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Herzog Carl Theodor – a doctor
who found his vocation |
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Herzog Carl Theodor was born on 9 august 1839,
the son of Herzog Max in Bayern and his wife,
Ludovika, a sister of King Ludwig I of Bavaria
in Schloss Possenhofen on Starnberg Lake, the
fifth of nine children. His beloved sister,
Elisabeth, known as "Sissi“, was
married to Kaiser Franz Joseph I of Austria.
At the tender age of 14 he joined the army,
but a military career was not what he wanted
to do with his life. Nonetheless, as a general
of the cavalry he received 25 medals and distinctions.
Although it was unusual for a member of the
Wittelsbach dynasty, at the end of his military
career Herzog Carl Theodor began studies at
the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in
the subjects philosophy, law and national economics.
His true interests however, lay in the natural
sciences, in particular medicine. His plan,
at the age of 29 years, to study medicine and
become a doctor met with less resistance from
his family than from the professors at the university.
For example, the anatomy and physiology professor
Theodor L. W. Bischoff accepted Herzog Carl
Theodor as a student with the words: "I'll
accept you, not because you are a prince, but
despite the fact."
Carl Theodor was an extremely hard-working student,
but his health suffered as a result. A tuberculosis
infection contracted during pathology examinations
left him with restricted lung function for the
rest of his life.
In1880, at the age of 40, Herzog Carl Theodor
passed the state examination in medicine with
the grade "very good" in Munich. As
early as 1872 he was made an honorary doctor
by the medical faculty of the Ludwig Maximilian
University of Munich. To learn more about ophthalmology
he attended lectures for a long time with Professor
Arlt in Vienna and Professor Horner in Zürich.
For 15 years he practised alternately, often
under makeshift conditions, in Munich, Tegernsee
and Meran. This led him to take the decision
to purchase the property on Nymphenburger Strasse
43 in Munich along with his wife, Duchess Marie-José,
a born infanta from Portugal. His wife, who
had supported her husband in pursuing his medical
vocation from the beginning, advised him to
open his own eye clinic. The idea was to treat
poor people with eye disorders free of charge.
In 1895 Herzog Carl Theodor and his wife founded
the clinic as the "Charitable Institute
for Indigent Eye Patients“.
The acquisition, renovation and operation of
the eye clinic was financed from his own private
assets. Herzog Carl Theodor continued practising
in Nymphenburger Strasse up to his death in
1909.
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