1914-1916 Ludwig Aschoff, Germany

IAMM President 1914-1916

Ludwig Aschoff was born in Berlin and studied at Bonn, Strassburg and Gottingen. He trained under Orth and

Recklinghausen, and was one of the most productive of the German pathologists who flourished during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He held various academic positions in Germany. As Professor at Freiburg from 1906-36, he established an Institute of Pathology, which attracted students from all over the world including

a number from Japan. The most famous Japanese student was Tawara from Fukuoka whose doctoral thesis on the anatomy of the conducting system of the heart with particular reference to the atrioventricular node remains the landmark in the field after a century. Aschoff worked tirelessly to bring order and system to the bewildering complex of pathology. In 1924 he recognized the phagocytic activity of certain cells found in diverse tissues and named them the reticuloendothelial system. The Aschoff body in acute rheumatic carditis and the Rokitansky-Aschoff sinuses in the gall bladder were named after him.