Josef Charvát
{{Short description|Czech academic and doctor (1897–1984)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Josef Charvát
| image = Josef Charvát (Časopis lékařů českých, 1957).png
| birth_date = 6 August 1897
| birth_place = Prague-Vinohrady, Austria-Hungary
| death_date = {{death date and age|1984|1|31|1897|8|6|df=yes}}
| death_place = Prague, Czechoslovakia
| resting_place = Olšany Cemetery
| workplaces = Charles University
| alma_mater = Faculty of Medicine, Charles University
| awards = Léon Bernard Foundation Prize (1968)
Order of Labour
Klement Gottwald State Prize
Order of the Yugoslav Star
Order of the Republic
Order of the Hero of Socialist Labour
}}
Josef Charvát (6 August 1897 – 31 January 1984) was a Czech doctor and endocrinologist. He played a significant role in the development of Czech endocrinology. Charvát graduated from the grammar school with honours before studying at Charles University. After World War I, he founded the 9th old scout troop and became a leader in the Union of Scouts. During World War II, Charvát was arrested by the Gestapo for resistance activity and imprisoned in several concentration camps. After the war, he founded the internal clinic at Charles University and became its head until 1970. Charvát was the founder of Czech endocrinology and also made contributions in the fields of stress, immunology, and medical cybernetics.
Throughout his career, Charvát treated several important personalities, including politicians, artists, and prominent individuals. He also received numerous awards and was a member of the Advisory Board for Science and Technology in the United Nations.
Early life and education
Josef Charvát was on 6 August 1897 in Prague-Vinohrady{{Cite web |title=The Catalogue |url=http://katalog.ahmp.cz/pragapublica/permalink?xid=1582973B94324FF2B78BFAFF3E256335&scan=117#scan117 |access-date=20 January 2023 |website=katalog.ahmp.cz |archive-date=20 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120200116/http://katalog.ahmp.cz/pragapublica/permalink?xid=1582973B94324FF2B78BFAFF3E256335&scan=117#scan117 |url-status=live }} into a low-income family of a trained blacksmith and locksmith, an employee of Elektrické podnikých in Prague.{{Cite web |last=TJK |title=Josef Charvát (1897–1984)|publisher=Lóže Národ|url=https://www.lnarod.cz/2019/02/josef-charvat-1897-1984/ |access-date=21 January 2023 |language=cs |archive-date=21 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230121220125/https://www.lnarod.cz/2019/02/josef-charvat-1897-1984/ |url-status=live}} In 1912, he joined the Kamzík scout troop, which he later led and with which he founded the 2nd Prague Scout Troop.{{cite news|access-date=12 December 2023|work=Vesmír|title=Josef Charvát a jeho doba – skauting|url=https://vesmir.cz/cz/casopis/archiv-casopisu/1994/cislo-9/josef-charvat-jeho-doba-ndash-skauting.html|date=5 September 1994|language=cs|publisher=vesmir.cz|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220813052903/https://vesmir.cz/cz/casopis/archiv-casopisu/1994/cislo-9/josef-charvat-jeho-doba-ndash-skauting.html|archive-date=13 August 2022}}{{Cite web |date=12 February 2004 |title=Prof. Josef Charvát, pionero de los estudios sobre el estrés |url=https://espanol.radio.cz/prof-josef-charvat-pionero-de-los-estudios-sobre-el-estres-8083237 |access-date=21 January 2023 |website=Radio Prague International |language=es |archive-date=21 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230121212313/https://espanol.radio.cz/prof-josef-charvat-pionero-de-los-estudios-sobre-el-estres-8083237 |url-status=live }}
He graduated from the grammar school in Prague with honours in 1916.{{cite book|first1=Milan|first2=Jiří|chapter=Josef Charvát|location=Praha|last1=Codr|last2=Černý|date=1988|pages=52–55|title=Přemožitelé času sv. 6|publisher=Mezinárodní organizace novinářů}} He began studying at the medical faculty of Charles University, but in 1916 he had to interrupt his studies and enlist in the artillery. He later fought on three different fronts of World War I.
Career
After returning from the front, he founded the 9th old scout troop, one of the first troops for adult scouts.{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/782129955 |title=Skautské století : dobrodružný příběh 100 let českého skautingu |date=2012 |publisher=Mladá fronta-Junák |first1=Roman |last1=Šantora |first2=Václav |last2=Nosek |isbn=978-80-204-2622-2 |edition=1. vyd |location=Praha |oclc=782129955}} In 1922, he was elected to the leadership of the Union of Scouts, then in 1932 as its deputy mayor, and after the departure of Edvard Beneš from the position of mayor in 1935, he performed this function until the merger with Junák, when he retired from active service and was elected honorary commander.
He graduated only in 1923.{{Cite web |title=Matrika doktorů Univerzity Karlovy V. (1922–1924) |url=https://is.cuni.cz/webapps/archiv/public/book/bo/1542020090975492/214/?lang=cs |access-date=20 January 2023 |website=is.cuni.cz |archive-date=20 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120200140/https://is.cuni.cz/webapps/archiv/public/book/bo/1542020090975492/214/?lang=cs |url-status=live }} He wanted to study psychiatry but could not find a position in this field in Prague. He joined WWII as an internal clinic, where he began to focus on biochemistry and endocrinology. A year later, he published his habilitation thesis in the field of endocrinology on the effect of insulin.{{Cite journal |last=Charvát |first=J. |date=19 June 1970 |title=[Josef Charvát, founder of Czechoslovak sexology] |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/4912142/ |journal=Casopis Lekaru Ceskych |volume=109 |issue=26 |pages=631 |issn=0008-7335 |pmid=4912142 |access-date=21 January 2023 |archive-date=21 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230121213832/https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/4912142/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite journal |last=Schreiber |first=V. |date=1972 |title=Academician Josef Charvát, founder of Czechoslovak endocrinology. 75th birthday |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/4560114/ |journal=Review of Czechoslovak Medicine |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=190–192 |issn=0034-6497 |pmid=4560114 |access-date=21 January 2023 |archive-date=21 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230121213829/https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/4560114/ |url-status=live}}
Later he studied in France and England. In 1935, he was offered the position of professor of internal medicine, but his appointment did not occur until 1946. He was the initiator of the Czechoslovak Endocrinological Society and was its first chairman (except for 1949 – 1951) until 1973.{{Cite web |last=s.r.o |first=Digital Media Publishing |title=Historie |url=https://www.endokrinologie.cz/cs/historie |access-date=20 January 2023 |website=endokrinologie.cz |language=cs |archive-date=20 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120200116/https://www.endokrinologie.cz/cs/historie |url-status=live}}
= Concentration camp =
File:Josef Charvát (lékař) Dachau Arolsen Archives.jpg]]
On 1 September 1939, he was arrested by the Gestapo for resistance activity and imprisoned in Pankrác prison and the Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps.{{Cite web |title=Medical science abused : German medical science practised in concentration camps and in the so-called protectorate / reported by Czechoslovak doctors. - Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |url=https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/bib94301 |access-date=21 January 2023 |website=collections.ushmm.org |archive-date=21 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230121213830/https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/bib94301 |url-status=live }} For a long time it was believed that the then Swedish Crown Prince Gustav VI was responsible for his release, others alleged direct intervention from Hitler under Gustav Adolf advise. Charvát knew Gustav Adolf from the Moot scout meeting in Sweden in 1937. Still, this expedient story was refuted by the investigation of the Australian journalist WH Burke, summarized in a book entitled Čtyřiatřicet.{{Cite web |title=IMPOSIBILUL SE ÎNTÂMPLĂ! EVREII DECOREAZĂ fratele unui NAZIST! |url=https://www.businessmagazin.ro/special/imposibilul-se-intampla-evreii-decoreaza-fratele-unui-nazist-10657336 |access-date=21 January 2023 |website=BusinessMagazin |archive-date=21 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230121213113/https://www.businessmagazin.ro/special/imposibilul-se-intampla-evreii-decoreaza-fratele-unui-nazist-10657336 |url-status=live }} Albert Göring arranged the release, the younger (and most likely half) brother of prominent Nazi Hermann Göring, an engineer and appointed director of Škoda Works, whom Charvát had known since the pre-war period. Göring used his surname not only to release Professor Charvát but also to help 33 other people, important and ordinary.{{Cite news |last=Spörl |first=Gerhard |date=7 March 2013 |title=Israel Weighs Whether to Honor Brother of Leading Nazi Hermann Göring |work=Der Spiegel |url=https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/israel-weighs-whether-to-honor-brother-of-leading-nazi-hermann-goering-a-887032.html |access-date=21 January 2023 |issn=2195-1349 |archive-date=21 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230121212259/https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/israel-weighs-whether-to-honor-brother-of-leading-nazi-hermann-goering-a-887032.html |url-status=live }} After the war, he was cleared by the Nuremberg and Czech courts.{{Cite web |date=8 April 2013 |title=Albert Göring, héros ignoré de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, deviendra peut-être un "Juste" |url=https://www.france24.com/fr/20130408-albert-goering-heros-ignore-seconde-guerre-mondiale-deviendra-peut-etre-juste |access-date=21 January 2023 |website=France 24 |language=fr |archive-date=21 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230121212259/https://www.france24.com/fr/20130408-albert-goering-heros-ignore-seconde-guerre-mondiale-deviendra-peut-etre-juste |url-status=live }}
= After WWII =
As a doctor, he participated in the Prague Uprising in May 1945. He was a member of the Masonic lodge Nation No. 1 in Orient Prague and the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.{{cite news|archive-date=1 December 2013|access-date=10 September 2018|url-status=dead|publisher=Lóže Národ|title=Řádná a dokonalá Lóže Národ č. 1 v Orientu Praha|url=http://www.lnarod.cz/bratri.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131201024542/http://www.lnarod.cz/bratri.htm}}
In 1945, he founded the internal clinic at Charles University in Prague and was its head until 1970. In the 1950s, he later tried to refute ideological misinterpretations from the field of biology. He avoided positions tied to political affiliation.{{Cite web |title=Josef Charvát a jeho svět |url=https://vesmir.cz/cz/casopis/archiv-casopisu/1994/cislo-3/josef-charvat-jeho-svet.html |access-date=20 January 2023 |website=vesmir.cz |language=cs |archive-date=20 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120200116/https://vesmir.cz/cz/casopis/archiv-casopisu/1994/cislo-3/josef-charvat-jeho-svet.html |url-status=live}} In 1969, he was briefly rector of Charles University.{{Cite web|title=Seznam rektorů 1918 - 2022|url=http://cuni.cz/UK-8660.html|access-date=20 January 2023|publisher=Charles University|language=cs|archive-date=20 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120201614/https://cuni.cz/UK-8660.html|url-status=live}} However, the rector's inauguration did not take place after the August 1968 occupation.{{cite book|first1=Jiří|first2=Allan|first3=Rita|chapter="Vondráčkovy přednášky" po padesáti letech (Martin Bojar)|location=Prague|last1=Raboch|last2=Gintel|last3=Hildprantová|date=2015|page=65|title=S anděly nad hlavou|publisher=Gasset}} A year later, he gave up the management of the clinic, but worked there as a researcher.
He is the founder of Czech endocrinology, his main field. He also dealt with stress, immunology and further education of doctors. He was a promoter of medical cybernetics and genetics. He was the first in the world to use insulin as a catalyst for nutrition in states of weakness and exhaustion. He is the author of the so-called Charvát diet for rapid weight loss, now abandoned.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UKqfM7bsWy0C&dq=%22Josef+Charv%C3%A1t%22+-wikipedia&pg=PA147 |title=Directory of Officials of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic |year=1978 |access-date=29 January 2023 |archive-date=25 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230325222617/https://books.google.com/books?id=UKqfM7bsWy0C&dq=%22Josef+Charv%C3%A1t%22+-wikipedia&pg=PA147 |url-status=live}}
He supported the tradition of an ethical, scientific and synthetic view of the patient and the entire field of internal medicine. He wrote medical-humorous popular articles and also philosophical works. He was based on the humanist tradition; he used synthetic thinking. He is the author of reflections that integrate medicine into a wider context.{{Cite web |last=DomX.cz |title=Lékařská literatura a pomůcky pro mediky |url=https://www.lekarskeknihy.cz/?id=80-7262-244-7 |access-date=20 January 2023 |website=Lékařské knihkupectví |language=cs |archive-date=20 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120200116/https://www.lekarskeknihy.cz/?id=80-7262-244-7 |url-status=live }} His main professional work is the book Diseases of Glands with Internal Secretion (1935).{{Cite journal |last=STAŇKOVÁ |first=OLGA |date=1969 |title=Sociologie, antropologie a medicína |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41127769 |journal=Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=12–22 |jstor=41127769 |issn=0038-0288 |access-date=21 January 2023 |archive-date=21 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230121213829/https://www.jstor.org/stable/41127769 |url-status=live}}
File:Along Masarykovo nábřeží on the Vltava, Prague.jpg
He treated several important personalities from among politicians, artists and other prominent people (e.g. Antonín Švehla, Edvard Beneš, and Marta Gottwaldová). In 1953, he was the first doctor summoned to the dying President Klement Gottwald, who diagnosed him with pneumonia.{{Citation|title=Krev na rukou Klementa Gottwalda – Strach ze Stalina a alkohol z něj udělaly trosku {{!}} Krvavá léta|work=Stream.cz|url=https://www.stream.cz/krvava-leta/krev-na-rukou-klementa-gottwalda-strach-ze-stalina-a-alkohol-z-nej-udelaly-trosku-50701444|language=cs|access-date=20 January 2023|archive-date=9 November 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221109132754/https://www.stream.cz/krvava-leta/krev-na-rukou-klementa-gottwalda-strach-ze-stalina-a-alkohol-z-nej-udelaly-trosku-50701444|url-status=live}} He received numerous awards for his work: he was a recipient of the Order of the Republic, the Order of Labor, the Order of the Yugoslav Star, and the Klement Gottwald State Prize.{{Cite web |date=4 July 2018 |title=Zemřel světově uznávaný diabetolog Rybka, léku na cukrovku se nedočkal |url=https://www.idnes.cz/zlin/zpravy/zemrel-jaroslav-rybka-svetove-uznavany-diabetolog-smrt-umrti.A180704_093728_zlin-zpravy_ppr |access-date=21 January 2023 |website=iDNES.cz |language=cs |archive-date=21 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230121212259/https://www.idnes.cz/zlin/zpravy/zemrel-jaroslav-rybka-svetove-uznavany-diabetolog-smrt-umrti.A180704_093728_zlin-zpravy_ppr |url-status=live }} He was awarded the title of Order of the Hero of Socialist Labour, and was an honorary doctor of Charles University and other world universities. He was a member of the Advisory Board for Science and Technology in the United Nations.
Selected publications
- Today's World and Freemasonry, 1949
- Life, Adaptation and Stress, 1969
- Man and His World, 1974
- My Labyrinth of the World, 2005
References
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Category:Scientists from Prague
Category:Nazi concentration camp survivors
Category:Léon Bernard Foundation Prize laureates
Category:Charles University alumni
Category:Academic staff of Charles University
Category:Recipients of orders, decorations, and medals of Yugoslavia
Category:Heroes of Socialist Labour
Category:Recipients of the Order of the People's Hero
Category:Recipients of the Order of the Hero of Socialist Labour