Carl (or Karl) Wernicke (; ; 15 May 1848 – 15 June 1905) was a German physician, anatomist, psychiatrist and neuropathologist. He is known for his influential research into the pathological effects of specific forms of encephalopathy and also the study of receptive aphasia, both of which are commonly associated with Wernicke's name and referred to as Wernicke encephalopathy and Wernicke's aphasia, respectively. His research, along with that of Paul Broca, led to groundbreaking realizations of the localization of brain function, specifically in speech. As such, Wernicke's area (a.k.a. Wernicke's Speech Area) has been named after the scientist. Biography Wernicke was born on May 15, 1848, in Tarnowitz, a small town in Upper Silesia, Prussia, now Tarnowskie Góry, Poland. He obtained his secondary education at the gymnasium in Oppeln, which is a school near the university of Breslau. Wernicke then studied medicine at the University of Breslau and did graduate work studying language and aphasia at Breslau, Berlin, and Vienna. After he earned his medical degree at the University of Breslau (1870), he worked in Breslau at Allerheiligen Hospital as an assistant to an ophthalmology professor Ostrid Foerster for six months. Unfortunately in 1870, the Franco-Prussian War broke out, where Wernicke served as an army surgeon. After serving in the war, he returned to the Allerheiligen Hospital and worked in the psychiatric department as an assistant under Professor Heinrich Neumann. Neumann sent him to Vienna for six months to study with neuropathologist Theodor Meynert, who would have a profound influence upon Wernicke's career. In 1875, Wernicke was appointed the first assistant in the Berlin Charite clinic under Karl Westphal, where he stayed until 1878 studying psychiatry and nervous diseases. In 1878 Wernicke founded a private neuropsychiatric practice in Berlin and published numerous articles until he left the practice in 1881. In 1885, he succeeded his mentor Professor Neumann and served as associate professor of neurology and psychiatry at Breslau, where he also attained a conference chair. By 1890 Wernicke became the director of the psychiatric wing at the Allerheiligen Hospital, and he also became head of the University Hospital's Department of Neurology and Psychiatry. In 1904, Wernicke worked at the University of Halle, heading its Psychiatry and Neurology Clinic. Wernicke died on June 15, 1905, due to injuries suffered from a bicycle accident in the Thuringian Forest. Studies in aphasia Wernicke was heavily inspired by the research on language and