Carl von Rokitansky
Czech anatomist, dermatologist and patologist (1804-1878)
Baron Carl von Rokitansky (German: Carl Freiherr von Rokitansky, Czech: Karel Rokytanský; 19 February 1804 – 23 July 1878) was an Austrian medical doctor, pathologist, humanist philosopher and liberal politician, founder of the Viennese School of Medicine of the 19th century. He was the founder of science-based diagnostics, connecting clinical with pathological results in a feedback loop that is standard practice today but was daring in Rokitansky's day.
Early life
Carl Joseph Wenzel Prokop Rokitansky, usually known as Carl Rokitansky, was born in Hradec Králové (German: Königgrätz), in the Kingdom of Bohemia, then part of the Habsburg monarchy and an imperial state of the Holy Roman Empire. His father Prokop Rokitansky (1771–1813) was a civil servant in Leitmeritz. His mother Theresia (1772–1827) was the daughter of Václav Lodgman Ritter von Auen, the first regional commissioner of Hradec Králové. Carl was the eldest of four children (Prokop, Marie, Theresie).
Due to the early death of his father († 1812), Carl and his siblings grew up in straitened circumstances. Despite this, his mother made sure that he attended grammar school in Hradec Králové and made it possible for him to study at the Charles University in Prague. Rokitansky described his upbringing as very liberal. Rokitansky remembered his father, as having been very widely read and erudite.
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