Martin Kirschner was a German

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

Surgeon

In medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...

, born 28 October 1879 in Breslau, died on 30 August 1942 in Heidelberg

Heidelberg

-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...

.

Kirschner was the son of Margarethe Kalbeck, sister of Max Kalbeck

Max Kalbeck

Max Kalbeck was a German writer, critic and translator.-Education:Kalbeck studied music in Munich. In 1875 he became the music-critic for the Schlesische Zeitung and assistant director of the Breslau Museum...

, and Judge Martin Kirschner (1842–1912), who later served as city councillor (member of the city government) of Breslau since 1873 and a member of the city parliament as of 1879. In 1892 he became burgomaster

Burgomaster

Burgomaster is the English form of various terms in or derived from Germanic languages for the chief magistrate or chairman of the executive council of a sub-national level of administration...

 of Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 (vice-mayor) and advanced to its Lord Mayor (Oberbürgermeister) holding that office between 1899 and 1912.

Kirschner junior attended the universities of Freiburg, Strassburg

University of Strasbourg

The University of Strasbourg in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, is the largest university in France, with about 43,000 students and over 4,000 researchers....

, Zurich

University of Zurich

The University of Zurich , located in the city of Zurich, is the largest university in Switzerland, with over 25,000 students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of theology, law, medicine and a new faculty of philosophy....

 and Munich

Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich

The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich , commonly known as the University of Munich or LMU, is a university in Munich, Germany...

.

Following his promotion in Strassburg in 1904 he went to Berlin

Humboldt University of Berlin

The Humboldt University of Berlin is Berlin's oldest university, founded in 1810 as the University of Berlin by the liberal Prussian educational reformer and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt, whose university model has strongly influenced other European and Western universities...

 for postgraduate studies under Rudolf von Renvers (1854–1909). Between 1908 and 1910 he was at the university surgical clinic in Greifswald under Erwin Payr

Erwin Payr

Erwin Payr was an Austrian-German surgeon born in Innsbruck.Following graduation in 1894 at Innsbruck, he worked as an assistant at the first pathological anatomy institute in Vienna...

 (1871–1947), then went to Königsberg

University of Königsberg

The University of Königsberg was the university of Königsberg in East Prussia. It was founded in 1544 as second Protestant academy by Duke Albert of Prussia, and was commonly known as the Albertina....

 to work with Payr and Paul Leopold Friedrich

Paul Leopold Friedrich

Paul Leopold Friedrich was a German surgeon born in the town of Roda, Saxe-Altenburg.In 1888 he received his doctorate at the University of Leipzig, and as a young assistant worked under Robert Koch at the Reich Health Office in Berlin...

 (1864–1916). He was appointed professor of surgery at Königsberg in 1916, and in 1927 accepted an invitation to move to the same chair in Tübingen

Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen

Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen is a public university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is one of Germany's oldest universities, internationally noted in medicine, natural sciences and the humanities. In the area of German Studies it has been ranked first among...

.

On 18 March 1924, Kirschner performed the first successful pulmonary artery

Pulmonary artery

The pulmonary arteries carry deoxygenated blood from the heart to the lungs. They are the only arteries that carry deoxygenated blood....

 embolectomy

Embolism

In medicine, an embolism is the event of lodging of an embolus into a narrow capillary vessel of an arterial bed which causes a blockage in a distant part of the body.Embolization is...

 - Trendelenburg’s operation. He developed a new method for the making an artificial oesophagus and a method for the opening of the knee joint.

External links

• Ole Daniel Enersen: Martin Kirschner, in: Who named it? Biographical dictionary of medical eponyms