Gerard van Swieten

Gerard van Swieten (May 7, 1700 – June 18, 1772) was an Austrian physician of Dutch origin.

Van Swietens career
Van Swieten was born in Leiden. He was a pupil of Hermann Boerhaave and became in 1745 the personal physician of the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa. In this position he implemented a transformation of the Austrian health service and medical university education. He founded a botanical garden, a chemical laboratory and introduced clinical instruction.

Van Swietens part in the fight against superstition
Especially important is his part in the fight against superstition during the enlightenment, particularly in the case of the vampyres, that were reported from villages in Eastern Europe in the years between 1718 and 1732. After the last of the wars against the Turks in 1718 some parts of the land, e.g. Northern Serbia and a part of Bosnia, went to Austria. These parts were settled with refugees that had the special status of dutyfree farmers. But for that they had to take care of the agricultural development and secure the frontier. Because of that the reports about the vampyres reached for the first time German-speaking area. In the year 1755 Gerard van Swieten was sent by Empress Maria Theresa to Moravia to investigate the situation relating to vampires. He viewed the vampire myth as a "barbarism of ignorance" and his aim was to eradicate it.

He investigated it very thoroughly, and wrote a rational report, “Abhandlung des Daseyns der Gespenster” (or Discourse on the Existence of Ghosts), in which he offered an entirely natural explanation for a belief in vampires. He explained the unusual states in the graves with possibles causes like processes of fermentation and lecks of oxygen what was a reason for preventing decomposition. Characteristic for his opinion is this quotation from the preface to his essay of 1768: “… that all the fuss doesn't come from anything else than a vain fear, a superstitious credulity, a dark and eventful imagination, simplicity and ignorance among the people.” Some other physicians supported his theory or even found out other reason for the frequent deaths in the villages, e.g. epidemics.

Therefore Gerard van Swieten is one of the most important fighters against the superstition of the “simple” people. Because of his report, Empress Maria Theresa enacted an edict about the vampyres that prohibited all traditionel processes like the impaling, beheading and burning of dead bodies.

Van Swieten being a reformer
Beside his medical activities, Gerard van Swieten was also active as a reformer. Especially the censorship was organized in a different way under his direction. He drove out the Jesuits that were in charge of the censorship before und carried out a centralization of the censorship that was only partly successful. He also tried to use scientific and rational aspects for the judgement of literature.

Gerard van Swieten was the father of Gottfried van Swieten who later was known as the patron of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. A genus of mahogany was named after Gerard van Swieten, Swietenia, by Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin.

Literature

 * Hamberger, Klaus: Mortuus non mordet. Dokumente zum Vampirismus 1689-1791. Wien 1992

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