Lecture by Dr Ingolf Wernicke

Regional Series

The spa doctor and journalist Dr Hermann Hirschfeld (1825–1885) campaigned for the recognition of Kolberg as a seaside, brine and mud spa on the Baltic Sea. Through his personal work as a doctor and balneologist, his publications and his political commitment as a town councillor and board member of the Jewish community, Dr Hermann Hirschfeld played a decisive role in enabling Kolberg to develop into one of the most important spa towns on the Baltic coast by the end of the 19th century.

In gratitude for his “extraordinary dedication to duty and willingness to make sacrifices” and for his services to the seaside and brine spa, the citizens of Kolberg erected a dignified public monument in 1886 directly in front of his house in Kolberg’s spa district (Promenade 23, now ul. Spacerowa, Kołobrzeg). This tribute, unique at the time for a Jewish doctor in Pomerania, commemorated Hermann Hirschfeld for 46 years until the start of the Nazi era. In 1933, the monument was removed from the townscape. His memory was preserved by his children, the sexologist and doctor Magnus Hirschfeld and the writer Franziska Mann (née Hirschfeld), in a small commemorative publication in 1925, marking his 100th birthday. His 200th birthday provided the occasion for this biography, which remains the only one of its kind to this day. It was funded by the author himself and with a donation from the Magnus Hirschfeld Society e. V. in Berlin.

Dr Ingolf Wernicke, born in 1955, studied history, geography, philosophy and education at the Technical University of Berlin (TU Berlin) and obtained his doctorate there in ancient history. He worked as a lecturer at the Technical University of Berlin, as a museum director and cultural officer in Berlin-Reinickendorf, and as managing director of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V., Berlin Regional Association. He has published exhibition catalogues, non-fiction books and specialist articles on the history of Berlin and cemetery cultures.

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