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Friedrich Mering
Friedrich Mering (German: Friedrich Georg Mering, Russian: Фёдор Фёдорович Меринг, Фридрих Фридрихович Меринг, romanized: Fyodor Fyodorovich Mering, Friedrich Friedrichovich Mering) (26 February [10 March] 1822 — 19 [31] October 1887) was one of the most popular Kiev physicians, a professor emeritus of the Kiev university, an owner of a large Mering estate in downtown Kiev. LifeMehring was born in Dohna (then in Kingdom of Saxony) into a family of doctors. In 1840 he graduated from high school in Dresden, after which he entered the Dresden Medical Academy. From 1841 he studied at the University of Leipzig, graduating in 1845 and receiving the title of Doctor of Medicine and Surgery, as well as a diploma of obstetrician. At the end of the same year he left for the Russian Empire, where he was invited to the estate of the daughter of Count Mikhail Speransky, Buromka in Poltava Governorate, to head the 50-bed hospital founded by the Count. Before taking up the post, he confirmed his qualifications through tests at the Saint Vladimir Imperial University of Kiev. After working at the hospital for about two years, he went into private practice. In 1849–1851 he served in a hospital in St. Petersburg. Then he passed the exam for the Russian title of Doctor of Medicine at the Imperial University of Dorpat (now Tartu) and, at the suggestion of Nikolay Pirogov, he took part in the competition to fill a professorial chair at Kiev University. Mering accepted Russian citizenship. In 1855 he headed the hospital therapy clinic at Kiev University, and in 1857 he was appointed professor of special pathology and therapy there. In 1856, alongside with his university colleague Sergei Alferyev, he battled a typhus epidemic in the army. From 1865 he was the head of the faculty therapeutic clinic. Mering obtained a rank of Privy Councillor in 1881. He was a distinguished professor since 1878, an Honorary Member of the university since 1887. Mering had many well-to-do patients in Kiev. He was also exceptionally successful in the real estate deals, to the point of some contemporaries calling him "a shrewd businessman disguised as a professor." Others explained his commercial success as a side effect of his philanthropy and compassion:
Mehring died after a long illness (with elephantiasis syndrome) on October 19 (31), 1887. Multiple thousands joined funeral procession, including a Lutheran pastor, an Orthodox priest and a Jewish rabbi that participated on behalf of their flock. Mering was buried in the Askold's Grave cemetery, the tombstone did not survive. Works
AwardsFriedrich Mehring was awarded multiple orders of the Order of Saint Vladimir (up to 2nd class, Order of Saint Anna (up to 1st class), Order of Saint Stanislaus (up to 1st class). He was also awarded a medal in memory of the Crimean War. Estate Through the real estate deals Mering acquired a vast estate in the very center of Kiev. It occupied an area of over 10.5 hectares bounded by Khreshchatyk, Instytutska Street, Bankova Street, and Lyuteranska Street. The estate included few apartment buildings near Khreshchatyk, but the main part of the palatial estate included grounds with a pond, bathing area, garden, vegetable garden, etc. "Mehring's Garden" was well known to Kiev residents; a public skating rink opened on the pond in cold winters. After Friedrich Mehring's death, his heirs decided to sell the estate for development. It was sold for 1.8 million rubles to the Kiev House-Building Joint-Stock Company (House-Building Society), established in 1895. The professor's son Mikhail Mehring became the chairman of the board of the company, and the architect George Schleifer became the managing director. The latter prepared a project for a new layout of the estate, with four streets and a square being built on it, and numerous plots of land being sold for new income-generating construction. The pond was filled in, and the garden was chopped down. In the second half of the 1890s, active development of the Mering estate was carried out creating new streets Nikolaevskaya (now Architect Gorodetsky Street), Meringovskaya (Zankovetskaya), Olginskaya, Novaya (Stanislavsky), and the Nikolaevskaya Square (Ivan Franko). As a result of the 1900—1903 economic crisis and the speculations with assets by Mikhail Mering, the House-Building Society went bankrupt and was disbanded. Family Friedrich Mehring had three sons and two daughters.
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