[Nicolai Guleke--the founder and pioneer of neurosurgery in Thuringia]

After the representation of the biographical data and stages of development in the life of Prof. Nikolai Guleke (25th April 1878 to 4th April 1958) it is shown on the basis of his services as a director of the Surgical University Clinic in Jena how he deserved particularly well of the development of neurosurgery. Besides his skills in the surgical-technical field his close co-operation with the then director of the Neurological Clinic of the Jena University, Hans Berger, is appreciated as well as his scientific work, summarised in Volume III/1 of the ten volumes comprising surgical teachings by Kirschner "Interventions in the Cranium, Brain, at the Vertebral Column, the Spinal cord and the Branches of the N. trigeminus". Nikolai Guleke is considered to be an outstanding personality in the history of surgery of our country.