Swieten, Gerard van, Freiherr

Swieten, Baron (from 1753) Gerard van, b. Leiden (Netherlands), May 7, 1700, d. Vienna, June 18, 1772, physician-in-ordinary and adviser of Maria Theresia (from 1745), father of Baron Gottfried van Swieten. Student of H. Boerhaave, caused the monarch to reinforce state influence on the universities (University Organisation) and, above all, to reform medical education and training: she established new chairs, botanical gardens, a medical training hospital, chemical and physics laboratories, invited renowned professors, etc. van Swieten therefore is considered the founder of the first Vienna School of Medicine. He also raised medical standards in Vienna by improving hospitals and medical institutions in co-operation with J. v. Quarin; furthermore, founded various institutions such as schools for midwives and veterinarians and foundlings hospitals. He vehemently supported the construction of a new university building (University of Vienna). As director of the Imperial Library he opened one reading room to the public and as head of the Imperial Study and Book Censorship Commission relaxed the regulations of censorship.

Works: Commentaria in Hermannis Boerhaave aphorismos de cognoscendis et curandis morbis, 5 parts, 1742-1772 (Erläuterungen der Boerhaavischen Lehrsätze ..., 5 vols., 1755-1775); Constitutiones epidemicae ..., 2 vols., 1782 (Epidemien und Krankengeschichten, 2 vols., 1785).

Literature: E. Lesky and A. Wandruszka (eds.), G. v. S. und seine Zeit, 1973.