Diphtheria serum and serotherapy. Development, Production and regulation in fin de siècle Germany

The development, production and state regulation of diphtheria serum is outlined against the background of industrialisation, standardization, falling standards of living and rising social conflict in fin de siècle Germany. On one hand, diphtheria serum offered a cure for an infectious disease and was a major therapeutic innovation in modern medicine. On the other hand, the new serum was a remedy of biological origin and nothing was known about its side effects or long-term impact. Moreover, serum therapy promised high profits for manufacturers who succeeded in stabilizing the production process and producing large quantities of serum in so-called industrial production plants. To minimize public health risks, a broad system of state regulation was installed, including the supervision of serum production and distribution. The case of diphtheria serum illustrates the indirect forms of government supervision and influence adopted in the German Empire and the cooperation and networking among science, state and industry

La vacuna contra la viruela en el imperio alemán. La vacunación entre biopolítica y economía moral

After a smallpox epidemic in Germany in the early 1870s in the wake of the Franco-German War, smallpox vaccination became compulsory by Imperial Law in 1874. The act was hotly debated in parliament and in public and earlier resistance against vaccination developed into a political anti-vaccination movement. For this reason, the German government adopted a number of safety measures. The current article describes, firstly, vaccination practices, regulations and policies in the German states up to the 1870s and the biopolitical developments that led to the Imperial Law on compulsory smallpox vaccination in 1874. Secondly, the article sketches the public debate and critique regarding vaccination asking why compulsory vaccination succeeded in Germany. The article describes the measures implemented by the German government to promote compulsory vaccination and acceptance of the Imperial Law: initially, smallpox vaccines were manufactured by state-run production sites and supervised by local authori­ties. Empire-wide statistics were collated documenting the success of vaccination as well as related side-effects. From a government perspective, these precautions could be interpreted as a technology of trust.Después de una epidemia de viruela en Alemania a principios de la década de 1870 a raíz de la guerra francoalemana, la vacuna antivariólica se hizo obligatoria por Ley Imperial en 1874. La ley se debatió acaloradamente en el parlamento y en pú­blico, y la resistencia ya existente contra la vacunación se convirtió en un movimiento político antivacunas. Por ello, el gobierno alemán adoptó una serie de medidas de seguridad. El artículo actual describe, en primer lugar, las prácticas, regulaciones y políti­cas de vacunación en los estados alemanes hasta la década de 1870, y los desarrollos biopolíticos que llevaron a la Ley Imperial sobre la vacunación antivariólica obligatoria en 1874. En segundo lugar, se esbozan el debate público y la crítica sobre la vacunación, preguntando por qué la vacunación obligatoria tuvo éxito en Alemania. Se describen las medidas aplicadas por el gobierno alemán para promover la vacunación obligatoria y la aceptación de la Ley Imperial: inicialmente, las vacunas contra la viruela se fabricaban por centros de producción estatales supervisados por las autoridades locales. Se recopilaban estadísticas de todo el imperio que documentaban el éxito de la vacunación, así como los efectos secundarios relacionados. Desde la perspectiva del gobierno, estas precauciones podrían interpretarse como una tecnología de confianza

The Political Economy of the Hospital in History

The modern hospital is at once the site of healing, the locus of medical learning and a cornerstone of the welfare state. Its technological and infrastructural costs have transformed health services into one of today's fastest growing sectors, absorbing substantial proportions of national income in both developed and emerging economies. The aim of this book is to examine this growth in different countries, with a main focus on the twentieth century, and also with a backward glance to earlier shaping forces. It will explore the hospital's economic history, the relationship between public and private forms of provision, and the political context in which health systems were constructed. The collection advances the historical world map of different hospital models, ranging across Spain, Brazil, Germany, East and Central Europe, Britain, the United States and China. Collectively, these comparative cases illuminate the complexities involved in each country and bring new historical evidence to current debates on health care organisation, financing and reform

The problematic legacy of victim specimens from the Nazi era: Identifying the persons behind the specimens at the Max Planck Institutes for Brain Research and of Psychiatry

Although 75 years have passed since the end of World War II, the Max Planck Society (Max-Planck Gesellschaft, MPG), successor to the Kaiser Wilhelm Society (Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft, KWG), still must grapple with how two of its foremost institutes—the KWI of Psychiatry in Munich and the KWI for Brain Research in Berlin-Buch—amassed collections of brains from victims of Nazi crimes, and how these human remains were retained for postwar research. Initial efforts to deal with victim specimens during the 1980s met with denial and, subsequently, rapid disposal in 1989/1990. Despite the decision of the MPG’s president to retain documentation for historical purposes, there are gaps in the available sources. This article provides preliminary results of a research program initiated in 2017 (to be completed by October 2023) to provide victim identifications and the circumstances of deaths

Diphtheria serum and serotherapy. Development, Production and regulation in fin de siècle Germany

The development, production and state regulation of diphtheria serum is outlined against the background of industrialisation, standardization, falling standards of living and rising social conflict in fin de siècle Germany. On one hand, diphtheria serum offered a cure for an infectious disease and was a major therapeutic innovation in modern medicine. On the other hand, the new serum was a remedy of biological origin and nothing was known about its side effects or long-term impact. Moreover, serum therapy promised high profits for manufacturers who succeeded in stabilizing the production process and producing large quantities of serum in so-called industrial production plants. To minimize public health risks, a broad system of state regulation was installed, including the supervision of serum production and distribution. The case of diphtheria serum illustrates the indirect forms of government supervision and influence adopted in the German Empire and the cooperation and networking among science, state and industry

Eigenartige Sonderstellung in der Welt. Das Königlich Preußische Institut für Experimentelle Therapie und das Georg Speyer-Haus im Deutschen Kaiserreich

Hüntelmann AC. Eigenartige Sonderstellung in der Welt. Das Königlich Preußische Institut für Experimentelle Therapie und das Georg Speyer-Haus im Deutschen Kaiserreich. In: Hüntelmann AC, Schneider MC, eds. Jenseits von Humboldt. Wissenschaft im Staat, 1850-1990. Frankfurt a. M.: Lang; 2010: 189-215

Pharmaceutical Markets in the German Empire. Profits Between Risk, Altruism and Regulation

Hüntelmann AC. Pharmaceutical Markets in the German Empire. Profits Between Risk, Altruism and Regulation. Historical Social Research (HSR). 2011;36(3):182-201."Pharma-Markte im Deutschen Kaiserreich. Profite zwischen Risiko, Altruismus und Regulierung". For the first time in August 1894, phials of anti-diphtheria serum went on sale in German pharmacies. Anti-diphtheria serum was a major therapeutic innovation in the treatment of a terrible infectious disease. The anti-diphtheria serum also signalled the evolution of new regulatory institutions, as well as new markets in industrially produced pharmaceutics. The new serum therapy offered not only a cure for diphtheria and other fatal infectious diseases, but also promised high profits for the manufacturers who could stabilize the production process. It attracted the state's attention for a number of reasons: the ambiguous legal situation, the production of serum for the free market and the prospect of high profits for the serum industry, and finally the novelty of serum therapy itself and the lack of information about its long-term effects. Drawing on concepts from economic sociology, I will argue that the evolving serum market was formatted by state authorities from the very first moment. This regulation was not imposed by "the state" but negotiated among actors like state officials, medical and public health professionals, and serum producers