Johann Albert Heinrich Reimarus (11 November 1729, Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

 - 6 June 1814, Rantzau

Rantzau, Plön

Rantzau is a municipality in the district of Plön, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany....

, Holstein

Holstein

Holstein is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is part of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of Germany....

) was a German physician, natural historian and economist. He was the son of Hermann Samuel Reimarus

Hermann Samuel Reimarus

Hermann Samuel Reimarus , was a German philosopher and writer of the Enlightenment who is remembered for his Deism, the doctrine that human reason can arrive at a knowledge of God and ethics from a study of nature and our own internal reality, thus eliminating the need for religions based on...

, the brother of the writer Elise Reimarus

Elise Reimarus

Elise Reimarus was a German writer, educator, translator and salon-holder. She was the sister of Johann Albert Heinrich Reimarus and the daughter of Hermann Samuel Reimarus....

 and the father (by his first marriage) of Johanna Reimarius, who married Georg Heinrich Sieveking

Georg Heinrich Sieveking

Georg Heinrich Sieveking was a German merchant and follower of the Enlightenment. Together with his friend and business partner, Caspar Voght, he led one of the largest trading firms in the Hanseatic League during the second half of the 18th century...

. He married twice, the second time to Sophia, sister of August Adolph von Hennings

August Adolph von Hennings

August Adolph von Hennings was a politician, publicist and writer of the Age of Enlightenment, born into a Schleswig-Holstein family of lawyers...

.

In 1755 he visited London and studied under the anatomists John Hunter

John Hunter (surgeon)

John Hunter FRS was a Scottish surgeon regarded as one of the most distinguished scientists and surgeons of his day. He was an early advocate of careful observation and scientific method in medicine. The Hunterian Society of London was named in his honour...

 and James Douglas

James Douglas (physician)

James Douglas was a Scottish physician and anatomist, and Physician Extraordinary to Queen Caroline.One of the seven sons of William Douglas and his wife, Joan, daughter of James Mason of Park, Blantyre, he was born in West Calder, West Lothian, in 1675...

. His achievements include introducing smallpox

Smallpox

Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...

 vaccination

Vaccination

Vaccination is the administration of antigenic material to stimulate the immune system of an individual to develop adaptive immunity to a disease. Vaccines can prevent or ameliorate the effects of infection by many pathogens...

 to Hamburg and introducing continental Europe to the British-born idea of the lightning rod

Lightning rod

A lightning rod or lightning conductor is a metal rod or conductor mounted on top of a building and electrically connected to the ground through a wire, to protect the building in the event of lightning...

.