Richard von Volkmann

Richard Volkmann was born in Leipzig, the son of Alfred Wilhelm Volkmann (1800-1877), the great physiologist, who at that time was Privatdozent. Richard studied in Halle and Giessen and graduated from the University of Berlin with a doctoral degree in 1854. He was assistant in Ernst Blasius's (1802-1875) surgical clinic and in 1857 was habilitated as a Privatdozent in surgery at Halle, then severed his connections to the clinic, becoming a much sought practitioner. In 1863 he resumed his academic career, becoming professor extraordinary of surgery at Halle, and in 1867 was appointed full professor of surgery as well as director of the Halle university surgical clinic. He remained in Halle until his retirement.

He was active as a surgeon during Seven Weeks' War with Austria in 1866 and the Franco-Prussian war 1870/1871, in the latter as consulting Generalarzt with the 4th army corps, later with the Maas-army and eventually with the southern army.

Richard Volkmann was one of the most brilliant of German surgeons in the latter half of the nineteenth century. He distinguished himself in advancing the introduction of antiseptic wound treatment in Germany. During the Franco-Prussian war a simplified form of the techniques recommended by Joseph Lister (1827-1912) was used in treating battle wounds, but the results were disappointing. However, Volkmann became a doughty devotee after 1872, when his hospital at Halle, overcrowded with wounded soldiers and so dreadfully infected that its closure was imminent, obtained astonishing benefits from Listerian techniques. He first utilized Listerian antisepsis on December 1, 1872, some five years after the technique had first been used successfully in Germany by Karl Thiersch (1822-1995) of Leipzig.

Shortly after the war, in 1872, Volkmann, Gustav Simon (1824-1876), and Bernhard von Langenbeck (1810-1887) formed the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chirurgie (German Surgical Society). Over the years, Volkmann's international reputation continued to grow and his advice was sought by surgeons in Europe, England, and the United States. In 1879, he established a new clinic in Halle which became a centre of surgical instruction in Europe.

Volkmann became a Geheimer Medizinalrath – Privy Medical Counsellor – in 1877 and was knighted by the German Emperor William I (Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig, of Hohenzollern, 1797-1888) in 1885, becoming Richard von Volkmann. He died of paralysis due to a chronic spinal disease, following a prolonged illness, in the Binswanger institution in Jena (named for Otto Ludwig Binswanger, 1852-1929) in 1889.

Volkmann was particularly interested in the surgery of joints and extremities, and of cancer surgery. He performed the first excision of carcinoma of the rectum in 1878. He tried to treat tuberculosis in bones and joints by iodine, cod liver oil and diet which heralded attempts at preventive surgery.

Richard von Volkmann was described as a doctor who would go anywhere and do anything to save a patient,

Volkmann possessed a literary great ability and under the pen name Richard Leander wrote poetry and a book entitled "Dreams by French Firesides" which has a permanent place in German literature. Some of his stories were written when he was a war surgeon.

From 1870 Volkmann published the Sammlung klinischer Vorträge (Leipzig) in which contributing physicians and professors addressed many of the controversial medical topics of the time, including Joseph Lister's theory on antiseptic wound treatment.

• Krankheiten der Bewegungsorgane.
  Pitha-Billroth’s Handbuch der allgemeinen und speciellen Chirurgie, volume II, part 2; Erlangen, 1869.
• Die ischämischen Muskellähmungen und Kontracturen.
  Centralblatt für Chirurgie, Leipzig, 1881, 8: 801-803.
  English translation in Bick Classics of orthopaedics.
• Die Resectionen der Gelenke. Sammlung klinischer Vorträge, Leipzig, 51.
• Ueber den antiseptischen Occlusivverband und seinen Einfluss auf den Heilungsprocess der Wunden. Sammlung klinischer Vorträge, Leipzig, 96.
• Die Behandlung der complicirten Fracturen.
  Sammlung klinischer Vorträge, Leipzig, 117 and 118.
• Beiträge zur Chirurgie, anschliessend an einen Bericht über die Thätigkeit der chirurgischen Universitäts-Klinik zu Halle im Jahre 1873.
  Leipzig, Breitkops & Härtel, 1875. Contains (pp. 370-381) first description of industrial tar and paraffin cancer.
• Ueber den Mastdarmkrebs oder die Exstirpatio recti. 1878. Sammlung klinischer Vorträge, 131 (Chir. No. 42): 113-1128.
  First excision of the rectum for cancer. Offered in 1999 for $400.
• Ueber den Charakter und die Bedeutung der fungösen Gelenkentzündungen.
  Sammlung klinischer Vorträge, Leipzig, 168, 169.
• Behandlung des Erysipelas, des Lupus, der Synovitis.
• Studien über Knochenwachstum und Knochenverbiegung.
• Ueber Krebsbildung bei Paraffinarbeitern. Under the pseudonym of Richard Leander Volkmann published some non-medical literary works. Among them:
• Träumereien an französischen Kaminen, Märchen.
  Leipzig, 1871. 7th edition, 1876; 40th edition, 1910. Contains:
  
• Die drei Schwestern mit den gläsernen Herzen
  
• Der alte Koffer
  
• Die Alte-Weiber-Mühle
  
• Von der Königin, die keine Pfeffernüsse backen, und dem König, der nicht das Brummeisen spielen konnte
  
• Wie sich der Christoph und das Bärbel immer aneinander vorbeigewünscht haben
  
• Goldtöchterchen
  
• Heino im Sumpf
  
• Von Himmel und Hölle
  
• Die himmlische Musik
  
• Eine Kindergeschichte
  
• Das Klapperstorch-Märchen
  
• Der kleine Mohr und die Goldprinzessin
  
• Die künstliche Orgel
  
• Pechvogel und Glückskind
  
• Der verrostete Ritter
  
• Sepp auf der Freite
  
• Die Traumbuche
  
• Vom unsichtbaren Königreiche
  
• Wie der Teufel ins Weihwasser fiel
  
• Der Wunschring
• Aus der Burschenzeit. Halle, 1876.
• Gedichte. Halle, 1877.
• R. Leander’s sämtliche Werke. Leipzig, 1899.
• Fedor Krause (1857-1937):
  Zur Erinnerung an Richard von Volkmann (Richard Leander). Berlin, 1900.
  Berliner klinische Wochenschrift, 1889; 26: 1089. With complete bibliography.
  Verhandlungen der deutschen Gesellschaft für Chirurgie, Berlin. 19. Kongress 1890; 1 page 3 (F. Krause).
  Chirurg, 1929; 1: 625-631.
• H. Krukenberg:
  Richard von Volkmann und die orthopädische Chirurgie.
  Archiv für klinische Chirurgie, Berlin, 1930, 159: 257-266.
• Willy (Alfred Wilhelm) Anschütz (1870-1954):
  Zum Gedenken an Richard von Volkmann.
  Münchener medizinische Wochenschrift, 1930, 77: 1413-1416.
• Deutsche medizinische Wochenschrift, Berlin, 1900, 26: 310 (F. Oppenheimer).
• Richard Volkmann und sein Werk.
  Wiener medizinische Wochenschrift, 1939, 80: 1327 (K. F. Hoffmann).
• Deutsche Zeitschrift für Chirurgie, Leipzig, 1930, 226: I-VI (Johannes Volkmann, born 1889).