Ziemssen, Hugo-Wilhelm, von

Hugo Wilhelm von Ziemssen (1929-1902) was born in Greifswald on December 13, 1829, the fifth child of the judge and Prussian judicial councilor Wilhelm Ziemssen (1786-1842) and his wife Friederike Wilhelmine Ziemssen, née Hagenow (1802-1866). The family had immigrated to Pomerania from Denmark at the beginning of the 18th century. His father was a judge at the Greifswald court, first under Swedish rule, later under Prussian sovereignty. Already at the age of 14, Hugo von Ziemssen had to take responsibility for his own life after the early death of his father. In 1857 he married Marie von Wakeniz (1835-1892), with whom he fathered five children, four daughters and one son. 1848 graduated from high school in Greifswald.

That same year, in the midst of the turmoil of the German Revolution, Ziemssen eagerly began his medical studies in Greifswald. In 1849, the family moved to Berlin, where Ziemssen continued his studies. The family moved again to Würzburg in 1850, where he studied under Rudolf von Virchow (1821-1902). His work under Rudolf von Virchow was to have a decisive influence on his entire future career.

In 1852 Hugo von Ziemssen returned to Greifswald to complete his studies. There he became a volunteer assistant at the obstetrics clinic, under Friedrich A. G. Berndt (1793-1854). In 1853 Ziemssen submitted his doctoral thesis, "On the Hospital Fire." This was a thesis on a topic that was actually surgical.

Despite a severe and protracted typhoid disease, Hugo von Ziemssen passed the medical state examination "summa cum laude" in Berlin in 1854. In 1855 he began his medical career as a scientific assistant at the medical polyclinic in

Greifswald. In 1856 he habilitated with a lecture on the application of the "volta-electric induction current "16 for the isolated excitation of motor nerves. This work formed the basis for his most important work, "Die Electricität in der Medicin" (Electricity in Medicine), which appeared in 1857 and was published in five extended editions until 1887. Through this work, Hugo v. Ziemssen decisively influenced modern electrotherapy and electrodiagnostics.

v. Ziemssen died in 1902.

1. Pierson A (2006) Hugo Wilhelm von Ziemssen (1829 - 1902) The scientific works. . Dissertation for the Acquisition of the Doctorate of Medicine at the Medical Faculty of the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich.