[Lorenz Böhler, the father of trauma surgery. 15 January 1885-20 January 1973]

January 15th, 1985 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Lorenz Böhler, the 'father of traumatology'. Böhler, who mainly worked as an autodidact afterwards in his special field, had to overcome violent opposition before he succeeded in carrying out his idea of a specialised and centralised treatment for traumatological patients. He is considered to be the founder of hospitals of traumatology. For many decades after the First World War his clinic in Vienna was the 'Mecca' of traumatologists from all over the world. His book entitled "Die Technik der Knochenbruchbehandlung" gained worldwide recognition and was translated into all cultural languages from English to Chinese.