Ludwig Aschoff

Karl Albert Ludwig Aschoff (January 10 in Berlin, Germany, 1866 – June 24, 1942 in Freiburg, Germany) was a German physician and pathologist. He is considered to be one of the most influential pathologists of the early 20th century and is regarded as the most important German pathologist after Rudolf Virchow.

Aschoff studied medicine at the University of Bonn, University of Strasbourg, and the University of Würzburg. After his habilitation 1894, Ludwig Aschoff was appointed professor for pathology at the Georg-August University of Göttingen in 1901. Aschoff transferred to the Philipps University of Marburg in 1903 to head the department for pathological anatomy. In 1906, he accepted a position as ordinarius at the Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg.

Ludwig Aschoff was especially interested in the pathology and pathophysiology of the heart. He discovered nodules in the myocardium present during rheumatic fever, the so-called Aschoff bodies. Aschoff's reputation attracted students from all over the world, among them Sunao Tawara. Together they discovered and described the atrioventricular node (AV node, Aschoff-Tawara node). Numerous travels abroad, to England, Canada, Japan, and the US led to many research connections, where as the trips to Japan proved to be especially productive. In the early 20th century, 23 of 26 Japanese pathological insitutes were headed by students of Aschoff.