Baron Carl von Rokitansky (, ; 19 February 1804 – 23 July 1878) was a Bohemian physician, pathologist, humanist philosopher and liberal politician, founder of the Viennese School of Medicine of the 19th century. Founder of science-based diagnostics. Early life Carl Joseph Wenzel Prokop Rokitansky, usually known as Carl Rokitansky, was born in Hradec Králové (), Bohemia. His father Prokop Rokitansky (1871–1813) was a civil servant in Leitmeritz. His mother Theresia (1772–1827) was the daughter of Václav Lodgman Ritter von Auen, the first regional commissioner of Hradec Králové. Carl was the eldest of four children (Prokop, Marie, Theresie). Due to the early death of his father († 1812), Carl and his siblings grew up in straitened circumstances. Despite this, his mother made sure that he attended grammar school in Hradec Králové and made it possible for him to study at the Charles University in Prague. Rokitansky described his upbringing as very liberal. Rokitansky remembered his father, as having been very widely read and erudite. For this reason, Rokitansky originally intended to study classical philology at the University of Prague. University studies Rokitansky began university in 1818 with the obligatory philosophical propaedeutics. Some of his classes were taught by the philosopher Bernardo Bolzano (1771–1848), who was to have a lasting influence on his political and social ideas. However, in 1821 he decided to study medicine in Prague. In 1824 he moved to Vienna to live with his uncle Lodgman von Auen and to continue his medical studies at the University of Vienna. In 1827 he began his research at the Pathological-Anatomical Prosecture at the Vienna General Hospital. His first complete autopsy report is dated 23 October 1827. He obtained his doctorate in medicine from the University of Vienna on 6 March 1828. His doctoral thesis was entitled "De Varioloide Vaccinica", and was a study of the smallpox vaccination, as he had very early on developed an interest in serology. Medical career From 3 January 1827 onwards Rokitansky began working at the Pathological-Anatomical Prosecture as an unpaid assistant, as can be seen from some of his early autopsy protocols. 1832 he was appointed interim director of the Pathological-Anatomical Prosecture and in 1834 became Extraordinary Professor for Pathological Anatomy at the University of Vienna and Curator of the Pathological-Anatomical Museum. First chair for pathological anatomy in the German-speaking world: In 1844 he was appointed to the first chair for pathological anatomy in the