2000 Forint Semmelweis University

Semmelweis University in Budapest — named for Ignaz Semmelweis, the Hungarian physician who demonstrated in the 1840s that puerperal fever was transmitted by unwashed hands and instruments — celebrated its 250th anniversary in 2019, the occasion for this issue. The university was founded in 1769 under Maria Theresa as the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Nagyszombat, making it one of the oldest continuously operating medical schools in Central Europe.

Semmelweis himself was not vindicated during his lifetime. His findings were rejected by the medical establishment, and he died in an asylum in 1865 — likely from the same sepsis he had spent his career trying to prevent.