Karl Theodor Fahr


Karl Theodor Fahr was a German pathologist born in Pirmasens of the Rhineland-Palatinate.
In 1903 he earned his medical doctorate from the University of Giessen, afterwards continuing his studies with Eugen Bostroem in Giessen, under Morris Simmonds in Hamburg and with Ilya Ilyich Metchnikoff in Paris. In 1924, he became director of the pathological institute at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf.
Fahr is remembered for his work in nephrology and research of kidney disorders. With internist Franz Volhard he published a comprehensive monograph on Bright's disease titled Die Brightsche Nierenkrankheit. In 1923, he provided an early correlation between lung cancer and tobacco smoking. Today his name is associated with Fahr's disease, which is a degenerative neurological disorder characterized by calcifications and cell loss within the basal ganglia.
In 1933 Fahr signed the Vow of allegiance of the Professors of the German Universities and High-Schools to Adolf Hitler and the National Socialistic State.

Selected writings