Carl Spengler

Carl Spengler was a Swiss surgeon, pulmonologist and bacteriologist, born on 30 June 1860 and dead on 15 September 1937, who worked in Davos. His father Alexander Spengler had discovered the healing effects of the high-altitude climate of Davos. Carl presented his experience with thoracoplasty surgery on tuberculosis patients in a lecture in Davos in 1890 and was one of the first to use the method. He worked for a time as an immunology researcher with Robert Koch in Berlin and, back in Davos, published more than 70 scientific papers, many on the fight against tuberculosis, and was a tireless researcher of evidence-based medicine. He is also remembered as probably the first person to try skiing in the Alps, and in 1923 he founded the Spengler Cup, probably the oldest international ice hockey tournament, hoping to give the once hostile nations of Europe a peaceful way to measure their strength.