Der Gesundheitsbegriff des Jedermanns: Studien zum Wandel des Gesundheitsbegriffs anhand der deutschen Literatur vom Mittelalter bis heute

This dissertation stands in the context of a project promoted by the German Research Foundation concerning “Health as a determinate of Quality of Life”. The aim was to find out what health means not only for philosophers and sociologists but for those who are affected by it in body and soul every day - for everybody. In the introductory chapters the etymological and linguistic aspects of the term “health” were analyzed. Because religion has a strong impact on the notion of health it was interesting to compare different statements concerning health from jewish, buddhistic and christian documents. Following, some anthropological-hermeneutical approaches as those of Thure von Uexkuell, Karl Jaspers, Hans-Georg Gadamer and Aaron Antonovsky were shortly outlined. In medical philosophy of the second half of the 20th century there were two conflictive positions: The reductionistic view of Christopher Boorse considers health as a statistical norm, a function serving the purposes of survival and reproduction. Lennart Nordenfelt, thus, proposes a holistic approach. He considers a person to be healthy if he is able to achieve his personally set goals for a minimal amount of happiness under standard circumstances in his cultural and social context. Health is not a state anymore, nor a process, but an ability. Subsequently, the concept of health was tracked down in six examples of german fictional literature, complemented by the respective political, medical and cultural context. In the mediaeval times health used to be a divine mercy, cure a godsent gift, and disease a retribution for unrighteous conduct. The “Arme Heinrich” in Hartmann von Aue’s ballad certainly sees his disease and convalescence in this light. Grimmelshausen’s main character “Courage” is highly formed by the horrors of the war from 1618 to 1648. Death in the baroque period moves to the center of everyday life, “memento mori” as a motto of those years even takes the fright off disease and impairment. In times of romanticism there are the great plagues which bring about a prosaicness and familiarity concerning death and disease. Still there is a new dramatic notion about them, almost a refinement. Health becomes dull and profane, disease though ennobles. In classical and realistic period with their scientific achievements a different understanding of health and disease is emerging: Diseases are defeatable, but death now becomes a failure, a disaster. The sick Elsi in Theodor Storm’s novel “Ein Bekenntnis” still follows the concept of former times and resigns to her fate; her husband Jebe, a successful physician, enters a state of crisis realizing that he cannot find a cure for her. The protagonist Karsch in Uwe Johnsons narration “Eine Reise wegwohin”, situated in the years following Second World War, denies his disease. It does not fit into his concept of life, deliberately he decides time and against medical consultation and treatment. He is a selfmade-man, vasting his health like any reproducable ressource; just as the editor Andrea, the main character in Steffen Kopetzky’s novel “Die Sprache der Liebe”, who considers health - including reproduction - to be a personal merit, or even more - a legal claim. Only in the menace of failure of her plan to become pregnant via in-vitro fertilization she starts thinking about other explanations, other concepts of health. By analyzing novels of different times in German literature with regard to what health means for the respective protagonists it becomes clear that a definition and categorization of health and its specific notions is heardly possible without the recognition of the cultural, scientific and social circumstances.