[August Hoffmann--a pioneer in heart diagnosis].

August Hoffmann was born in Münster on 2 June 1862. In 1891 he set up his medical practice in Düsseldorf as specialist for internal medicine and neurology. There in 1907 he became first professor in ordinary for internal medicine when the Academy for Practical Medicine was founded. Up to 1927 he was head of the medical clinic. On 17 February 1929 he died in Düsseldorf. At first Hoffmann used the X-rays which were discovered in 1895 for the heart diagnostics, above all for the determination of the size of the heart. A general notoriety he obtained by publication of the monography about the paroxysmal tachycardia (type Bouveret-Hoffmann) in 1900. After the preliminary works of Einthoven he belonged to the first German clinicians who dealt with electrocardiography (above all problems of arrhythmia). In 1914 he published the second ECG-book in German language. Hoffmann founded the Düsseldorf cardiologic tradition.