More than 400 Swedish volunteers participated in medical units in the Finnish Winter War 1939-40. The Swedish sympathies for Finland were strong and the medical contribution was seen both as a humanitarian and a military action. The Swedish red cross was one of the participating organizations but the red crosses where removed from the vehicles. Much of the medical equipment came from the Swedish army. The link to the Swedish voluntary corps was very strong and many of the treated patients were Swedes. The contribution met with great acclaim while it lasted. Afterwards, however, only a third of the doctors declared their participation. Perhaps they wanted to avoid being associated with the war.

[Mobilization of Blood: Blood Transfusion Service, Blood Group Research, and Total Defence in Switzerland, 1940-1960]

During World War II and the early Cold War period, a rapid development of the blood transfusion service and a boom in blood group research occurred in Switzerland. Unprecedented volumes of blood were stored and enormous quantities of blood group data were recorded. In the following paper I will argue that this mobilization of blood was strongly shaped by military institutions and aims. The military worked closely with the Red Cross in order to build a blood transfusion service that was supposed to guarantee a permanent readiness for war and help prepare the nation for an imagined nuclear conflict. Concurrently, geneticists, anthropologists, and physicians obtained new opportunities for scientific research in collaboration with the military and the Red Cross enabling them access to comprehensive military data and modern serological laboratories. The paper points out how this cooperation between the military and the sciences influenced and transformed the cultural meanings, the medical uses of as well as the knowledge about human blood.

[Russian Red Cross Society and its role in providing medical aid to wounded and sick people during the First World War]

Russian Red Cross Society during the First World War played a significant role in health care, preservation of human life and return of millions of experienced soldiers to duty. The Red Cross Society formed and sent to the front their medical institutions (military hospitals, hospitals, hospital trains, etc.), trained medical nurses, charity nurses and orderlies of the Red Cross. Famous professor-surgeons worked as the consultants of the Red Cross Society, under their leadership were organized mobile surgical units. Society has created mobile nutrition and dressing units, X-ray units, psychiatric reception and collection points. The Red Cross Society assisted the military Department in the fight against infectious diseases.

[Introduction of the psychoprophylactic method and its influence on the prenatal care program for institutional parturition in Japan: the practice in the Central Hospital of Maternity of the Japanese Red Cross Society and Oomori Red Cross Hospital, 1953-1964]

The psychoprophylactic method is one of the methods for providing 'painless childbirth without drugs' and was invented by applying I. Pavlov's theory of higher nervous activity. In 1951, it was adopted as a national policy in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. This method was then introduced in the People's Republic of China in 1952. In 1953, it was brought to Japan by Masatomo SUGAI, an obstetrician, and was introduced into the Central Hospital of Maternity of the Japanese Red Cross Society with the support of the director, Naotarou KUJI. The practice of this method by the research team, which consisted of the obstetricians and midwives of the Central Hospital of Maternity of the Japanese Red Cross Society and Oomori Red Cross Hospital, resulted in the initiation and characterization of the prenatal care program to encourage the autonomy of the pregnant women for normal parturition in the institutions of Japan.

[Phaleristics of Sisters of Charity]

In 1912 International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent established a medal in honor of Florence Nightingale, still the most honorable award for nurses. In our country, there are no separate awards for nurses, they are awarded in the system of national awards, but medical authorities, major military medical institutions and public organizations have developed their own system of awarding the best nurses. Reader offered some graphic images of existing award marks contained documents revealing the mechanism of premium policy for the most distinguished in nursing health professionals.

ATTACKS ON OTTOMAN HOSPITAL SHIPS IN WORLD WAR I

During World War I, hospital ships were used in order to efficiently treat wounded and sick soldiers and to transport them to hospitals on land. With the La Haye Conventions of 1899 and 1907, hospital ships were accepted as immune, and on an international level it was guaranteed that they could serve wounded and sick soldiers throughout the entire war. Although most of the involved states had signed the conventions before the war, after the battles began the -conventions were repeatedly violated and thus rendered ineffectual. Regardless of being painted in the colors specified by the convention and/or carrying the Red Cross or Red Crescent emblem and flag, many ships were bombed, confiscated or damaged with the intent to harass, or they were misused for military purposes that did n6t conform to their actual mission. This article discusses the Entente Powers' attacks on Ottoman hospital ships, examining the protests and warnings of the Ottoman state against them, as recorded in documents kept in the Prime Ministry's Ottoman Archives and the Turkish Red Crescent Archive. The relevant sources show that accusations concerning the attacks on or misuse of hospital ships were mutual. However, both sides generally either dismissed these accusations, or claimed that the incident could not be verified, or indirectly admitted to the attacks being made by mistake. The Ottoman state generally sent its correspondence about the Entente Powers' attacks on its hospital ships with the International Red Cross Committee and the neutral US embassy. The documents under study are particularly important for understanding the reasons behind the breaches to the convention, as well as for investigating the diplomatic language used in.this context. When examining from a human rights perspective the violations concerning the hospital ships and the terminology used in the protests and warning against these violations, these sources carry even greater significance.

DR. CELAL MUHTAR OZDEN (1865-1947) AND THE MEMOIRS ABOUT HIS CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE SOCIETY OF HILAL-I AHMER

[In this study, dermatologist Dr. Celal Muhtar Ozden's short biography will be given along with his contributions to the Society of Hilal-I Ahmer summarized from his own memories].

IMMUNE OR SOFT TARGET? THE BOMBING OF OTTOMAN HOSPITALS

World War I was one of the worst wars in terms of human rights violations. The then valid Geneva and La Haye Conventions were ignored by most of the involved states, and serious war crimes were committed. The most serious human rights violations included the following: confiscating, bombing or impeding in their function the hospitals of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, as well as their hospital ships, healthcare workers, vehicles and supplies; mistreating prisoners of war; using prohibited weapons or poison gas; and directly or indirectly killing or violating the right to life of uninvolved civilians. Throughout the entire war, Red Cross and Red Crescent hospitals were bombed in an attempt to prevent the healthcare workers' activities, even though both the Geneva and La Haye Conventions had granted them "immunity" and accepted them as "neutral." The motivation behind these actions was to damage and destroy the enemy's logistic channels and to inflict psychological harm. The enemy wanted to create the worst possible shock and fear by bombing hospitals and clinics considered "soft targets"; by doing so, it attempted to break the other army's morale and break its determination to continue the war. These crimes-which today are openly accepted as war crimes-were greatly assisted by the facts that the conventions lacked any binding statutes concerning breaches and that their enforcement remained very limited. Although at the end of the war a commission was brought to life with the aim to punish was crimes, Germany was held responsible for the war, leading to war crime convictions being limited to this state only. No international court was established to adjudicate and punish war crimes in general. This article examines the correspondence between the Ottoman state and the Red Crescent concerning the Entente Powers' attacks on Ottoman hospitals during World War I and the ensuing human rights violations, in the light of records from the Prime Ministry's Ottoman Archives and Red Crescent Archive.

[The activities of the Russian Society of Red Cross during the First World War]

During the First World War, the Russian Society of Red Cross used experience of previous wars expanded its activities. The medical service functioned in the conditions of cruel war. For the first time in history, the weapon of mass destruction was applied The merit of the Russian society of Red Cross was development of specialized medical care.

Medical care as the carrot: the Red Cross in Indonesia during the war of decolonization, 1945-1950

During the war of decolonisation in Indonesia 1945-1950, the Dutch Red Cross and the Dutch East Indies Red Cross delivered aid to sick and wounded soldiers and civilians. This was supposed to happen in cooperation with organisations including the Indonesian Red Cross, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the military health service and civilian health services. Due to lack of resources, doctors and nurses, and due to differing interests, cooperation went anything but smoothly, severely undermining medical aid. On top of that, the aid that was given turned out be a tool of propaganda for the Dutch cause. Aid was deliberately--and with Red Cross consent--used as a political-military tool in the service of Dutch national interests. In a military strategy of carrot and stick, medical care served as the carrot.

[The activities of the Red Cross Society during the Russia Japan war 1904-1905]

The Red Cross Society actively participated in the organization of caring of ill and wounded soldiers at the Far East front during the Russia Japan war 1904-1905. The Red Cross units were not the supporting group of military sanitary institutions but independent organization providing serious assistance to medical service of Russian army through medical supply, transport and medical personnel.

The end of an era. 1952

This historical reprint from Public health nursing (Ramsay, ) summarizes the history of public health nursing services rendered by the Red Cross from its creation in 1912 until their termination in June 1951. The author was a public relations writer for the Red Cross. The paper is historically important for it provides chronology and perspective on the role of the Red Cross institutionalizing public health nursing and home nursing care in the United States during the first half of the 20(th) century. Of note are the three nursing services through which the Red Cross operated, each denoting a particular time and focus. Although Jane A. Delano is credited with the creation of the Red Cross nursing service, the initial organization was called Rural Nursing Service and was led by Fannie Clement. Within a short time, however, the Town and Country Nursing Service was created in recognition that not all of the public health nursing provided by the Red Cross was rendered in rural settings. The final transformation came when the service was again renamed, this time to highlight its more fundamental mission, as the Red Cross Public Health Nursing Service. The article is reprinted in its entirety.

Sauvons les Bébés: child health and U.S. humanitarian aid in the First World War era

From 1917 to 1923, the American Red Cross organized an array of long-term child health projects in Europe as part of its larger wartime and post-war humanitarian efforts. Across the continent, the organization established child health clinics, better baby shows, playgrounds, fresh air camps, and courses for women on infant and child hygiene. Hundreds of U.S. doctors, nurses, and other child welfare professionals traveled to Europe to administer these programs. These activities call attention to American efforts to reform the health of European youth and, in so doing, to reshape European medicine and European society more broadly. Moreover, they suggest the importance of child-centered medical relief-and the history of medicine more broadly-to the history of U.S. foreign relations.

Sex in an Imperial war zone: transnational encounters in Second World War India

This article suggests how the waging of war in an imperial setting may have reshaped military and civilian relations in India from 1939-45. The number of troops stationed in India had repercussions for society and local politics. The article investigates widespread prostitution as one aspect of the gendered wartime economy. Indian prostitution was closely linked to militarization and to the effects of the 1943 Bengal famine. The article also argues this was symptomatic of a more far-reaching renegotiation of the interactions between men and women in the Indian Empire of the 1940s. Other Indian, European, North American and Anglo-Indian women worked as nurses, with the Red Cross and in a variety of roles towards the war effort. Women were subject to new social and sexual demands due to the increased numbers of troops stationed in India in the 1940s.

Louis Appia (1818-98): military surgeon and member of the International Committee of the Red Cross

From Appia's writings we compose a view on his contribution to international medical relief in warfare, to the establishment of the Red Cross and the Geneva Convention, and to surgical procedures on the battlefield. Much information comes from his work on the Battle of San Martino e Solferino in June 1859 on the subject of which he wrote seven letters. We report also on his role during the Garibaldinian Campaign in 1866 and his work in Europe as a member of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

[The input of Smolensk Red Cross community of sisters of charity into provision of medical care]

The article deals with the medical social activities of Smolensk Red Cross community of sisters of charity. The main stages of making and development of the community in peace and war time is covered. The significance of the community for making and development of Gubernia health care in late XIX--early XX centuries is emphasized.

The legacy of Charles R. Drew, MD, CM, MDSc

April 2011 marked the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the American Red Cross Blood Services (ARCBS). In this report, we present a biography of Dr. Charles Drew, the first medical director of the ARCBS. Although many may recognize Dr. Charles Drew for this position, the research and training that led him to be uniquely qualified to take this position may not be as well known. We present his professional training, his research on blood preservation and distribution, and his service to the larger medical community and country. Lastly, we address the many myths that have arisen over the years since his untimely death at the age of 45 on April 1, 1950, and present the legacy of Dr. Charles Drew that has largely been unknown to the greater medical and scientific community.

Between a humanitarian ethos and the military efficiency: the early days of the Spanish Red Cross, 1864-1876

Spain was officially represented at the preliminary international conference the "International Committee for the Assistance to Sick and Wounded Soldiers" (better known as the "Geneva Committee") organised at Geneva in October 1863; and joined the Red Cross one year later on the occasion of the first Geneva Convention in August 1864. This article explores the ambivalence between the humanitarian ethos and the military efficiency in the early Spanish Red Cross through the works of Nicasio Landa (1830-1891). A medical major of the Spanish Military Health Service, the co-founder of the Spanish section of the Red Cross in 1864, and its general inspector in 1867, Landa was its most active promoter, and responsible for its connections with the Geneva Committee and other national sections of this international association during its early times. He was not only an active correspondent, but also a prolific author of monographs, leaflets and articles in specialized and daily newspapers on humanitarianism and war medicine, in addition to being the founder of the Spanish Red Cross journal La Caridad en la Guerra in 1870.

Duty leads to right, right leads to duty. Dutch Red Cross, nursing and war 1870-1918

As a consequence of conscription in the second half of the nineteenth century the Dutch army began to exist of "sons of our home" instead of mercenaries. This led to a cry for better medical care to which the military and political authorities responded by calling into being a Dutch Red Cross organization. The home front would be satisfied and being a voluntary organization, military budgets would stay intact. However this was criticized in two ways. Radical nursing organizations opted for aid given by the state so nurses would be properly paid and soldiers would receive aid from well trained personnel. Wounded soldiers had the right to be helped and nurses had the right to be satisfactorily paid and only the state could guarantee both. Others also opted for state help, but for other reasons. Where radical nurses underlined the rights, they mainly pointed at obligations. Soldiers had the duty to fight and nurses had the duty to assist those who got sick or wounded so they too could do their bit for the Fatherland in need.

German suffering in the Franco–German War, 1870/71

Suffering during the Franco–Prussian War of 1870/71 has to be interpreted in the context of three developments: the willingness to alleviate wartime suffering, which had led to the foundation of the International Red Cross and the Geneva Convention a few years earlier, the industrialization of war, which had enormously increased the efficiency of the weaponry, and the nationalization of war. For many Germans, the outcome of the war justified the wartime suffering, which was often trivialized in the media. The small number of authors who saw the high casualty numbers and the pain of the victims as a warning about the consequences of modern warfare usually belonged to the anti-Prussian opposition. Nationalist euphoria in the face of victory and German unification drowned out such critics, whose patriotism was in doubt. Finally, the remembrance of the war during the Kaiserreich aimed largely at celebrating the triumph of the German army and the foundation of the national state. The glorification of the military was hardly compatible with a detailed description of the misery of the battlefield and the pain of war victims. In 1870/71 and in the subsequent decades, nationalism overwhelmed and eventually excluded a humanitarian narrative.

[József Brandt, school-founding professor of surgery -- for the centennary of his death]

The present article outlines the biography of the great Transylvanian surgeon József Brandt and appraises his professional work. After his medical training in Vienna and specialisation in surgery Brandt returned to Kolozsvár (now: Cluj/Romania) in 1867 to teach surgery and ophthalmology at the Medical-Surgical Institute of this town. As soon as the Royal Hungarian University in Kolozsvár was opened in 1872, Brandt was appointed as professor of the Department of Surgery. He was elected vice-dean of the medical school and rector of the university. More than 100 of his students specialized in surgery taught and mentored by the school-founding professor. Brandt retired in 1904. Brandt was the medical president of the first Kolozsvár Ambulance Service (1891) and the initiator, then director of the Red Cross Hospital in Kolozsvár (1895) where he worked until his death (1912). He is considered to be the first great surgeon in Transylvania, although he had to work under poor conditions, since the first modern surgical clinic was opened in the town only in 1899. Brandt was the first to perform successful ovariectomy in Transylvania (1869), and the second in Europe who performed nephrectomy (1873). He accepted Lister's antiseptic theory; in 1890 the university sent him to Berlin to study Koch's vaccine. The Appendix of the present article lists Brandt's assistants and students.