[Substance and intellectual roots of pathologic anatomy in Leipzig]

A survey is given on the development of pathologic anatomy in Leipzig since its establishment in the academic sense in 1869. Special interest was focussed on the scientific role of the directors of the institute and their influence on pathologic anatomy in Germany. It is obvious that research work was concentrated on problems of clinical pathology. But questions of experimental pathology as well as of etiology and pathogenesis of diseases were also of great interest. The principal cause for the high level of pathologic anatomy in Leipzig depends on the intellectual exchange with other schools of pathologic anatomy in Germany. 15 coworkers of the institute were called to a chair in other universities of Germany. Most directors came from other medical schools or worked several years out of Leipzig, resp. Personalities of special influence were Julius Cohnheim and Felix Marchand. Their scientific heritage is of great importance for the present time, too. In contrast to their scientific significance the important social changes of the last century found no reflection in the intellectual position of the leading exponents of academic pathology at Leipzig. In this sense a more conservative or reactionary position was characteristic.