What does the project stand for?
Dealing with nursing history opens up many research fields: biography, social and cultural history of nurses, history of institutions and buildings that functioned as hospitals or care institutions, professional associations and foundations, history of ideas and concepts of nursing as related to religion and political culture and the ways in which these concepts were put into practice. Nursing history is also an aspect of women’s history: nursing and the founding of Jewish hospitals and nursing institutions in Frankfurt was primarily a women’s domain.
Within the Jewish minority in Germany which was persecuted over centuries and nearly eradicated in the Nazi era, it is our intention to particularly honour the contribution of those persons who worked in nursing. In addition to this focus, we have included research on medical doctors, founders of foundations, and architects who designed Jewish hospital and nursing care facilities.
The research process is challenging and time-consuming due to the fact that much of the source material was destroyed or lost due to forced emigration and the ravages of war; for these reasons, much work remains to be done.