Rudolf Kaltenbach

Rudolf Kaltenbach (May 12, 1842 - November 21, 1893) was a German gynecologist who was a native of Freiburg im Breisgau. In 1865 he earned his medical doctorate from the University of Vienna, and afterwards trained under Johann von Dumreicher (1815-1880) at the surgical hospital in Vienna. From 1867 to 1873 he was an assistant to Alfred Hegar (1830-1914) in Freiburg, and later a professor of gynecology and obstetrics at the University of Giessen. In 1887 he became an OB/GYN professor at Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, where he succeeded Robert Michaelis von Olshausen (1835-1915). Kaltenbach served in the military during the Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian Wars.

Kaltenbach is largely remembered through his numerous medical publications, including an important book on general and operative gynecology that he co-authored with Alfred Hegar. He is credited with introducing the Kaltenbachschema (Kaltenbach chart}, which is a gynecological graphic aid concerning menstruation cycles.

Selected writings

 * Operative Gynäkologie (with Alfred Hegar); (Operative Gynecology). 1874.
 * Lehrbuch der Geburtshilfe. (Textbook of Obstetrics) Stuttgart 1893.