Albrecht von Graefe - Berlin, Germany
N 52° 31.416 E 013° 22.759
33U E 390045 N 5820511
This statue of Albrecht von Graefe, a pioneer of German ophthalmology, is located in Berlin, Germany.
Waymark Code: WMMRDW
Location: Berlin, Germany
Date Posted: 10/29/2014
Views: 8
ABOUT THE STATUE:
The life-size bronze statue depicts Albrecht von Graefe in a standing position with his left hand resting on a table. In his right hand he holds an ophthalmoscope. His hair is below his ears and he has a beard and mustache. He is wearing a lab coat over a shirt and pair of trousers. The bronze statue is inset within a lovely marble structure with colorful depictions of patients.
"This theatrical monument to the memory of great German ophthalmologist Albrecht von Graefe can be admired on the Charité-Medical University terrain (in Berlin), at the corner between Schumann- and Luisenstrasse.
The initiative for the monument came in 1872, two years after von Graefe's death, and was supported by physicians and ophthalmologists of several countries. Also Rudolf Virchow was involved in the committee. The inauguration of the Graefe-monument, masterpiece of the sculptor Rudolf Siemering, took place in 18821.
In the monument, von Graefe keeps in his right hand an ophthalmoscope, as a memory of the fact that he "was among the first ophthalomologists who regularly used the ophthalmoscope of Hermann von Helmholtz for the diagnosis of the fundus oculi when going on their ward rounds"."
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ABOUT THE MAN:
"Von Graefe, who was of gigantic importance in ophthalmology, died at the early age of 42. By the age of 39 Von Graefe was internationally a unique figure and presided and dominated over the entire 3rd International Congress of Ophthalmology held in Paris in 1867. He read four papers including a classic description of choroid tubercles, but his most notable contribution was his exposition of his “modified linear extraction” as a new technique for the operation of cataract.
His contributions to ophthalmology were multiple. His name is eponymously remembered in the von Graefe sign in exophthalmic goitre and the von Graefe extraction knife. Ophthalmology developed through the application of the ophthalmoscope by von Graefe. His clinical contributions included the physiology of the oblique extraocular muscles and the symptoms of ocular paralysis, silver nitrate treatment of conjunctivitis, description of the various types of hemianopia, the efficacy of iridectomy in acute glaucoma, occlusion of the central retinal artery by emboli, the recognition of papilloedema, and the recognition of optic neuritis rather than paralysis of the optic nerve as being a cause of central visual failure.
Von Graefe died from tuberculosis. In 1882 his statue (with the ophthalmoscope) was erected in the garden of Charite Hospital in Berlin, and later relocated to Shuman Avenue.
Along with Donders, von Graefe founded the Archiv für Ophthalmologie, which did so much to raise the status of this specialty. Donders and Arlt became the editors. A stamp was issued by West Germany (West Berlin) in 1978 on the 150th year of the birth of von Graefe."
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