Gustav Brühl, 1826-1903 [published also as Kara Giorg]

Image of Kara Giorg (Gustav Brühl). He is facing slightly to the viewer's left, and wears small round spectacles and has a full beard and mustache. — Source: Zimmermann, G. A. *Deutsch in Amerika. Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutsch-amerikanischen Literatur*. Chicago: Ackermann & Eyller, 1892.

Source: Wikipedia

Gustav Brühl, one of the oldest and most prominent physicians in Cincinnati, Ohio, was born on May 31, 1826, in Herdorf, a small village in the mining district of Rhenish Prussia. His father was a proprietor of a mine there, who had lost his wife while Gustav was still a child, so he was therefore sent first to a boarding school and afterwards to a college in Treves. For medical education he visited the universities of Halle, Munich, and Berlin. After finishing his studies in Europe, he resolved to emigrate to the United States of America, with the avowed intention of settling in Missouri, where an uncle of his was living at the time. On his journey thither, in 1848, he visited an aunt in Cincinnati, who prevailed upon him to abandon his further trip, and induced him to stay in that city. Owing to an outbreak of an epidemic of cholera he soon obtained a large practice, especially among the German population, in the western portion of the city, where he was the first, and, for a time, the only German physician, but he was soon known over the entire city. Besides his skill as a physician and his eminent literary qualifications, [it was] particularly his oratory [talent that] enabled him to acquire a leading part in the intellectual life of the “Queen of the West,” where he delivered lectures on the historical and political topics of the day, chiefly under the auspices of various German societies.

As a medical man he was interested in the organization of the first German Hospital of Cincinnati, which was founded by the Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis, a religious order from Aix-la-Chapelle, who established their first charitable institution in that city in 1858. With his financial and moral aid St. Mary’s Hospital was erected, and in it he served as first physician for many years. During this time he again visited Europe and studied the newly formed specialties of laryngology and rhinology under Czermak at Prague, and Tuerck at Vienna, being the first to introduce these specialties in Cincinnati, but after a few years again abandoned them to devote himself more particularly to the practice of obstetrics and general medicine. He became one of the organizers of the Cincinnati Medical Society, an offshoot of the Academy of Medicine in the early 1870’s. He there read an interesting paper on “Precolumbian Syphilis,” in which he contended that this disease had been acquired by the Spaniards in the New World under Columbus and his followers, and then carried by them to Europe. This theory caused considerable comment at that time, being bitterly opposed by many European and American authorities, but was as stoutly maintained by the author, who based his opinion on the result of his archeological studies. For he was a diligent student of archeology, anthropology, and ethnology, to which he devoted all of his leisure time when not professionally engaged. In these branches he became a prolific writer. Under the auspices of the German Pionier-Verein he founded a monthly periodical, Der Deutsche Pionier, to which he contributed largely as editor, besides securing contributions from almost all the prominent German writers on the history of the German settlements in the United States. As a result of these studies he soon extended his researches to American antiquities in general, more particularly of the old Spanish possessions, making extensive trips through Central and South America for the purpose of visiting the places and searching the archives in these old settlements. These archeological and historical studies he brought forth in a work called Die Culturvoelker von Alt-Amerika (Primitive Peoples of America). Other travels in the Western Hemisphere were recorded later, in a work with the title: Zwischen Alaska und dem Feuerland (From Alaska to Terra del Fuego). He, moreover, published papers on archeological and ethnological subjects in various German and American magazines devoted to these departments of science.

Accordingly, as his reputation among the cultured classes was that of a scientist and historian, Dr. Brühl became widely known with the masses, not only as a public speaker, but as a poet. He is indeed ranked as one of the foremost German poets of America. His subjects were chiefly derived from the tales and myths of the Indians, as well as the achievements of the early German settlers. Besides numerous smaller poems he wrote “Charlotte,” and “Die Heldin des Amazon.” Other verses are collected in two volumes entitled, respectively, Poesien des Urwalds (Poems of the Primitive Forests) and Abendglocken (Evening Chimes), the latter containing the production of “The Evening Tide of Life.” [Reference unidentified as of May 2026.]
A posthumous epic poem, “Skanderbeg,” was published by his family after his death, which occurred suddenly on February 16, 1903, of paralysis of the heart. He was for many years a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was a member of the first board of trustees of the University of Cincinnati. He married Miss Magdalen Reis, of Cincinnati, January 31, 1849, and had four sons and one daughter.

A. G. Drury.
American Medical Biographies (1920)