Ingrid Kästner

Goethes Mitwirkung bei der Besetzung akademischer Positionen in Russland

When in 1801, after the assassination of Paul I., the more liberal Alexander I. became Czar, he began to reorganize the educational system in Russia. He founded a “Ministry for People’s Englightenment”, re-opened the University of Dorpat (in 1802), planned to restore the University of Wilna and made preparations for the foundation of new universities in Kazan, Charkov, St. Petersburg, Kiev, Tobol’sk, and Ustiug-Velikii. One of the mediating personalities involved in the negotiations about German professors for Russia was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Proposed by Goethe, the chemist Ludwig Schnaubert and the philosopher Johann Baptist Schad were appointed professors at the University of Charkov in 1804. Based on documents from the Goethe-Schiller-archives in Weimar, Goethe’s efforts concerning German academic personnal for Russia are described.

Der Leipziger Arzt Paul Carly Seyfarth (1890–1950) und die Rot-Kreuz-Expedition nach Rußland in den 20er Jahren

At the beginning of the 20s, Russia was devastated by famine and plagues. This paper deals with the life and work of the Leipzig physician Paul Carly Seyfarth (1890–1950), who participated in the Red Cross relief expedition to Russia. In 1922/23, Seyfarth was appointed director of the German Alexander-Hospital in Petersburg, which he reorganized and modernized for the treatment of infectious diseases.