Koch's Early Years: Fid-Bau Portal

Koch's Early Years

Brock, Thomas D.

Robert Koch was born on December 11, 1843 in Clausthal, a small mining city in the Harz Mountains of Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen). Although he was much closer to his mother than to his father, of greater influence than his mother was probably his uncle, Eduard Biewend, Koch's mother's brother. Koch desired a university education and his school principal recommended that Robert study for a career in medicine or natural science, or perhaps for a career as a Gymnasium teacher. His principal apparently had some doubt about Robert's ability to apply himself, however, as he emphasized that Koch's success would depend upon his ability to concentrate his energies on a chosen field of study. Vacillating from one possibility to another, Robert strongly favored a career in natural science, since this would have permitted him to partake of research expeditions to foreign lands. Koch's main accomplishment at Gottingen was the winning of a prize of 30 ducats for carrying out a difficult anatomical study of the disposition of the nerves in the ganglia of the uterus. At the completion of this study, Koch presented his work, well illustrated with original drawings, under the title: “On the Presence of Ganglion Cells on the Nerves of the Uterus”. These youthful studies, so remote from his main opus of later years, already reveal the energy, industry, and scientific acumen with which Koch worked. In addition, he served the various clinical services in the hospital, including surgery, obstetrics, psychiatry, and pathology.