Hygiena 2008, 53(4):143-145

Max Josef von Pettenkofer (1818-1901) - the "High Priest" of Hygiene

Otakar Klein, Vladimír Bencko

Univerzita Karlova v Praze, 1. LF a VFN

The rash growth of industrialized society in the 19th century has been accompanied i.a. by a rapid growth of the population in urban centers, an enormous pollution of waterways and the ambient air. Large cities of that time were often plagued with epidemics of typhoid fever and cholera. In 1865, Max Josef von Pettenkofer initiated lectures in hygiene at the University of Munich, and in 1879 established the Institute of Hygiene at the Faculty of Medicine in Munich. Since the second half of the 19th century Pettenkofer was putting through the setting up of a sewage system for Munich, as well as that of a central supply and distribution of safe water, that were to clean up the city and improve its living conditions whereby preventing threats of great epidemics of cholera and typhoid fever. The construction of sewage systems and central water supplies distributing safe drinking water were at that time a luminous example worth following, as well as a way of preventing vast epidemics, namely of enteric infection in urban agglomerations. Pettenkofer's epidemiological approach to urban renewal gained recognition the world over. He had an eminent influence on the development of European hygiene in the second half of the 19th century, he educated a number of pupils, prominent scientific notables such as, among others, Isidor Soyka and Gustav Kabrhel, the founders of the Prague school of hygiene.

Keywords: hygiene, Max Josef von Pettenkofer, Robert Koch, Isidor Soyka, Gustav Kabrhel

Published: December 2008  Show citation