[Friedrich Trendelenburg 1844-1924: a tribute on his 150th birthday].

Life and scientific work of Friedrich Trendelenburg are gratefully appreciated on the occasion of his 150th birthday. The education by his parents, the great impressions gained during a visit in Scotland as a young man and the molding influence of his academic teacher v. Langenbeck are presented. There was only a short time when he was the head of the surgical department of the Friedrichhain Hospital in Berlin, because his real aim was an academic career. In the presented paper his famous merits in science and practical work as well as his enormous aura as the director of the surgical departments of the universities of Rostock, Bonn and Leipzig are described. Trendelenburg was an always strictly scientifically acting surgeon. His technical inventions and new operative procedures were of high value with a worldwide acknowledgement. Objectivity, modesty and human grandeur were the eminent characteristics of this hero of surgery who never looked for personal appreciation but always got it.