Bernhard Kayser

Bernhard Kayser was born in the Hanseatic town of Bremen. He studied in Tübingen and Berlin, receiving his doctorate at the latter University 1893, and was subsequently intern in Tübingen and assistant physician in Freiburg im Breisgau.

Kayser then joined the North German Lloyd Shipping Company as a ship’s physician and went to work in Brazil as a general practitioner for 2,5 years. He returned to work in general practice in Brandenburg and Bremen, when he became interested in ophthalmology. In 1903 he specialised in ophthalmology and moved to Stuttgart where he remained for the rest of his life.

Kayser was for many years the editor of the essay section of the Klinische Monatsblätter für Augenheilkunde and published some of his original work in that journal, including megalokornea. He was one of the pioneers in treatment of eye diseases in Stuttgart and although shy and a very reserved man, became the best known ophthalmologists in that part of Germany.