Dr. med. Jacobi Selig Rosenthal

The physician Jacobi Selig Rosenthal was born in 1794 in Waren; the complete family tree gives 17 February 1796, so the year of birth is not certain. His father Selig Rosenthal was a grain merchant. He studied medicine in Rostock and received his doctorate there on 17 November 1821.

As a general practitioner he first settled in Goldberg and from 20 November 1822 worked in Güstrow, where he stayed until 1848. In these years he published small contributions in medical journals, for instance on cholera (1831), on the air in Güstrow, on the breeding and keeping of leeches, on remedial gymnastics against consumption and on the effect of galvanism and of magnetic galvanism. In 1848 he returned to his native town and practised there until his death.

On the occasion of his 50th jubilee as a physician Rosenthal received the title of Medical Counsellor (Medizinalrat) in 1871; Wilhelmi's directory of physicians gives 1 November 1871 for this. On 17 November 1871 the town of Waren made him an honorary citizen. He had remained unmarried and is said to have come from a poor family; his nephew was the Waren merchant Gottschalk Rosenthal. Jacobi Selig Rosenthal died on 27 July 1877 in Waren (Wilhelmi's directory of physicians gives 21 July, probably through a misreading of its source). In 1990 a central street of the town was named after him, according to Jürgen Kniesz today's Rosenthalstraße.