page_title: List of German inventions and discoveries
section_title: Anatomy
hierarchical_section_title: List of German inventions and discoveries / Anatomy
caption_attribution_description: Pepsin in complex with pepstatin. From PDB file 1PSO. Created with PyMol.
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: 17th century: First description of duct of Wirsung by Johann Georg Wirsung
  1720: Discovery of the ampulla of Vater by Abraham Vater
  1745: First description of crypts of Lieberkühn by Johann Nathanael Lieberkühn
  19th century: First description of Auerbach's plexus by Leopold Auerbach
  19th century: First description of Meissner's plexus by Georg Meissner
  19th century: Discovery of Schwann cells in the peripheral nervous system by Theodor Schwann
  1836: Discovery and study of pepsin by Theodor Schwann
  1840: First medical report on poliomyelitis (Heine-Medin disease), and the first to recognize the illness as a clinical entity, by Jakob Heine
  1852: First description of tactile corpuscle by Georg Meissner and Rudolf Wagner
  1868: Discovery of Langerhans cell by Paul Langerhans
  1869: Discovery of islets of Langerhans by Paul Langerhans
  1875: First description of Merkel cell by Friedrich Sigmund Merkel
  1882: First successful cholecystectomy by Carl Langenbuch in Berlin
  1906: Discovery of the Alzheimer's disease by Alois Alzheimer
  1909: First description of Brodmann's areas by Korbinian Brodmann
  1977: Plastination by Gunther von Hagens
caption: Pepsin in complex with pepstatin
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