Maximilian Oberst

Maximilian Oberst was a German physician and surgeon, born in Regensburg in 1849 and died in 1925. He studied medicine at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich and from 1874 to 1877 was an assistant in the surgical department of a hospital in Augsburg. In 1877 he became an assistant to Richard von Volkmann at the University of Halle, gained his habilitation in 1881 and became an assistant professor there in 1884. From 1894 to 1920 he was director and chief physician at the Krankenhaus Bergmannstrost in Halle, and in 1919 he received the title of full professor. He is credited with introducing a method of block anesthesia for minor surgery of the finger, known as the Oberst block. In 1882 he published Die Amputationen unter dem Einflusse der antiseptischen Behandlung, a study of amputations under antiseptic treatment.