Hans Paul Bernhard Gierke

Who was Hans Paul Bernhard Gierke?

Hans Paul Bernhard Gierke was a German anatomist who was a native of Stettin.

Gierke studied medicine in Berlin, Vienna, Leipzig, Würzburg, Breslau and Munich, graduating in Würzburg, where he obtained his doctorate in 1872. In 1874 he became prosector at Würzburg, where his teacher was Albert von Kölliker. In 1876 he was appointed professor of anatomy at the Imperial University of Tokyo. For health reasons he had to give up his academic career and return to Germany. In 1881 he became an assistant in the Physiological Institute in Breslau and in 1882 attained the title of professor extraordinarius. In 1883 he visited the Zoological Station in Naples. His health deteriorated rapidly. Soon, he died in the psychiatric hospital in Schöneberg near Berlin, at the age of 39.

He is best remembered for his research on staining methods in neurohistology and the localization of the respiratory center. The solitary tract in the brain stem is sometimes called the "Gierke respiratory bundle".