Robert Remak (26 July 1815 – 29 August 1865) was an embryologist, physiologist and neurologist, born in Posen, Prussia, who discovered that the origin of cells was by the division of pre-existing cells.

[2] Remak had concluded this after observing red blood cells from chicken embryos in various stages of division.

He then confirmed that the phenomenon existed in the cell of every frog's egg immediately after fertilization, proving that this was a universal phenomenon and finally explaining the reason for the results of tests by Louis Pasteur which had previously proved that there exists no spontaneous generation of life.

[4] He is best known for reducing Karl Ernst von Baer's four germ layers to three: the ectoderm, mesoderm, and endoderm.

Despite his accomplishments, because he was a Jew, he was repeatedly denied full professor status, and finally late in life was appointed assistant professor, being the first Jew to teach in that institute.