Louise Gueury

Diagnoses

Lifestyle

Family

German heiress who willed a large part of her estate toward the founding of a hospital for the treatment of female and poor patients. During the second half of the nineteenth century, large parts of the population became ill and died of tuberculosis. This illness claimed her father in 1860 and her two older brothers in 1877 and 1878. After the death of her brothers, she sold the family wool merchant business and had her estate managed by a lawyer. She remained unmarried and little is known about her life. She also contracted tuberculosis and died of the disease in Mönchengladbach on 21 July 1900 at the age of 46. In her will, Gueury left a large part of her estate to many charitable, social and ecclesiastical institutions. The largest share (860,000 gold marks, today about 30 million euros), was received by the city of Gladbach (now Mönchengladbach), with the requirement to build a sanatorium where female lung disease patients and poor patients would be treated. In April 1903, the foundation stone was laid for the lung sanatorium and on 3 August 1904 the clinic was opened. Link to Wikipedia biography (German)