Julius Wolff (surgeon)

Julius Wolff (21 March 1836 – 18 February 1902) was a German surgeon.

Biography
Julius Wolf was born on 21 March 1836 in Märkisch Friedland, and received his doctorate in 1861 in the field of surgery under Bernhard von Langenbeck (1810–1887) at Friedrich-Wilhelms University in Berlin. In 1861 he settled down after the state examination as a general practitioner in Berlin. He participated as a surgeon in three military campaigns (1864, 1866, 1870/71).

Based on observations in his long career as a surgeon, he postulated Wolff's law (original title 1892: The law of transformation of the bone), which describes the relationship between bone geometry and mechanical influences on bone. For this he was with leading scientists of his time in active contact. Karl Culmann (1821–1881), Wilhelm Roux (1850–1924), Christian Otto Mohr (1835–1918) and Albert Hoffa (1859–1907) gave him support for the interpretation and evaluation of its research. His work established the mechanism and thus physical factors in evolutionary biology. He saw his work as an extension of the theory of evolution by Charles Darwin (1809–1882). His work was one of the mile stones for orthopedics as a distinct discipline in medicine. Julius Wolff was the first professor of orthopedics at the Charité and the founder and director of the first Department of Orthopaedic Surgery in Berlin. His scientific work has to this day a significant impact on orthopedic surgery. His findings that adapted bone altered mechanical conditions found today in application of musculoskeletal research, orthopedics, trauma surgery, rehabilitation, mechano-and cell biology and tissue engineering.

He died on 18 February 1902 of a stroke.

Timeline
21 March 1836 Born in Märkisch-Friedland in West Prussia

from 1849    Grammar school „Zum Grauen Kloster“ in Berlin

1855- 1860   Medical Study at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-University Berlin

1860         Thesis by Bernhard Langenbeck - Title: „De Artificiali Ossium Productione in Animalibus“

1861         Establishment of a general practitioner in Berlin medical officer at the „Lebens Versicherungs Gesellschaft Germania“

1868         Professorship and appointment as private instructors with course work at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Berlin

1869         Wedding with Anna Weigert

1870         Publication „About the inner architecture of bone and its relevance to the issue of bone growth" (Über die innere Architektur der Knochen und ihre Bedeutung für die Frage des Knochenwachstums)

1882         Establishing the „Private hospital for surgical diseases“

1884         Appointment as associate professor of Faculty of Medicine at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-University to Berlin

from 1886    Board Member of the Free Association of Surgeons of Berlin

1890         Establishment a part of the private hospital as a "Provisional Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-University, (no financial support) and appointed as its director

1892         Publication of his magnum opus "The law of transformation of the bone"

1894         Transfer of the temporary clinic in 'Department of Orthopedic Surgery with University Budget

1899         Appointment as Privy Medical Officer (Geheimer Medizinalrat) of Health at the Medical Faculty of the Friedrich-Wilhelms-University

1901         Co-founder of the German Society for Orthopedic Surgery "

1901         Acquisition of the clinic in the Charité group as a "Royal University Polyclinic"

18 February 1902 Death from stroke