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Rudolf Virchow (1821 - 1902) |
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 The family was of modest means. Rudolf therefore needed a scholarship to attend the Berlin physicians' military academy to study medicine. Virchow received his doctoral degree on 21 October 1843. In the following year he became the assistant to dissector Robert Froriep at the Berlin Charité, and later his successor. In 1846 Virchow sat for his State Examinations and in 1847 completed his Habilitation. In the same year he founded the Archive for Pathological Anatomy and Physiology (Archiv für pathologische Anatomie und Physiologie) together with Benno Reinhardt. The journal, called Virchow's Archive, still serves today as the central organ for the discipline of pathology. In 1848 Virchow experienced political difficulties for the first time. At the behest of the Prussian government he investigated a typhus epidemic in Upper Silesia. In his final report he gave partial responsibility for the epidemic to the state and the church. Without "full and unrestrained democracy," according to Virchow, there could be neither economic well-being nor health. During the March Revolution in 1848, Virchow fought on the side of the Democrats. He founded a socio-political weekly with Rudolf Leubuscher in 1848/49 called Medical Reform (Medicinische Reform). In this newspaper, which stopped publication after just one year, Virchow again called for public health care. His radical democratic political activity led to the loss of his position at the "Royal Charité." In 1849 he was asked to take a position at the University of Würzburg, where he held the first professorship in pathological anatomy. At the same time he broke his promise not to engage himself further in politics. In 1850 he married Rose Mayer, the daughter of the founder of modern gynecology, Carl Mayer. The couple had six children. Virchow made his political demands public again in 1852. After the publication of a report commissioned by the government of Württemberg on the population living in slums, Virchow proclaimed that education, well-being, and freedom were necessary conditions for the health of the population. 
In 1856, having achieved fame in Würzburg, he was asked to return to fill a
professorship at the Berlin University. This chair in pathological anatomy was
created especially for Virchow. A new building for the institute was erected on the
grounds of the Charité - the first Institute for Pathology in Berlin.Two years later he published his central work, The Foundation of Cellular Pathology on the Basis of a Physiological and Pathological Understanding of Tissue. Three years earlier, in his first essay on cellular pathology, Virchow had already outlined the idea that cells were the smallest living units in the human body. He believed that every cell came from a cell and that groups of cells existed as associations of "'individuals' with equal rights but differing abilities." All diseases could be traced to changes in body cells. Rudolf Virchow's cellular pathology was an important milestone in the development of scientifically-based modern medicine. From 1859 until his death Virchow was a member of the Berlin Representative Assembly. As part of this work, he supported important community projects, such as the building of hospitals, market halls, and a hygienic slaughterhouse. Probably his most important project was the planning of a modern sewer system for the city of Berlin.  From 1880 - 1893, Virchow was a member of the German Reichstag (Parliament), where he again worked for the establishment of a state health plan. Virchow was party to the founding of many museums in Berlin, among others, the old Ethnological Museum (Völkerkundemuseum) and the Provincial Museum of the Mark. Heinrich Schliemann left his Trojan collection to the city of Berlin on account of his connection to Virchow. Rudolf Ludwig Karl Virchow died on 5 September 1902 in Berlin. |
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