Dietrich Georg von Kieser

Who was Dietrich Georg von Kieser?

Dietrich Georg von Kieser was a German physician born in Harburg.

He studied medicine at the Universities of Würzburg and Göttingen, receiving his doctorate from the latter institution in 1804. For most of his career he was a professor at the University of Jena, where from 1824 to 1862 he served as a "full professor".

He was an advocate of balneology, and beginning in 1813 was a physician at the therapeutic spas at Heilbad Berka/Ilm. While working as a professor at the University of Jena, Kieser operated a private ophthalmology clinic from 1831 to 1847, and from 1847 until 1858 he was director of the Grand Ducal Mental Hospital.

With Adam von Eschenmayer, he published the 12-volume "Archiv für den thierischen Magnetismus". Kieser was politically active throughout his career; in October-1817 with historian Heinrich Luden and philosophers Lorenz Oken and Jakob Friedrich Fries, he partook in the historic Wartburg Festival. He died in Jena.

A magnesium sulfate mineral known as kieserite is named after him.