George Gissing: A Fan's Commonplace Blog

Commonplace 146 George & The German Hospital.

The original building - picture from the Wellcome Collection.

George claimed not to approve of 'jobbery', a term now fallen out of common parlance (if it was ever in common parlance!) often applied to the political arena, that once described graft or nepotism or back-scratching that gave an unfair advantage over those without useful contacts to help them find preference. The Gissing boys were benefactors of how much their father meant to the Wakefield community when enough money was raised by public subscription to pay for them to be boarders at Lindow Grove School, Alderley Edge (click to see how times have changed at Alderley Edge!). If they hadn't had that bit of jobbery to rely on, they might have all found other paths to follow.

Vlad the Jobber.

George would never have admitted that being given financial help of any kind with school fees for himself and his two brothers was preferential treatment, or that his sisters' education with the school where family friend Lucy Bruce was a governor, might constitute jobbery. Neither would he have considered being offered a letter of introduction to the total stranger Lloyd Garrison (when George ended up in the US after his prison stint), but then George never was a man to think anyone might be helping him or doing him a favour.

So it comes as no surprise to find him neck-deep in denial making use of his contacts when he could. One such occasion was the help he received in 1880 from his German uncle, Paul Rahardt, who had a legitimate right to care at the German Hospital in Dalston. Marianne aka Nell had been suffering from the effects of scrofula, a disease she had probably picked up in her childhood, or teens, and probably needed surgery requiring great skill, and nursing care of the highest order. Nell needed treatment for a tumour on her face. Scrofula is the glandular form of tuberculosis; in scrofula, the glands of the face are particularly susceptible to tumours and lesions. As the procedure involved operating on the inside of the mouth and the top of the throat, great skill is required to operate and keep the patient oxygenated. Postoperative care would focus on maintaining airways and not allowing infected matter to travel to the lungs in particular, or infection occurring to any of the cranial nerves, or onward to the brain.

Facial glands according to Gray. Scrofula could affect any or all of them. 

Worldwide, every large city with a significant German population had its German Hospital. In 1845, London's was constructed in Dalston, with a remit of serving the needs of the large German immigrant population of that part of the city, and any locals who were in urgent need of help. The majority of these would be the general urban poor, but the German was a place that excelled in care for women and children. Marianne would have qualified for reasons of gender and not because she was poor, because in 1880, she was living with her husband and they were both earning a living and so could pay. In fact, even the very poor were willing to pay what they could afford - the pride of the working class is legendary. Only the unemployed and really destitute received totally free care, and that would have been a cause of shame to them.

A full account of the early days is to be found in the British National Archives click and here is some of the history as posted on their website, and I thank them for lending it:

Kaiser Wilhelm Stiftung (German Orphanage). Convalescent homes in Dalston, London, and in Hitchin, Hertfordshire. Associated Hospitals: Convalescent Home, Dalston Lane 1883 - 1908. Convalescent Home, Hitchin, Herefordshire 1908 - 1948. The German Hospital For the last forty years newcomers to Dalston have been surprised to learn that there is a hospital building in their midst which is known as the 'German'. Yet for the first 100 years of its existence there was no such surprise. Originally founded 'for the reception of all poor Germans and others speaking the German Language', the German Hospital also cared for the local English-speaking population in the case of emergencies. It was supported by subscriptions and donations, many from Germany or the German community in England, and run by a dedicated band of German nursing sisters and doctors. And when, in 1948 the Voluntary Hospital became part of the NHS, first as a general hospital and more recently as a psychiatric hospital, the 'German' continued to enjoy both in professional circles and among the general public the highest reputation for skilled staff and hospital care. In the 1840s it is estimated that some 30,000 Germans were living in England, making up by far the largest immigrant community. Many of them lived and worked in poor conditions in the East End of London, where poverty and the language barrier left them little chance to make use of the limited medical resources available at that time. The work of a German pastor and a doctor to establish a hospital for 'poor German Sick' was taken up by the Prussian Ambassador, the Chevalier Bunsen, who succeeded in enlisting the support of the rich and influential in Germany and England, including both Royal Houses, so ensuring that the hospital was built. On 15 October 1845 the German Hospital opened, with just 12 beds. An early outstanding feature of the hospital was the nursing care provided by the Protestant Deaconesses from the Kaiserswerth Institute near Wessendorf. It was their example at the German which prompted Florence Nightingale to visit the hospital on two occasions and then to enrol for training at the Institute in Germany in 1851. New hospital buildings, constructed according to the highest standards in hospital design, were opened in 1864 and provided to be invaluable in the epidemics which swept London in the 1860s and 1870s. The German Royal family took a keen interest in the hospital, as did the von Schroder family who were so often to provide funds for the hospital over the years.

A more recent wing built in 1863 - now (of course) made into apartments.

Dalston was a genteel place at the time the German Hospital first opened its doors, and before the arrival of the railway, it was little more than a rural backwater. An association with helping the sick and needy had been established in that area as long ago as the thirteenth century when a leper hospital was opened around what became Dalston Lane. This was eventually affiliated to St Bartholomew's Church and it might well have once existed on the site on which the German Hospital was built - we know that sites associated with sickness and healing were often recycled and re-used for newer establishments. Similarly, hospitals were often built on old plague pits or cholera pits - for example, Exeter used to have an NHS building built on a cholera pit. The Dalston Infant Orphan Asylum stood on the site immediately before the German was constructed.

The German Hospital is above the word Bartholomew in this Booth Map of 1898

The level of care provided at the German was considered to be of the very best. Miss Nightingale (as all nurses of a certain age hopefully still address Florence Nightingale) was so impressed with the model of care employed there, that she travelled to Kaiserswerth click in Germany and enrolled in the Deaconesses' Institute to learn their craft. From this training she formulated her own approach to nursing care - and the rest, as they say, is history...

According to the website click Lost Hospitals of London:

A Hospital with a particularly complicated history, it was founded in 1845 in Dalston Place, on the south side of Dalston Lane.  It offered free treatment to German-speaking immigrants, regardless of religion or origin, many of whom worked and lived in poor conditions in the East End of London, although it did not discriminate and also cared for English-speakers in emergencies.  In fact, most of its out-patients were the English poor. The Hospital occupied three houses converted from the Dalston Infant Orphan Asylum, and had 12 beds.  By 1850 the building of the North London railway track had progressed through the area; the cutting ran behind the Hospital, severing it from its garden.  This no doubt stimulated the Governors to build new premises in the garden.  The new building opened in 1864, and the Dalston Lane frontage was rented out. The Hospital now had 100 beds with a front entrance in Alma Road (which was renamed  Ritson Road in 1877). Access from Dalston Lane was restored in 1867, when a bridge was built over the railway line.  

This shows part of the existing German Hospital site, and gives a flavour of its size. 

1888 click