Dr. Freund, Karl Marx and Florence Nightingale: All True

I’ve had a hard time whipping into shape this more detailed post about my great-great grandfather, Jonas Charles Hermann Freund, than some of the previous posts. The difficulty lies in the fact that I have an embarrassment of riches in terms of information about Dr. Freund.

It’s important that I be as accurate as I can about the information I get on my ancestors. For anyone who stumbles upon this blog and is interested in the facts, they ought to have as clear a roadmap as to my sources as possible.

In the last couple of weeks, I discovered a couple of academic papers that provide a wealth of information about Dr. Freund and that has bogged me down a bit. This blog wasn’t intended to be academic—far from it, but the full story of Dr. Freund just calls out for more exposition, not less.

And yet, I am amazed. In a little less than two years I have gone from knowing nothing more about my grandmother Heydrick's parents than their names, to knowing quite a bit about her mother's parents. It is remarkable really. I had only a few clue to go on: I knew that my great grandmother's maiden name was Gertrude Freund, she was born at 7 Finsbury Circus, London and had a brother who was in the music publishing business. Someone in the family either knew or encountered Florence Nightingale and may have been a doctor in the Crimean War. That's it: the sum total of memories from my mother and her sister about their grandmother's background. I found a little clue myself: a U.S. census record on which Gertrude Freund Eyles revealed that both her parents were native German speakers--one born in Austria and one in Germany. And that was it. Starting with those scant clues I was able to put together a fairly decent portrait of the nuts and bolts of Dr. Jonas Charles Hermann Freund and his wife Amelia Rudiger. Far better would be able to know who they were as individuals.

The previous post (We're Jew-ish) provided a published obituary for Dr. J.C.H. Freund, who is primarily remembered as the founder of the German Hospital in Dalston, London. His birth date is frequently cited as 1808. One source I found states that he obtained his Austrian medical degree in Vienna in 1838. When he moved to London is unknown.

The best source about Dr. Freund’s role at the German Hospital that I've been able to find is a monograph by Dr. Christiane Swinbank who is a staff librarian at the German Historical Institute London. She contributed a paper entitled "Medicine, Philanthropy and Religion. Selective Intercultural Transfers at the German Hospital in London, 1845-1914" to an edited volume of research presented at two colloquia held in Berlin and Greenwich in 2003 and 2004. The resulting volume was published in 2007 as Migration and Transfer from Germany to Britain, 1660-1914. Unfortunately, this copyrighted book is unavailable online in its entirety. On the other hand, most of Dr. Swinbank's chapter, and especially the section that provides information about Dr. Freund, is included in the portion that can be accessed. Dr. Swinbank, relied heavily on archived annual reports from the German Hospital and if I had the means I might go to London to search the archives of the German Hospital in hopes of learning a little more about great-great-grandfather Freund. Alas, I am only an armchair historian and so this offering must suffice (not to mention the fact that I bet those records are in German, and I do not read German!)

(One can read this monograph for oneself by using the Google books feature to bring up the above referenced volume. The pertinent section begins on page 120, full citation at the end of this post.)

I believe that Dr. Freund must have emigrated from Austria to London fairly soon after his graduation from medical school. The German Hospital was opened in the fall of 1845 and Dr. Freund obviously didn’t drop in days before and decide to begin a hospital. His initiative was prompted by his experience within the German émigré community.

Dr. Swinbank writes:

“Within the medical landscape of mid-nineteenth century London the German Hospital, which opened its doors in the still relatively rural environment of Dalston on October 15^th 1845, was a rather anomalous creature. It was organized and functioned much like any other general hospital in London at the time, but it admitted the bulk of its in-patients according to the language they spoke. The title pages of its annual reports proclaimed that the hospital existed “For the Reception and the cure of natives of Germany and others speaking the German language.” [citation within the chapter]

A young German-speaking Jewish doctor from Bohemia, Dr. Hermann Freund, had taken the initiative for the foundation of a hospital for the German poor after he encountered many sick Germans in the capital’s hospitals who possessed little or on English and felt like “lonely strangers.” [citation within] Although they admittedly experienced no discrimination (“the London hospitals are alike open and offer the same kind of careful treatment to foreign as well as native sufferers”) [citation within], he thought the German poor were “usually labouring under great disadvantages, from their being unable to express their wants and feelings to the Medical officers and Nurses, and freely to communicate with their fellow-patients.” German doctors and nurses, who understood the patients’ language and knew their habits and customs, were to provide a congenial and familiar ‘German’ environment which would assist the speedy recovery of the patients, enabling them to return to work and avoid becoming dependent on outside assistance. [citation within]”

Dr. Freund’s tenure at the German Hospital was brief. He eventually clashed with his expectation that the staffing of the hospital would be accomplished in the German style which was in direct opposition to the way the English governing committee saw things.

Events came to a head as reported in The Lancet July, 1847 (accessed online via Google eBooks.

“The German Hospital”

“At this hospital, at Dalston, great commotion has recently existed, and disputes threatening the welfare of the charity are going on at the present time. The misunderstanding arose, the first instance, between the direction physician, Dr. Freund, and the house-committee. Dr. Freund felt aggrieved at the delay, which had taken place in providing accommodation for the out-patients, and insisted on using the board-room for this purpose. The committee resented this, and charged Dr. Freund with violent, indeed, riotous conduct, in consequences of this refusing the board-room, and they proceeded to suspend him from the duties of the office. A general meeting of the governors was, however, held, which refused to sanction the suspension of the directing physician, whereupon the committee resigned in a body, with the Duke of Cambridge at their head. On Dr. Freund presenting himself at the hospital he was refused admittance; but at another special general court, held on the 20^th ult., he was ad interim, restored to his post, and a committee of inquiry was appointed jointly by the house-committee and Dr. Freund, to inquire and report upon the alleged misconduct. The relative duties of the committee and house-physician should have been fixed clearly at first.”

There exists in the Medical Times and Gazette a very detailed account of what happened between Dr. Freund and the hospital committee that eventually led to his ouster. Christiane Swinbank also provides a detailed narrative as well. I am going to post the Medical Times account in a separate post so that those who chose can read it and not to bog down the story that has yet more to reveal about our illustrious ancestor.

I do just want to share one more little snippet that I found published in the American Jewish Review from September, 1948

http://www.ajr.org.uk/journalpdf/1948_september.pdf

There is a small article on page 5 about Dr. F [sic] Freund of Prague.

"He worked chiefly among he German colony in London whom he untiringly urged to make better provision for their poor--then a large number--by building a hospital of their own. His industry, devotion and humanitarian zeal at last secured the opening in 1845 of the German Hospital at Dalston but Dr. Freund, whom a German chronicler describes as "an Israelite filled with a truly Christian spirit," was not long suffered to enjoy the fruits of his labours. he was jockeyed out of he Hospital committee, and others, less conspicuous for a Christian spirit but also less non-Aryan, basked in the abundant appreciation , moral and material, which this grand monument of charity drew then, and has received ever since, from very many Londoners, German and native, Jew and Gentile, high and low."

Once Dr. Freund was ousted form the German Hospital it is difficult to know what happened to him. His obituary indicates that he was an Inspector General of the British-German Hospitals during the Crimean War, but I find absolutely no record of this anywhere except this obituary.

What I do find, however, in the Karl Marx archives and recorded in a few letters between Karl Marx and his friend and patron, Frederick Engles, are references to the Marx’ physician, Dr. Freund. I can’t claim with 100% certainty that this is J.C.H Freund, but it reasonably follows that the premier physician among the German émigré community would have likely ended up being the physician that Karl Marx would have used when he arrived in London.

The Marx family was impoverished and most of the references to Dr. Freund have to do with the money that is owed him and the fact that Marx cannot pay.

Then in a letter from April of 1857 Marx writes:

Dear Fred,

. . . “For the past six months I've been constantly having to call in the doctor for my wife. She is, indeed, very much run down.

Apropos. *Dr Freund has passed through the court of bankruptcy--assets . . . £200, debts £3,000.*

I found Dr. Freund mentioned in four letters between Marx and Engles. It is well established that Marx and his large family suffered many health problems endemic to the very poorest in London. This poor, German-speaking family was typical of whom Dr. Freund was dedicated to serving.

J.C.H. Freund came to an ignoble end, at least as far as I can tell. There is the mention by Karl Marx of his bankruptcy and in an 1857 copy of The Jurist , a published journal of court and legal activity in London, he is listed as a “boarding-house keeper, 7 West St. Finsbury.” It doesn’t say what action was being taken by or against him (maybe his bankruptcy), but he was scheduled for a meeting on March 13^th at 1:00. I found it odd that he was listed as a boarding-house keeper and not a physician.

There’s only one more detail to share and this regards Dr. Freund’s relationship with Florence Nightingale. Without doing a ton of research through the Nightingale archives, there is plenty of circumstantial eveidence that Dr. Freund and Florence Nightingale would have known each other fairly well and probably worked together in a professional capacity. Nightingale was trained in the German model of professional nursing, knew the Prussian ambassador well—as did Freund, and probably consulted with or worked with Freund as the German hospital was established.

Here ends my story of my great-great grandfather, Dr. Jonas Charles Hermann Freund. The next post will contain all the sources if you want to pursue reading more about him. I also will post the entirety of the conflict with the governing committee at the German Hospital that led to his early ouster from his post there.