Bernhard Heine


Bernhard Heine – 31 July 1846, Glockenthal near Thun ) was a German physician, bone specialist and the inventor of the osteotome, a medical tool for cutting bones.

Apprenticeship in Würzburg

Bernhard Heine was born on 20 August 1800, the son of a tanner in Schramberg. At the age of ten years he was apprenticed to his uncle Johann Georg Heine in Würzburg as an orthopaedic mechanic. Without any enrolment he later attended lectures in medicine at the University of Würzburg.
After a number of journeys he took over his own department in his uncle's orthopaedic institute. When Johann Georg moved to the Netherlands in 1829, Bernhard - together with his cousin Joseph Heine - became the head of the Würzburg institution.
In 1837 Bernhard Heine married his cousin Anna Heine.

Inventing the osteotome

In 1830, after years of research and development, Heine presented a medical tool to his colleagues. It was a "bone saw", which he called the "osteotome", and which revolutionized surgical treatment. His invention was a great success among medical experts all over Europe. Heine travelled to other parts of Germany, and to France and Russia to present it to other surgeons. In 1836 a doctoral thesis on the "Osteotome and its application" was published in Munich.



left: the osteotomeright: its various parts and its usage

Heine declined an offer of the Russian Tsar Nicholas I to take over the position of an orthopaedic senior consultant at the imperial school in Kronstadt and returned to Würzburg. The University of Würzburg awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1836 and an honorary professorship in 1838, although he had never acquired any degree.

Research work on bone formation

Heine acquired valuable knowledge in the field of bone formation and bone regeneration, which is still valid today. He was able to prove that the periosteum, the tissue covering the bones, is decisive in bone regeneration and therefore has to be spared violation in the operating process. From 1844 he was an associate professor at the University of Würzburg, teaching experimental physiology.

Death and legacy

He fell ill with tuberculosis and died on 31 July 1846 while on holiday in Glockenthal near Thun in Switzerland. His early death did not allow him to publish his findings; it was not until 1926, eighty years after his death, that his research findings were published.