Eugen Rosshirt

Johann Eugen Rosshirt (1795 to 1872) was a German obstetrician and gynecologist, a native of Oberscheinfeld, born on 11 November 1795 and dead on 13 July 1872. He studied medicine at the University of Würzburg, where he earned his doctorate in 1818, and afterwards was an instructor of midwifery and prosector-surgery at Bamberg. In 1833 he succeeded Michael Jäger as director of the obstetrics hospital at the University of Erlangen and stayed there until his retirement in 1868. He is remembered for his efforts to establish women's healthcare as a separate and specialized area of study at Erlangen. Under his direction a new building near the university hospital served as a women's clinic from 1854, and the growing number of births and students and the start of gynecological practice led in 1878, under Karl Schroeder, to the first modern gynecological hospital at Erlangen. His publications include a textbook of obstetrics in 1851 and works on obstetrical operations in 1835 and 1842.