Felix von Niemeyer

Who was Felix von Niemeyer?

Felix von Niemeyer was a German internist born in Magdeburg. He was the grandson of theologian August Hermann Niemeyer.

He studied medicine at the University of Halle and in 1844 started work as a physician in Magdeburg. Later, he was a professor of internal medicine at the University of Greifswald, and at the University of Tübingen. During the Franco-Prussian War, he served as a medical consultant.

Niemeyer is largely remembered for his written works, in particular the Lehrbuch der speziellen Pathologie, a textbook that was published in eleven editions by 1884 and was translated into seven languages. He is also known for espousing a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet that was in essence a modification of the popular "Banting diet", a regimen endorsed by William Banting, an English undertaker.

In 1848 he was co-founder of the Medizinische Gesellschaft zu Magdeburg. In 1865 he became a consulting physician to King Charles I of Württemberg, and in 1870, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.