Jan Mikulicz-Radecki

Who was Jan Mikulicz-Radecki?

Jan Mikulicz-Radecki was a Polish-Austrian surgeon. He was born on 16 May 1850 in Czerniowce in the Austrian Empire and died on 4 June 1905 in Świebodzice, Poland. He was professor in Kraków, Wrocław, and Królewiec. Inventor of new operating techniques and tools, one of the pioneers of antiseptics and aseptic techniques. In Poland he is regarded as one of the founders of the Kraków school of surgery.

His parental ancestors of the Mikulicz family were of Polish szlachta origin and had been granted the Gozdawa coat of arms by King John III Sobieski after the 1683 Battle of Vienna. His mother Freiin von Damnitz was of Austrian descent. Mikulicz-Radecki spoke his native Polish, and also German, Russian and English fluently. When asked his nationality he used to answer "surgeon". After finishing studies at the University of Vienna under Theodor Billroth he was a director of surgery at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, the University of Königsberg and from 1890 at the University of Wrocław.

Mikulicz-Radecki's innovations in operative technique for a wide variety of diseases helped develop modern surgery.