在二十六岁时，维尔琴热情地写道，在德国贫困地区，可怕的社会状况被称为上西里西亚，是疟疾和痢疾流行病的原因。他对德国政府的建议：如果它想对流行病做些事情，那么它需要结束营养不良，拥挤和卫生贫困。他补充说，更好的是，允许上西里西亚建立完整而无限的民主。
(At age twenty-six, Virchow wrote passionately that terrible social conditions in an impoverished part of Germany called Upper Silesia were the cause of a malaria and dysentery epidemic. His recommendation to the German government: if it wanted to do something about the epidemic, it needed to end the malnutrition, overcrowding, and poor hygiene. Better yet, he added, allow for a full and unlimited democracy in Upper Silesia.)