Karl Posner

POSNER, Karl (1854–1928). Upon graduating from the medical faculty in Giessen in 1880, Posner worked for several years as an assistant in the pathological institute under Seitz, and then moved to Berlin, where he specialized in urology. Despite the fact that he was not in charge of any inpatient hospital department, Posner was a major figure not only in Berlin, but throughout Europe. Wide renown was brought to Posner by his works on the microscopy of urogenital secretions. Posner was chairman of the Berlin Urological Society, chairman of German congresses, and vice-chairman of the International Association of Urologists. Posner served for a long time as editorial secretary of the Berliner klinische Wochenschrift, edited Virchows Jahresberichte together with Waldeyer, and was a member of the editorial board of the Zeitschrift für Urologie from its very inception. The bulk of Posner's works, scattered across a number of periodicals, concerns the microscopy of urine, the secretions of the sex glands, and the morphology of semen and prostatic fluid. Two monographs by Posner, which went through several editions in Germany, were translated into Russian (Diagnostics of Genitourinary Diseases, Moscow, 1895; Diagnostic and Prognostic Significance of Urinary Sediments, Moscow, 1928).