title: The beginnings and 50-year history of the Charles University Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Králové.
abstract: The Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Králové has some unique features that make it stand out from other similar faculties in this country: The school developed from regional traditions at the appropriate historic times, when due to closure of the universities during World War II. there was a serious death of physicians. The school was supported by the local governing organs, as well as by the generous financial assistance of citizens who identified with the idea of creating a university in Hradec Králové. An entirely new organizational form was utilized in the creation of the medical school: it was founded as a branch of the Faculty of Medicine at the Charles University in Prague. It was the first time that this form of organization in the history of our universities was used to prevent any legal delays during the postwar times when parliamentary legislation was not yet functional. It constitutes a synthesis of existing medical schools in Prague and Brno (Brünn): the first teachers were primarily equally recruited from both these universities. It had been connected almost from its beginning with the coexisting military medical school; at one time it represented this military medical training institution by itself. The school underwent so many transformations accompanied by the departure of a number of important professors that it was surprising that it was able to maintain its professional integrity. The answer to the question of why the first medical school in the postwar period was founded in Hradec Králové is not too difficult. The town was a metropolis of eastern Bohemia with an important cultural and political tradition; this eventually culminated in a targeted readiness of such institution.
authors.affiliation: Department of Histology and Embryology, Charles University Faculty of Medicine, Hradec Králové, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nĕmecek
mesh_terms: D018153:Czech Republic; D049668:History, 15th Century; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049691:History, Medieval; D012577:Schools, Medical / Q000266:history*