[Does medicine limit enlightenment?].

In the first, historical part the most important programs of "Medical Enlightenment", are pointed out, beginning with Leibniz, followed by the public health movement of the 18th century, up to the time of Immanuel Kant. Based on this historical background several concepts of a "Medical Culture" are analysed in detail, for instance the "Theorie einer Medizinal-Ordnung" by Johann Benjamin Ehrhard (1800), the "Medicinische Reform" by Rudolf Virchow (1848) and the programs of the "Gesellschaft Deutscher Naturforscher und Arzte" (about 1850-1890), the latter bearing both scientific and political character. Following the historical part, the question is raised whether "Enlightenment" is limited by medicine and whether medicine is able to provide a program for individual health education resulting in a more cultivated style of private life, and lastly how this might be realized.