Zur Professionalisierung und Militarisierung der Schwestern vom Roten Kreuz vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg

Nursing became a trained profession beginning in the mid-19th century, principally stimulated by the need for care of battlefield wounded in the age of mass armies. The Italian war of 1859 influenced both the founding of the International Red Cross and the women's leagues of various German states. The experiences of the 1864 and 1866 wars in Germany built upon the precepts of the 1863 organizational conference of the International Red Cross. Volunteer organizations undertook the training and subscription of volunteer nurses, which in wartime fell under the direction of the military medical services and operated in the field under the protection of international law. The women's leagues attracted educated women into the profession. The ultimate administrative body of the German Red Cross, combined with medical advances of the latter part of the century, advanced the sophistication and scope of the movement.