Pioneering embryological research at the Old Anatomical Theatre of the University of Tartu

Abstract

The reopening of the University of Tartu (1802) fell into the period when the society’s needs for science and educated people were increasing rapidly. Universities became the most important research institutions, and their lecturers were not merely teachers but professional scientists. German higher education fostered ties with the most significant research centres of that time’s world. The current article views the pioneering embryological research done at the Old Anatomical Theatre, which has made the names of these scientists known in the whole world and brought honour and fame to the University of Tartu. The article describes the embryological studies by Karl Friedrich Burdach, Martin Heinrich Rathke, Carl Bogislaus Reichert, Ernst Reissner, Emil Woldermar Rosenberg, Carl Wilhelm von Kupffer, Arthur Boettcher (Böttcher), Karl Dietrich Barfurth, Maximilian Gustav Christian Carl Braun, August Antonius Rauber and Nikolai Czermak.