In 1907, Medical Counsellor Dr. Koschminsky, a newcomer from Vienna, took up residence in his newly-built stately “Doctor Villa“ on the eastern slope of Höpflberg hill, with generously-sized living area, several treatment rooms, sickrooms and an in-house pharmacy.
Dr. Alfred Koschminsky
THE BUILDER
A physician‘s career of a lifetime in the Bavarian Forest – that is in truth a deed! The more so as the remote village of Breitenberg and its surroundings, local circumstances and climatic situation posed considerable challenges to the doctor. One need only think of the hilly terrain, partly difficult to access, scattered villages and farmsteads, long and snow-bound winters! 20 and more years ago, when no other doctors had yet settled down in nearby Haidmühle, Neureichenau nor across the Austrian border in Peilstein, Kappel a.s.o., the doctor from Breitenberg often spent whole days on his sleigh in Siberian temperatures in order to visit his patients living around the ridges of mount Dreisessel or in the Austrian Muehlviertel region.
And one need also think of the local “Waldler” families out there, to some extent clumsy forest dwellers, who were living in impoverished, sometimes unhealthy living conditions! Coping with everyday life there requires not only true love for the profession, but above all a warm-hearted character and philanthropic mindset. (Excerpt from the eulogy, published on 25 April 1931 by the Wegscheid-based magazine „Grenzbote“ on the occasion of Koschminsky’s 30th anniversary as a doctor in Breitenberg)
Dr. Alfred Koschminsky
DER BAUHERR
Ein Menschenalter Arzttätigkeit im Bayerischen
Walde ist in Wahrheit eine Tat! Zumal in dem
weltabgeschiedenen Breitenberg und Umgebung,
dessen örtliche und klimatische Lage sehr
erhebliche Anforderungen an den Arzt stellen.
Man denke nur an das bergige, vielfach recht
schwer begehbare Gelände, die Zerstreutheit der
Siedlungen, die langen schneereichen Winter!
Vor 20 und mehr Jahren, da sich in Haidmühle,
Neureichenau, wie auch jenseits der österr. Grenze
in Peilstein, Kappel usw. noch keine Ärzte
niedergelassen hatten, war der Breitenberger
Doktor oft ganze Tage bei sibirischer Kälte auf
seinem Schlitten gesessen, um seine Patienten
am Dreisessel-Rücken oder im österr. Mühlviertel
zu besuchen.
Man denke ferner an die ärmlichen,
manchmal in recht ungesunden Verhältnissen
lebenden und nicht selten unbeholfenen
Waldlerfamilien! Hier zurechtzukommen setzt nicht
nur echte Berufsfreude, sondern vor allem auch
warme Menschenfreundlichkeit voraus.
(aus der Laudatio, die der in Wegscheid erscheinende „Grenzbote“ am 25. April 1931 anlässlich
seines 30 jährigen Wirkens als Arzt in Breitenberg veröffentlichte)
Dr. Alfred Koschminsky
THE BUILDER
A physician‘s career of a lifetime in the Bavarian Forest – that is in truth a deed! The more so as the remote village of Breitenberg and its surroundings, local circumstances and climatic situation posed considerable challenges to the doctor. One need only think of the hilly terrain, partly difficult to access, scattered villages and farmsteads, long and snow-bound winters! 20 and more years ago, when no other doctors had yet settled down in nearby Haidmühle, Neureichenau nor across the Austrian border in Peilstein, Kappel a.s.o., the doctor from Breitenberg often spent whole days on his sleigh in Siberian temperatures in order to visit his patients living around the ridges of mount Dreisessel or in the Austrian Muehlviertel region.
And one need also think of the local “Waldler” families out there, to some extent clumsy forest dwellers, who were living in impoverished, sometimes unhealthy living conditions! Coping with everyday life there requires not only true love for the profession, but above all a warm-hearted character and philanthropic mindset.
(Excerpt from the eulogy, published on 25 April 1931 by the Wegscheid-based magazine „Grenzbote“ on the occasion of Koschminsky’s 30th anniversary as a doctor in Breitenberg)
