The Berlin Ophthalmologist Bernhard Pollack

Based on original research this monograph is the first to portray the fascinating life of Bernhard Pollack (1865-1928) a pioneer neurohistologist ophthalmologist and world-class pianist. In doing so it revives important scientists and musicians of fin-du-siècle Berlin. Pollack wrote the first standard reference on the staining methods for the nervous system (1897). Born into a Prussian-Jewish family he received his piano education from Moritz Moszkowski and his pathology education from Carl Weigert. Pollack worked at the Institutes of W. Waldeyer (anatomy) E. Mendel (neuropsychiatry) Nobel laureate R. Koch (infectious diseases) and the Eye Clinic of P. Silex before becoming Professor of Ophthalmology at Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in 1919. English translations of two articles by Pollack on musical memory and on Moszkowski are included. The book also chronicles the founding by Pollack of the Berliner Ärzte-Orchester who in 2011 celebrate their centennial.