Anton Theden (born 13 September 1714 in Steinbeck, Mecklenburg; died 21 October 1797 in Berlin), was Surgeon-General of the Prussian Army and personal doctor to Frederick the Great, a medical researcher, alchemist, and a leading freemason and rosicrucian.
One of his teachers was the city doctor (Stadtphysikus) Johann Siegmund Hahn [de] (1696–1773) of Schweidnitz, who co-founded hydrotherapy in Germany, which is why Theden also became a practitioner.
After this they are apprenticed having learned nothing more than how to wash a beard and put on plaster and poultices... many can barely read and, even if they can, they learn no more than their teachers before them" (Source: Unterricht für die Unterwundärzte bey Armeen - Report on the army medical service) After the Seven Years' War (1756–1763) Theden was appointed Third Surgeon-General of the Prussian Army and after the death of Johann Leberecht Schmucker [de] (1712–1786) he became First Surgeon-General at the Charité in Berlin (until his death in 1797).
He designed the elastic catheter, a new method for stemming blood flow (hemostasis), and the use of hollow splints used in treating bone fractures.
One of their daughters, Christiane Wilhemine (1753–1831) married Archdeacon Bolzius and, following his death, Major-General Gottfried Ludwig Matthias von Hartmann (1738–1807), commander of the Prussian Artillery Corps, who was decorated with the Pour le Mérite in 1775.