Review Review Urol Int Between Cardiology and Urology: Werner Forssmann’s Double Career Received: February 19, 2019 Accepted: February 19, 2019 Published online: March 27, 2019 Internationalis Urologia Lisa-Maria Packy Institute for History, Theory and Ethics in Medicine University Hospital, RWTH Aachen Wendlingweg 2, 52074 Aachen (Germany) E-Mail lisapacky @yahoo.de © 2019 S. Karger AG, Basel E-Mail karger@karger.com www.karger.com/uin DOI: 10.1159/000499093 Keywords History of medicine · Nobel prize · Self-experiment · History of urology Abstract Werner Forssmann (1904–1979) was awarded the Nobel Prize for his self-experiments in catheterization of the heart and thus entered the annals of medicine. But he had turned to urology long before he received the Nobel Prize. Who was this person associated with both cardiology and urol- ogy? It is precisely this question that the present article ex- plores with the help of both new and reevaluated primary sources. In 1999 Truss et al. already published an article in the World Journal of Urology about the many and varied facets of Forssmann’s life and work. Our article ties in with that of Truss et al. and expands the body of knowledge con- cerning Forssmann and his work. Werner Forssmann as one of the 2 urologists besides Charles B. Huggins who have ever won the Nobel Prize deserves a complete and compre- hensive analysis of his life and his life’s work. Within German Urology, the culture of remembrance on Werner Forss- mann is an important component and with every newly re- vealed and interpreted source we get to know better who this urologist was and what role he played in the scientific community. © 2019 S. Karger AG, Basel A Short Journey through Forssmann’s Life Forssmann was born in 1904 in Berlin, where he also studied medicine. After completing his studies in 1928, he practiced at the hospital Auguste-Victoria-Kranken- haus in Eberswalde. Here he performed his self-experi- ments. A documentation of his experimentation entitled “The Probing of the Right Heart” was published in 1929 in “Klinische Wochenzeitschrift” [1]. After his self-exper- iments, Forssmann worked for several months at the Charité in Berlin under the direction of Ferdinand Sauer- bruch (1875–1951) before he returned to Eberswalde. Another brief intermezzo at the Charité followed before he completed his training as an assistant surgeon in Mainz in 1933. After some negative experiences, Forssmann ended his surgical career and changed to urology. He worked in this field under Karl Heusch (1894–1986) at Lisa-Maria Packy Dominik Gross Institute for History, Theory and Ethics in Medicine, University Hospital, Aachen, Germany