The Relationship between Albrecht von Graefe and his Pupils to Austrian Ophthalmologists

Krogmann F.,
(Thüngersheim)

In becoming an ophthalmologist Albrecht von Graefe was strongly influenced by the Austrian Ferdinand Arlt who lived in Prague. A deep friendship developed between the men and lasted until Graefe’s early death. Graefe studied ophthalmology in Prague and also in Vienna where his teachers were Frederic Jaeger (the son-in-law of George Joseph Beer) and Jaeger’s grandson Edward. Graefe was one of the many students studying in Vienna, at the time the most important medical and ophthalmological school. Von Graefe’s father, Carl Ferdinand, had already studied with Beer in Vienna, where a chair of ophthalmology had been founded as early as 1818. Albrecht passed on the close connections to the Austrian ophthalmologists onto his pupils. Many of them studied in Austria – more specifically in Vienna (among them Robert Blessig, Charles Stedman Bull, Emil Emmert, Aaron Friedenwald, Frederic Helfreich, William Hess, John Frederic Horner, Julius Jacobsen, William Manz, Daniel Rossa, August von Rothmund, and Charles-William Zehender). Julius Hirschberg, one of the last assistants to Graefe was the author of the extensive “History of Ophthalmology”. This publication contains a wealth of information about the reported connections. The contacts between German and Austrian ophthalmologists were further developed at the Heidelberg meetings. The scientific outcomes were the foundation of modern ophthalmology.

Copyright © Deutsche Ophthalmologische Gesellschaft, 2002. All rights reserved.

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