Berthold Sigismund

Berthold August Richard Sigismund (March 19, 1819 – August 13, 1864) was a German physician, educator, writer, poet, and politician.

Early life and education

Berthold August Richard Sigismund was born as the first child of the notary and later judicial councilor Florenz Friedrich Sigismund (1791–1877) in Stadtilm at the foot of the Thuringian Forest. His great-grandfather was a schoolteacher in Schmalenbuche, his grandfather a teacher in Schwarzburg, later in Schmalenbuche, and finally in Blankenburg. His mother was the daughter of the late mayor Fischer in Blankenburg. This marriage produced seven children. According to his father, Berthold was “wild, inquisitive, eager to learn, but soft-hearted, with a great interest in nature” as a child.

In 1829, the family moved to Blankenburg, where his grandparents lived, for professional reasons. Berthold attended high school in Rudolstadt and learned Hebrew and English on the side. After passing his school-leaving exams in 1837, he decided to study medicine at the University of Jena. There, he discovered his talent for drawing and painting, as well as for music, played the piano, and wrote his first poems. The death of his brother, who had contracted tuberculosis, shortly before Christmas 1839, affected him so deeply that he stayed in Blankenburg throughout the winter. During this time, he met Friedrich Fröbel, who had just established his first kindergarten in Blankenburg, and also attended his lectures. In 1840, he transferred to the University of Leipzig. From 1841 to 1842, he spent his final year of study at the University of Würzburg, where he earned his Doctor of Medicine degree. In Rudolstadt, he passed his medical state exam with honors before the medical examination board.

Professional career

At the age of 23, he settled in his hometown of Blankenburg as a doctor but soon realized that he could not make a living among the impoverished population. Moreover, he began to experience health problems. In July 1843, he traveled through Saalfeld, Sonneberg, Coburg, Bamberg, Nuremberg, and Donauwörth to Augsburg and Munich. From there, he hiked via Zurich to Lenzburg near Aargau, Switzerland, where he worked as a tutor. During his free time, he increasingly devoted himself to scientific and medical literature. The liberal institutions of the Swiss Republic also attracted him. His democratically minded compatriot, Julius Fröbel, who spent some time in Zurich, influenced him.

In September 1844, he took a teaching position at a private school in Worksop near Sheffield, where he mainly taught natural sciences, anthropology, and the German language. At the Mechanics Institute in Derby, he gave a lecture in English on human and animal vocal organs to about 400 listeners. In July 1845, he returned to Thuringia, making a brief stop in Paris, where he furthered his medical knowledge by attending surgery courses at local clinics and hospitals. However, his old stomach ailment troubled him again. Back in Blankenburg, he settled again as a doctor. During this time as a “peasant doctor,” as he once called himself, he wrote poems, later published under the title Asklepias, Pictures from the Life of a Country Doctor.

In the spring of 1845, Sigismund was elected mayor of Blankenburg. For this additional and unfamiliar role, he received an annual salary of 80 gulden. In the revolutionary year of 1848, Sigismund sympathized with patriotic efforts and wished for a united, great, economically, and politically strong Germany. However, when unrest spread in Blankenburg, he opposed it. Like many of his compatriots, he considered emigrating to America, but his love for his homeland kept him from carrying out the plan.