History Overload (Week 2 in Germany)

      Now that we have gotten into the swing of things and have been consistently busy, this week has absolutely flown by. I can't believe that tomorrow is Friday and that I have been in Germany for over a week now. Most importantly though, I can't believe how much that I have learned within only a week of school. We had our six German classes, of which I can say that I definitely feel as though I know more German than I knew before (Mein Name ist Kurt. Ich komme aus Texas. Ich studiere medizen. Ich bin zwanzig). I only hope to learn more and that I can retain what I have learned up to this point. In regards to Dr. Wasser's History of Medicine portion of the course, we have gone through thousands of years of medical history in just a span of a few hours. It was a lot of information to grasp, but there were certain points to each time period that stood out above the others. Starting the farthest back chronologically, hunters and gatherers were not thought to have experienced much, if any, disease because of their isolated and nomadic way of life. Humans began to experience diseases never before seen due to their increased interaction with animals such as dogs and cows (known to have given humans measles and smallpox) when they started to not be nomadic, but to stay in places due to agriculture. In regards to the Greeks, a potentially fictional character named Hippocrates came up with the Hippocratic Oath, which consisted of "first do not harm" a patient. He believed strongly in treating each patient on their own basis depending on their specific conditions (something that modern doctors don’t always do). With the Romans we learned of Galen, who is one of the most famous doctors of all time. He was known for being very egotistic, telling others how great of a doctor he was. His work was frequently looked upon for the next thousand or so years by many other physicians. This wouldn't be a problem, other than the fact that some of his beliefs on the anatomy of humans were wrong due to him only dissecting animals. For instance, he believed that the liver had fingerlike lobes, which we now know to definitely not be true. We are able to know a lot of this information now due to Arabs translating works hundreds of years ago, which allowed the works to then be re-translated even if the originals were destroyed. A main theme throughout the lectures though regardless of the time period was that diseases were treated by how people were thought to have acquired the disease (for instance, if believed to be caused by a punishment from God, the disease would be attempted to be healed through religious means). One form of treatment in the 1600's even dealt with applying human feces to injuries. We switched gears one day, learning about the history of euthanasia. Some books written before the Nazi's rise to power made arguments as to why it would be justifiable to euthanize those that were of "negative value" to society and themselves, but also added that this would only be okay if consented by either the patient first, or the mother if the patient could not. The Nazi's however did not abide by this latter part, and killed tens of thousands of mentally handicapped people through euthanasia without any consent.

     Outside of the class, a lot of history was learned as well through different trips. This week we went to The History Museum in Bonn, Beethoven's House, Gestapo headquarters in Cologne, the Cologne Cathedral, and "Old Town" in Bonn. I learned a lot of new and interesting things from each of these tours and places. For instance, I learned from Dr. Wasser at the History Museum that part of the reason why people were initially allowed to leave East Germany before the official end of the Berlin Wall was a mistake by a political figure during a speech in which he said (because he did not know when asked) that people would be able to leave "immediately." At Beethoven's house, I learned that Beethoven had originally gone to Vienna on a trip, but once French troop's had driven the prince elector in Bonn out of town, that he stayed in Vienna for the rest of his life. The Gestapo headquarters in Cologne and the Cologne Cathedral were both very memorable as well. We learned a lot about the Roman history within Cologne itself, got to see the Cathedral in ways that are rarely seen by others, and got to learn about the horrific imprisonment of people in the Gestapo headquarters during World War II. It was definitely a week full of a lot of history, but one that helped me personally appreciate how we got to where we are today in regards to medicine and post World War II Germany.