[Patients as "living manikins"? Göttingen University's maternity hospital ca. 1800]

The maternity hospital in Göttingen, founded in 1751, is considered to be the first in the world which was part of a university. Its main purpose was to train male medical students. Secondary aims were to instruct female midwives and to provide a haven for poor pregnant and lying-in women. The hospital was open to all women, without discriminating against foreigners, or any religion or race. Almost all patients were not married, and the overwhelming majority were servants. This article makes use of printed as well as archival material, mainly from the period when Professor Friedrich Benjamin Osiander was the hospital's director, i. e. 1792-1822, in order to show how the patients were used for developing and teaching 'scientific' obstetrics and man-midwifery.