Gustav Killian

Gustav Killian (2 June 1860 – 24 February 1921)[1] was a German laryngologist and founder of the bronchoscopy.

His father Johann Baptist Caesar Killian (1820–1889),[2][3] the son of a städtischen Wegeaufsehers an urban way overseer,[4] was a doctor of philosophiae and high school teacher born in Mainz and later living in Bensheim.

The sudden death of Wilhelm Hack (1851–1887) led to his succession by Killian, although he was not made professor at the time.

His revolutionary activity on bronchoscopy gained him an appointment as professor of laryngology in the University of Berlin at the Charité; this was the first professorship of such scope in Germany.

His book, Die Schwebelaryngoscopic, appeared in 1920; and in collaboration with Voss was written a volume on military experience, Gehörorgan, Obere Luft und Speisengänge (1921).