Carl Wilhelm von Zehender (21 May 1819 – 19 December 1916) was a German

ophthalmologist Ophthalmology (, ) is the branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis, treatment, and surgery of eye diseases and disorders. An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Following a ...

born in

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

. He studied medicine at the universities of

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

Jena Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...

and

Kiel Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...

, receiving his doctorate in 1845. He studied ophthalmology in Paris as a pupil of Louis-Auguste Desmarres, then furthered his education in Prague, Vienna and Berlin. He worked at an ophthalmic practice in

Neustrelitz Neustrelitz (; ) is a town in the Mecklenburgische Seenplatte district in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is situated on the shore of the Zierker See in the Mecklenburg Lake District. From 1738 until 1918 it was the capital o ...

, and in 1862 was named a professor of ophthalmology at the

University of Bern The University of Bern (, , ) is a public university, public research university in the Switzerland, Swiss capital of Bern. It was founded in 1834. It is regulated and financed by the canton of Bern. It is a comprehensive university offering a br ...

. From 1866 to 1889 he was a professor of ophthalmology at the

University of Rostock The University of Rostock () is a public university located in Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Founded in 1419, it is the third-oldest university in Germany. It is the oldest university in continental northern Europe and the Baltic Se ...

( rector 1875/76), then afterwards he relocated to

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 ...

, where he remained until 1907. He died in Rostock in 1916 at the age of 97. Zehender is considered a pioneer of ophthalmic

microsurgery Microsurgery is a general term for surgery requiring an operating microscope. The most obvious developments have been procedures developed to allow anastomosis of successively smaller blood vessels and nerves (typically 1 mm in diameter) whi ...

, as in 1886 he introduced the practice of using a compound

binocular vision Binocular vision is seeing with two eyes. The Field_of_view, field of view that can be surveyed with two eyes is greater than with one eye. To the extent that the visual fields of the two eyes overlap, #Depth, binocular depth can be perceived. Th ...

instrument for ophthalmologic examination.
Neurosurgical Classics II - Google Books Result He was a founder and editor (1863-1899) of the ophthalmic journal ''Klinische Monatsblaetter fur Augenheilkunde'', and was instrumental in the creation of the ''Heidelberger Ophthalmologische Gesellschaft'', which was predecessor to the ''Deutsche Ophthalmologische Gesellschaft''.

References

NCBI
Biography of Carl Zehender 1819 births 1916 deaths Physicians from Bremen (city) German ophthalmologists Academic staff of the University of Rostock Academic staff of the University of Bern {{Germany-med-bio-stub