Richard Julius Ernst Frommel

Richard Julius Ernst Frommel studied medicine in Munich, Göttingen, Würzburg, and Vienna, graduating in Würzburg where he obtained his doctorate in 1877 and was approbated in 1878. From 1879 to 1882 he worked in Vienna, where he concentrated on gynaecological studies, and from there came to Berlin where he was Karl Ludwig Ernst Schröder’s (1838-1887) assistant.

Frommel spent some time in private practice, was habilitated as a Dozent in Munich in 1882 and accepted an invitation to Erlangen where he was ordinarius of obstetrics and gained a reputation as a teacher. He retired to private practice in Munich in 1901 and died of appendicitis in the Bavarian capital in 1912.

Frommel published extensively on the clinical aspects of his discipline as well as on investigations of the placenta in bats. A large part of his work concerns the physiology of uterus contractions, anatomy of the placenta, the treatment of puerperal sepsis and uterus carcinomas. In 1887 he founded the journal Jahresberichte für Geburtshilfe und Gynäkologie which annually described the latest innovations in gynaecology and obstetrics.