Ferdinand Sauerbruch

Ernst Ferdinand Sauerbruch (3rd July 1875– 2nd July 1951) was a German surgeon.

Sauerbruch was born in Barmen near Wuppertal, Germany. He studied medicine in Marburg, Greifswald, Jena, and Leipzig, from the last of which he graduated in 1902. He went to Breslau in 1903, where he developed and demonstrated the Sauerbruch chamber , a pressure chamber for operating on the open thorax, in 1904. As a battlefield surgeon during World War I, he developed several new types of limb prostheses, which enabled simple movements.

Sauerbruch worked at the University of Munich from 1918 to 1927 on operation techniques and diets for treating tuberculosis. From 1928 to 1949, he worked in Berlin, attaining international fame for his risky (but mostly successful) operations. Sauerbruch died in Berlin at the age of 75.

During the war, he was anti-Nazi. His influence on Fritz Kolbe caused the man to become a spy for the Allies. Kolbe was reputedly the most important spy of the war.