Physician and pioneer in electrotherapy for the treatment of nervous diseases, born in Poznan, WC Poland (formerly Posen, Prussia). He studied at the University of Berlin, went into medical practice, and assisted at the university in an unpaid capacity because, as a Jew, he was not allowed to teach. He discovered the fibres of Remak (1838), and the nerve cells in the heart now called Remak's ganglia (1844). He finally became the first Jew to teach at the university (1847), but his promotion to assistant professor in 1859 did not reflect his eminence.
Robert Remak (July 26, 1815 - August 29, 1865) was a German embryologist, physiologist, and neurologist. He also discovered unmyelinated nerve fibres and the nerve cells in the heart sometimes called Remak's ganglia.
Despite his accomplishments, because of his Jewish faith he was repeatly denied full professor status until late in life, and even then was denied the usual benefits of the position.
His son Ernst Julius Remak was also a neurologist and his grandson was the mathematician Robert Remak who died in Auschwitz in 1942.
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