Fritz Brenner

Fritz Brenner was born in Osthofen in Rheinland-Pfalz. After receiving his medical degree from the University of Heidelberg in 1904, he began working under Eugen Albrecht (1872-1908). It was in 1907, when he was still only thirty years of age, that his report of 'oophoroma folliculare was published as a thesis and as a published article the same year in the German literature.

In 1910 he migrated to Deutsch Südwestafrika – German South West Africa – where he worked in the sea port Swakopmund. Germany lost all its colonies after World War I and the area was administered by South Africa. However, Brenner remained in Africa and in 1922 he moved to Windhoek, the capital. The former German South West Africa is now Namibia.

In 1935 Brenner migrated to South Africa where he went into general practice in Johannesburg. It was whilst he was in Johannesburg that he was surprised to learn that his name was eponymously attached to the tumour.

• Leitfaden für den gynäkologischen Operationskurs.
  Leipzig, 1899; 2nd edition, 1905; translated into Russian.
• Vademecum für histopathologische Untersuchungen in der Gynäkologie.
  Berlin, 1901; translated into English. Biographical etc:
• Harold Speert:
  Obstetrical-gynecological eponyms: Fritz Brenner and Brenner tumors of the ovary.
  Cancer, 1956, 9 (2): 217-221.
• W. B. Ober:
  History of the Brenner tumor of the ovary.
  Pathology Annual, 1979 14 (part 2): 107–124.
• Harold Speert:
  Obstetric and Gynecologic Milestones.
  New York : Parthenon Publishing Group, 1996.
• Barry G. Firkin and Judith A. Whitworth:
  Dictionary of Medical Eponyms.
  The Parthenon Publishing Group. 1989. New edition in 2002.
• J. L. Powell:
  Fritz Brenner, MD (1877-1969).
  Journal og Pelvic Medicine and Surgery, 2007 13 (1): 43-44.