page_title: List of German inventions and discoveries
section_title: Medicine and drugs
hierarchical_section_title: List of German inventions and discoveries / Medicine and drugs
caption_attribution_description: English: Lithography of the German pharmacist Friedrich Wilhelm Adam Sertürner. He discovered morphine in 1804. Deutsch: Lithografie des deutschen Apothekers Friedrich Wilhelm Adam Sertürner. Er war der Entdecker des Morphiums im Jahr 1804.
context_page_description: German inventions and discoveries are ideas, objects, processes or techniques invented, innovated or discovered, partially or entirely, in Germany or abroad by a person from Germany. Often, things discovered for the first time are also called inventions and in many cases, there is no clear line between the two.
  Germany has been the home of many famous inventors, discoverers and engineers, including Carl von Linde, who developed the modern refrigerator; Paul Nipkow, who laid the foundation of the television with his Nipkow disk; Hans Geiger, the creator of the Geiger counter; and Konrad Zuse, who built the first fully automatic digital computer and the first commercial digital computer. Such German inventors, engineers and industrialists as Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, Otto Lilienthal, Gottlieb Daimler, Rudolf Diesel, Hugo Junkers and Karl Benz helped shape modern automotive and air transportation technology. Aerospace engineer Wernher von Braun developed the first space rocket at Peenemünde and later on was a prominent member of NASA and developed the Saturn V Moon rocket.
context_section_description: 1796: Homeopathy by Samuel Hahnemann
  1803–1827: First isolation of morphine by Friedrich Sertürner in Paderborn; first marketed to the general public by Sertürner and Company in 1817 as a pain medication; and the first commercial production began in 1827 in Darmstadt by Merck.
  1832: First synthesis of chloral hydrate, the first hypnotic drug, by Justus von Liebig at the University of Giessen; Oscar Liebreich introduced the drug into medicine in 1869 and discovered its hypnotic and sedative qualities.
  1840: Discovery and description of Graves-Basedow disease by Karl Adolph von Basedow
  1847: Kymograph by Carl Ludwig
  1850s: Microscopic pathology by Rudolf Virchow
  1850–51: Ophthalmoscope by Hermann von Helmholtz
  1852: First complete blood count by Karl von Vierordt
  1854: Sphygmograph by Karl von Vierordt
  1855: First synthesis of the cocaine alkaloid by Friedrich Gaedcke; development of an improved purification process by Albert Niemann in 1859–1860, who also coined the name "cocaine". First commercial production of cocaine began in 1862 in Darmstadt by Merck.
  1882: Adhesive bandage (Guttaperchapflastermulle) by Paul Carl Beiersdorf
  1882: Discovery of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) bacteria which causes tuberculosis, by Robert Koch
  1884: Discovery of the pathogenic bacterium Corynebacterium diphtheriae which causes diphtheria, by Edwin Klebs and Friedrich Löffler
  1884: Koch's postulates by Robert Koch and Friedrich Loeffler, based on earlier concepts described by Jakob Henle
  1884: Discovery of the vibrio cholerae bacteria which causes cholera, by Robert Koch
  1887: Amphetamine by Romanian-born Lazăr Edeleanu in Berlin
  1887: Löffler's medium by Friedrich Loeffler
  1888: First successful afocal scleral glass contact lenses by Adolf Gaston Eugen Fick
  1890: Diphtheria antitoxin by Emil von Behring
  1897–1899: Aspirin by Felix Hoffmann or Arthur Eichengrün at Bayer in Elberfeld
  1897: Heroin by Felix Hoffmann at Bayer in Elberfeld
  1897: Protargol by Arthur Eichengrün.
  1897: Discovery of the cause of foot-and-mouth disease (Aphthovirus) by Friedrich Loeffler
  1907–1910: First synthesis of arsphenamine, the first antibiotic, by Paul Ehrlich and Alfred Bertheim. In 1910 marketed by Hoechst under the name Salvarsan.
  1908–1911: Creation of dihydrocodeine
  1909, 1929: First intrauterine device (IUD) by Richard Richter (of Waldenburg, then part of Germany; in 1909), and the first ring (Gräfenberg's ring, 1929) used by a significant number of women by Ernst Gräfenberg.
  1909: Labello by Dr. Oscar Troplowitz
  1912–1916: Modern condom by Julius Fromm in Berlin
  1912: MDMA by Merck chemist Anton Köllisch
  1914: Development and creation of oxymorphone
  1916: Creation of oxycodone by Martin Freund and Edmund Speyer at the University of Frankfurt
  1920–1924: First synthesis of hydrocodone by Carl Mannich and Helene Löwenheim in 1920, first marketed by former German drug development company Knoll as Dicodid in 1924.
  1922: Discovery and creation of desomorphine by Knoll
  1923: Creation of hydromorphone (Dilaudid) by Knoll
  1924: First human Electroencephalography (EEG) recording by Hans Berger. Berger also discovered alpha waves
  1929: Cardiac catheterization by Werner Forssmann
  1932: Prontosil by Josef Klarer and Fritz Mietzsch at Bayer
  1937–1939: Creation of methadone by Max Bockmühl and Gustav Ehrhart of IG Farben
  1939: Intramedullary rod by Gerhard Küntscher
  1943: Luria–Delbrück experiment by Max Delbrück
  1953: Echocardiography by Carl Hellmuth Hertz (with Swedish physician Inge Edler)
  1961: Combined oral contraceptive pill by Schering AG
  1997: C-Leg by Ottobock
  2007: Small incision lenticule extraction (SMILE) by Walter Sekundo and Marcus Blum
caption: Friedrich Sertürner was the first to isolate morphine
exif: {}