GRÄFE, ALBRECHT VON (1828-1870), German oculist, son of Karl Ferdinand von Gräfe, was born at Berlin on the 22nd of May 1828. At an early age he manifested a preference for the study of mathematics, but this was gradually superseded by an interest in natural science, which led him ultimately to the study of medicine. After prosecuting his studies at Berlin, Vienna, Prague, Paris, London, Dublin and Edinburgh, and devoting special attention to ophthalmology he, in 1850, began practice as an oculist in Berlin, where he founded a private institution for the treatment of the eyes, which became the model of many similar ones in Germany and Switzerland. In 1853 he was appointed teacher of ophthalmology in Berlin university; in 1858 he became extraordinary professor, and in 1866 ordinary professor. Gräfe contributed largely to the progress of the science of ophthalmology, especially by the establishment in 1855 of his Archiv für Ophthalmologie, in which he had Ferdinand Arlt (1812-1887) and F. C. Donders (1818-1889) as collaborators. Perhaps his two most important discoveries were his method of treating glaucoma and his new operation for cataract. He was also regarded as an authority in diseases of the nerves and brain. He died at Berlin on the 20th of July 1870.
See Ein Wort der Erinnerung an Albrecht von Gräfe (Halle, 1870) by his cousin, Alfred Gräfe (1830-1899), also a distinguished ophthalmologist, and the author of Das Sehen der Schielenden (Wiesbaden, 1897); and E. Michaelis, Albrecht von Gräfe. Sein Leben und Wirken (Berlin, 1877).
GRAFE, HEINRICH (1802-1868), German educationist, was born at Buttstädt in Saxe-Weimar on the 3rd of May 1802. He studied mathematics and theology at Jena, and in 1823 obtained a curacy in the town church of Weimar. He was transferred to Jena as rector of the town school in 1825; in 1840 he was also appointed extraordinary professor of the science of education (Pädagogik) in that university; and in 1842 he became head of the Bürgerschule (middle class school) in Cassel. After reorganizing the schools of the town, he became director of the new Realschule in 1843; and, devoting himself to the interests of educational reform in electoral Hesse, he became in 1849 a member of the school commission, and also entered the house of representatives, where he made himself somewhat formidable as an agitator. In 1852 for having been implicated in the September riots and in the movement against the unpopular minister Hassenpflug, who had dissolved the school commission, he was condemned to three years’ imprisonment, a sentence afterwards reduced to one of twelve months. On his release he withdrew to Geneva, where he engaged in educational work till 1855, when he was appointed director of the school of industry at Bremen. He died in that city on the 21st of July 1868.
Besides being the author of many text-books and occasional papers on educational subjects, he wrote Das Rechisverhältnis der Volksschule von innen und aussen (1829); Die Schulreform (1834); Schule und Unterricht (1839); Allgemeine Pädagogik (1845); Die deutsche Volksschule (1847). Together with Naumann, he also edited the Archiv für das praktische Volksschulwesen (1828-1835).
GRÄFE, KARL FERDINAND VON (1787-1840), German surgeon, was born at Warsaw on the 8th of March 1787. He studied medicine at Halle and Leipzig, and after obtaining licence from the Leipzig university, he was in 1807 appointed private physician to Duke Alexius of Anhalt-Bernburg. In 1811 he became professor of surgery and director of the surgical clinic at Berlin, and during the war with Napoleon he was superintendent of the military hospitals. When peace was concluded in 1815, he resumed his professorial duties. He was also appointed physician to the general staff of the army, and he became a director of the Friedrich Wilhelm Institute and of the Medico-Chirurgical Academy. He died suddenly on the 4th of July 1840 at Hanover, whither he had been called to operate on the eyes of the crown prince. Gräfe did much to advance the practice of surgery in Germany, especially in the treatment of wounds. He improved the rhinoplastic process, and its revival was chiefly due to him. His lectures at the university of Berlin attracted students from all parts of Europe.
The following are his principal works: Normen für die Ablösung grosser Gliedmassen (Berlin, 1812); Rhinoplastik (1818); Neue Beiträge zur Kunst Theile des Angesichts organisch zu ersetzen (1821); Die epidemisch-kontagiöse Augenblennorrhoë Ägyptens in den europäischen Befreiungsheeren (1824); and Jahresberichte über das klinisch-chirurgisch-augenärztliche Institut der Universität zu Berlin (1817-1834). He also edited, with Ph. von Walther, the Journal für Chirurgie und Augenheilkunde. See E. Michaelis, Karl Ferdinand von Gräfe in seiner 30 jährigen Wirken für Staat und Wissenschaft (Berlin, 1840).