Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 46-47. (Budapest, 1968)
TANULMÁNYOK - Antall József: A család és az iskola szerepe Semmelweis személyiségének kialakulásában (Német nyelven)
Summary The personality of Ignác Semmelweis is one of the most debated problems of his biographers as it touches upont the most important aspects of his life —his career and discovery. This paper only aims at outlining his surroundings, especially the role of the family and the school, and determining their influence on the formation of the young Semmelweis. I. Even the national identity of Semmelweis has become a subject of debate; some present him as German or Austrian, others give undue emphasis to his Hungarian descent. Where is the truth? Semmelweis as a family name goes back to the XVIth century in "historical" Hungary (i.e. the territory of Hungary previous to the Treaty of Trianon in 1920). The Catholic Semmelweis family lived in West Hungary, which was ceded to Austria in that Treaty after the first world war and is now called Burgenland they can be traced in the villages of Sopron comitat (county) and from the XVII Ith century onward at Kismarton (Eisenstadt). The family descends from a separate German ethnic group called Hientz (Heanzen), a people completely distinct from its neighbours and the other German national minority groups. The well-known Viennese anatomist, Joseph Hyrtl, or the world-famous Hungarian composer, Ferenc Liszt also came from them. Some scholars hold the view that the Hientzs are the descendents of Frankish settlers, who had come there during the reign of Charlemagne, before the Settlement of Hungary (890). Irrespective of this not unlikely assumption it is quite sure that the Hientzs had long lived in Hungary when the large-scale introduction of German settlers started after the devastations by the Turks. The first appearence of the Semmelweis family also precedes that period: the name of Merth Semmelweis occurs in the register at the vine-growing community of Márczfalva in 1570 as a vineyard owner; in 158(3 János Semmelweis appears there. In the following century they own a house at the neighbouring Szikra and one can also find the name in the Statue of Labourers of the estate of Kabold. From the end of the XVIIth century, from György Semmelweis (1670-1725), a farmer at Szikra, the family tree and history are known without interruption. The latter's sons moved to Kismarton, one of them became the father of János Semmelweis, whose son, János Péter Semmelweis, a vine-hoer, was the grandfather of the world-known physician. From Kismarton Semmelweis's father, József Semmelweis (1778-1856) moved to Buda, where he became a burgess in 1806. Still unmarried, he opened the grocery White Elephant (groceries, paints, etc.) at Tabán, the down town of Buda. He ran his shop and lived in a nice-looking two-storied house built in Louis XVI style, the same which at present houses the Semmelweis Medical
