Abstract

The short visit of the famous German hygienist Max von Pettenkofer (1818‐1901) in Saxonia is described. Some days in november and december 1865, Pettenkofer was in the course of the cholera epidemic in Altenburg, Crimmitschau, Werdau, Glauchau and Zwickau, but not in Dresden and Leipzig. We receive a picture from the situation of hygiene and infectology in the time before the bacteriologist (and antagonist of Pettenkofer) Robert Koch (1834‐1910) discovered the cholera bacillus. Pettenkofer met some very important physicians of this country and discussed the origin and spreading of the cholera disease. Pettenkofer himself has published a paper about the saxonia tour, which expressed the ideas of natural sciences in the second half of nineteen century.