Bernhard Heine (August 20, 1800, Schramberg (

Black Forest The Black Forest ( ) is a large forested mountain range in the States of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is th ...

) – July 31, 1846, Glockenthal near

Thun Thun () is a List of towns in Switzerland, town and a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the administrative district of Thun (administrative district), Thun in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Canton of Bern, Bern in Switzerland. ...

(Switzerland)) was a German physician, bone specialist and the inventor of the

osteotome An osteotome is an instrument used for cutting or preparing bone. Osteotomes are similar to a chisel but bevelled on both sides. They are used today in plastic surgery, orthopedic surgery and dental implantation. The chain osteotome, origina ...

, a medical tool for cutting bones.

Apprenticeship in Würzburg

Bernhard Heine was born on August 20, 1800, as the son of a tanner in Schramberg. At the age of ten (according to other references, thirteen) years he was apprenticed to his uncle

Johann Georg Heine Johann Georg Heine (April 3, 1771 – September 7, 1838) was a German orthopedic mechanic and physician. He is considered the father of Orthopedics in Germany. From cutler to orthopedic mechanic Heine was born in Lauterbach on April 3, 1771, ...

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is, after Nuremberg and Fürth, the Franconia#Towns and cities, third-largest city in Franconia located in the north of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. It sp ...

as an

orthopaedic Orthopedic surgery or orthopedics ( alternative spelling orthopaedics) is the branch of surgery concerned with conditions involving the musculoskeletal system. Orthopedic surgeons use both surgical and nonsurgical means to treat musculoskeletal ...

mechanic. Without any enrolment he later attended lectures in medicine at the

University of Würzburg The Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg (also referred to as the University of Würzburg, in German ''Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg'') is a public research university in Würzburg, Germany. Founded in 1402, it is one of the ol ...

. After a number of journeys he took over his own department in his uncle's orthopaedic institute. When Johann Georg moved to the Netherlands in 1829, Bernhard - together with his cousin

Joseph Heine Joseph (von) Heine (28 November 1803 – 4 November 1877) was a German physician and a high civil servant in the Bavarian health service in the Rheinkreis. When Johann Georg Heine left Würzburg and his family in 1829 to settle in the Netherlands ...

- became the head of the Würzburg institution. In 1837 Bernhard Heine married his cousin (Johann Georg's daughter) Anna Heine (born 1801).

Inventing the osteotome

In 1830, after years of research and development, Heine presented a medical tool to his colleagues. It was a "bone saw", which he called the "osteotome", and which revolutionized surgical treatment. His invention was a great success among medical experts all over Europe. Heine travelled to other parts of Germany, and to France and Russia to present it to other surgeons. In 1836 a doctoral thesis on the "Osteotome and its application" was published in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

Heine declined an offer of the Russian Tsar Nicholas I to take over the position of an orthopaedic senior consultant at the imperial school in

Kronstadt Kronstadt (, ) is a Russian administrative divisions of Saint Petersburg, port city in Kronshtadtsky District of the federal cities of Russia, federal city of Saint Petersburg, located on Kotlin Island, west of Saint Petersburg, near the head ...

and returned to Würzburg. The University of Würzburg awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1836 and an honorary professorship in 1838, although he had never acquired any degree.

Research work on bone formation

Heine acquired valuable knowledge in the field of bone formation and bone regeneration, which is still valid today. He was able to prove that the

periosteum The periosteum is a membrane that covers the outer surface of all bones, except at the articular surfaces (i.e. the parts within a joint space) of long bones. (At the joints of long bones the bone's outer surface is lined with "articular cartila ...

, the tissue covering the bones, is decisive in bone regeneration and therefore has to be spared violation in the operating process. From 1844 he was an associate professor at the University of Würzburg, teaching experimental physiology.

Death and legacy

He fell ill with

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

and died on July 31, 1846, while on holiday in Glockenthal near Thun in Switzerland. His early death did not allow him to publish his findings; it was not until 1926, eighty years after his death, that his research findings were published (see external lin
biography
.

Bibliography

*Heinz Hansen: ''Die Orthopädenfamilie Heine - Leben und Wirken der einzelnen Familienmitglieder im Zeichen einer bedeutenden deutschen Familientradition des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts.'' doctoral thesis, Dresden 1993 *Hans Hekler: ''Bernhard Heine – von Königen geehrt und von Zar Nikolaus umworben.'' in: D'Kräz (Beiträge zur Geschichte der Stadt und Raumschaft Schramberg) Heft 10, Schramberg 1990 (also online, see external links)

References

External links

*

with pictures and further references {{DEFAULTSORT:Heine, Bernhard German orthopedic surgeons People from Schramberg Physicians from Würzburg 1800 births 1846 deaths