This is probably a made-up story but it’s funny.
Rudolf Virchow (1821 – 1902) was a German physician, anthropologist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist, writer, editor, and politician. He is known as “the father of modern pathology” and as the founder of social medicine, and to his colleagues, the “Pope of medicine”.
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The duel challenge by Bismarck
As a co-founder and member of the liberal party Deutsche Fortschrittspartei, he was a leading political antagonist of Bismarck. He was opposed to Bismarck’s excessive military budget, which angered Bismarck sufficiently that he challenged Virchow to a duel in 1865. Virchow declined because he considered dueling an uncivilized way to solve a conflict. Various English-language sources purport a different version of events, the so-called “Sausage Duel”.
It has Virchow, being the one challenged and therefore entitled to choose the weapons, selecting two pork sausages, one loaded with Trichinella larvae [It causes trichinosis.], the other safe. Bismarck declined. However, there are no German-language documents confirming this version.
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Rant. I fucking hate AI. I clicked a Youtube link and it had AI slop “video” of Bismarck and Virchow.
On a semi-related note, there is a quote attributed to Bismarck that goes “those who know how sausages and laws are made can’t sleep quiet at night”. Of course, he didn’t draw the obvious conclusions of going vegan and stopping to be a core figure of German politics, because he’s just the kind of guy who white knuckles consciously participating in atrocities.
