Hermann Hugo Rudolf Schwartze

Hermann Schwartze was the son of a landowner. He studied in Berlin and Würzburg, receiving his medical doctorate from the University of Berlin in 1859. He did military service as a physician and then became an assistant in the pathological-anatomical institute at the University of Würzburg under August Foerster (1822-1865). In 1863 he was habilitated as Privatdozent for diseases of the ear at the University of Halle, and that year established a policlinic for patients with diseases of the ear.

Schwartze established his own clinic and in 1869 was appointed professor extraordinary, the first professor of this discipline in Germany. In the Franco-Prussian war he served as a physician in a filed hospital of the IV Army and was awarded the Iron Cross, Second Class. In 1873 his extraordinary professorship became a paid position.

From its opening on April 1, 1884, Schwartze was director of the 25 bed Königliche Universitäts-Ohtrenklinik (the royal university ear clinic) at Halle an der Saale, and in 1887 he was made Geheimer Medicinal-Rath – privy medical counsellor. 1896 honorary ordinary professor, and in 1903 he was the first ear physician in Germany to be appointed ordinarius of his discipline.

A few years prior to his death, Schwartze fell ill with an incurable nervous disease that forced him to resign from teaching. He died in a sanatorium.

In 1864, with Anton Friedrich Baron von Tröltsch (1829-1890) and Adam Politzer (1835-1920), Schwartze was the founder of the journal Archiv für Ohrenheilkunde, of which he was the editor from 1873.

As a treating physician he served various princely houses, among them Mecklenburg, Schwarzburg, Anhalt, and Sachsen-Weimar).

He was a member of scientific societies at home and abroad and was an honorary member of the American Otological Society.

In 1907 colleagues and students honoured him with a Festschrift. Prussia awarded him the Roter Adler Orden 3. Klasse and the Kronen-Orden II. Klasse. The University of Halle established the Hermann-Schwartze Medal.

• Praktische Beiträge zur Ohrenheilkunde. Würzburg, 1864.
• Paracentese des Trommelfells. 1868; French translation, 1871.
• Pathologische Anatomie des Ohres.
  In: Theodor Albrecht Edwin Klebs 1834-1913): Handbuch der pathologischen Anatomie, 1877, Lieferung 6.
• Lehrbuch der chirurgischen Krankheiten des Ohres.
  Theodor Billroth and Georg Albert Lücke, publishers: Deutsche Chirurgie, Berlin. 1884, 1885, Lieferung 50: French translation, Paris, 1897.
• Handbuch der Ohrenheilkunde. 2 volumes; Leipzig, 1892 and 1893.
• Grundriss der Otologie. With Karl Grunert (1867-1905). Leipzig, 1905.
• F. Wustrow:
  [100 years of antrotomy. In memory of Hermann Schwartze] [Article in German].
  Zeitschrift für Laryngologie, Rhinologie, Otologie und ihre Grenzgebiete, September 1973, 52 (9): 687-691.
• M. Ohlroggen, L. Lustig:
  A translation of: The scientific progress of otology in the past decennium (until late 1862) by Hermann Schwartze: pathology and therapy of the external ear.
  Otology & Neurotology, Hagerstown, Md, November 2003, 24 (6): 952-957.
• D. G. Pappas:
  Hermann Hugo Rudolf Schwartze (1837-1910). Reintroduction of paracentesis and mastoid surgery.
  Ear, Nose, & Throat Journal, Cleveland, Ohio, November 1996, 75 (11): 708-709.