This article delves into the beginnings of the dissection course, ateaching practice which today is still in place in Vienna and continues to shape future medical practitioners. Based on acomparison of different historical sources the article shows that the Viennese tradition of adissection course dates back to the 1780s and the initiative of the anatomist Joseph Barth to build adissection institute and to implement adissection course, two endeavors that coincided with JosephII's reform ideas regarding apractically orientated medical and surgical education and aEurope-wide practice turn. Additionally, this paper shows the role of the Viennese dissection course as model for other Habsburg universities and, thus, explains the similarities of today's dissection courses in different former Habsburg universities.