Karl Ferdinand von Gräfe
Encyclopedia
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
surgeon
Surgery
Surgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...
from Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
. He was also the father of Albrecht von Graefe and grandfather of Albrecht von Graefe
Albrecht von Graefe (politician)
Albrecht von Graefe was a German landowner and right-wing politician active both during the German Empire and the Weimar Republic...
.
He studied medicine at Halle and Leipzig
University of Leipzig
The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...
, and after obtaining licence from the Leipzig university, he was in 1807 appointed private physician to Duke Alexius of Anhalt-Bernburg. In 1811 he became professor of surgery and director of the ophthalmogical
Ophthalmology
Ophthalmology is the branch of medicine that deals with the anatomy, physiology and diseases of the eye. An ophthalmologist is a specialist in medical and surgical eye problems...
institute at the University of Berlin, and during the Sixth Coalition against Napoleon
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
he was superintendent of the military hospitals.
When peace was concluded in 1815, he resumed his professorial duties. He was also appointed physician to the general staff
German General Staff
The German General Staff was an institution whose rise and development gave the German armed forces a decided advantage over its adversaries. The Staff amounted to its best "weapon" for nearly a century and a half....
of the Prussian army
Prussian Army
The Royal Prussian Army was the army of the Kingdom of Prussia. It was vital to the development of Brandenburg-Prussia as a European power.The Prussian Army had its roots in the meager mercenary forces of Brandenburg during the Thirty Years' War...
, and he became a director of the Friedrich Wilhelm Institute and of the Medico-Chirurgical Academy (Charité
Charité
The Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin is the medical school for both the Humboldt University and the Free University of Berlin. After the merger with their fourth campus in 2003, the Charité is one of the largest university hospitals in Europe....
). He died suddenly at Hanover
Hanover
Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...
, whither he had been called to operate on the eyes of the crown prince. His grave is preserved in the Protestant Friedhof II der Jerusalems- und Neuen Kirchengemeinde (Cemetery No. II of the congregations of Jerusalem's Church
Jerusalem's Church
Jerusalem's Church is one of the churches of the Evangelical Congregation in the Friedrichstadt , a member of the Protestant umbrella organisation Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia. The present church building is located in Berlin, borough Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, in...
and New Church
Deutscher Dom
Deutscher Dom is the colloquial naming for the New Church located in Berlin on the Gendarmenmarkt across from Französischer Dom . Its parish comprised the northern part of the then new quarter of Friedrichstadt, which until then belonged to the parish of the congregations of Jerusalem's Church...
) in Berlin-Kreuzberg
Kreuzberg
Kreuzberg, a part of the combined Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Mitte since 2001, is one of the best-known areas of Berlin...
, south of Hallesches Tor
Hallesches Tor (Berlin U-Bahn)
The underground station Hallesches Tor is part of the Berlin U-Bahn network at the intersection of the east-west bound U1 and the north-south bound U6 in the Kreuzberg district.-Overview:...
.
He was a pioneer of plastic
Plastic surgery
Plastic surgery is a medical specialty concerned with the correction or restoration of form and function. Though cosmetic or aesthetic surgery is the best-known kind of plastic surgery, most plastic surgery is not cosmetic: plastic surgery includes many types of reconstructive surgery, hand...
and reconstructive surgery
Reconstructive surgery
Reconstructive surgery is, in its broadest sense, the use of surgery to restore the form and function of the body, although Maxillo-Facial Surgeons, Plastic Surgeons and Otolaryngologists do reconstructive surgery on faces after trauma and to reconstruct the head and neck after cancer.Other...
, and a founder of German rhinoplastic
Rhinoplasty
Rhinoplasty , also nose job, is a plastic surgery procedure for correcting and reconstructing the form, restoring the functions, and aesthetically enhancing the nose, by resolving nasal trauma , congenital defect, respiratory impediment, and a failed primary rhinoplasty...
surgery. He developed his own techniques regarding rhinoplasty, which were modifications of the Italian methodology of Gasparo Tagliacozzi
Gasparo Tagliacozzi
Gaspare Tagliacozzi was an Italian surgeon.Tagliacozzi was born in Bologna. He studied at the University of Bologna under Gerolamo Cardano and others, and, at the age of twenty-four, earned his degree in philosophy and medicine. First he was appointed professor of surgery and later was appointed...
(1545-1599) and the India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n surgical practices that dated from antiquity. Graefe also performed one of the first operations for treatment of a congenital cleft palate, and was a pioneer of eyelid
Eyelid
An eyelid is a thin fold of skin that covers and protects an eye. With the exception of the prepuce and the labia minora, it has the thinnest skin of the whole body. The levator palpebrae superioris muscle retracts the eyelid to "open" the eye. This can be either voluntarily or involuntarily...
surgery. His lectures at the university of Berlin attracted students from all parts of Europe.
Works
The following are his principal works:- Normen für die Ablösung größerer Gliedmaßen (Berlin, 1812)
- Rhinoplastik (1818)
- Neue Beiträge zur Kunst, Teile des Angesichts organisch zu ersetzen (1821)
- Die epidemisch-kontagiose Augenblennorrhoe Ägyptens in den europäischen Befreiungsheeren (1824)
- Jahresberichte ber das klinisch-chirurgisch-augenarztliche Institut der Universität zu Berlin (1817-1834)
He also edited, with Philipp Franz von Walther
Philipp Franz von Walther
Philipp Franz von Walther was a German surgeon and ophthalmologist who was a native of Burrweiler.In 1803 he received his medical doctorate from the University of Landshut where he was a student of Georg Joseph Beer , and subsequently was a professor at the Universities of Bamberg, Landshut, Bonn...
, the Journal für Chirurgie und Augenheilkunde. See E Michaelis, Karl Ferdinand von Gräfe in seiner 30 jahrigen Wirken für Staat und Wissenschaft (Berlin, 1840).
Carl Ferdinand Von Graefe Institute for the History of Plastic Surgery. (www.histplastsurg.com) Online Research Guide and Journal on the History of Plastic Surgery