1821-1902

German Physician, Pathologist and Anthropologist

Rudolf Virchow was one of the most prominent German physicians of the nineteenth century, and his success reflected the rising influence and organization of the German medical community after 1840. Working as an activist for public health, Virchow merged the social and political reform movements with the developing German medical community, and he believed that medicine was the ultimate science of man.

In 1839, when Virchow began studying medicine at Berlin's Friedrich-Wilhelms Institut, German medicine was mostly theoretical and did not deal extensively with the clinical problems or experimental techniques. Virchow, however, was trained by Johannes Müller and Johann L. Schönlein, two of the first German teachers to promote experimental laboratory methods, physical diagnostic methods, and epidemiological analyses. After he completed his medical degree at the University of Berlin in 1843, Virchow repaid his military commitment by serving as...