Projektdesign: Public Health at the Eastern Front

Andrea Rendl, PhD project: Public Health at the Eastern Front

This PhD project will investigate the impact of (military) medicine during and after the first world war at the Eastern Front in Galicia. The project will scrutinize the benefits and risks of medicine and sanitary troops by analyzing a threefold approach while following the project’s general research agenda: first, by mapping epidemic outbreaks (for example typhus) and the containment strategies during conflict, secondly, by zooming in into the problem of surgery and death of soldiers during military operations, and the challenge of disposing of the dead bodies in a safe way, to avoid epidemies, and at the same time finding a decent way of laying soldiers to eternal rest; thirdly, by analyzing the long-term effects of Austro-Hungarian sanitary troops in the region and their modernization impact, for example by building hositals in the rear area, or implementing public health measures (epidemic precaution, vaccinations).