Neurol. praxi. 2026;27(1):64-69

The Great Moravian Franz Gerstenbrand (1924-2017)

prof. MUDr. Petr Kaňovský, CSc., FEAN

Neurologická klinika a Centrum klinických neurověd Lékařské fakulty Univerzity Palackého a Fakultní nemocnice Olomouc

Franz Gerstenbrand (1924-2017) was born in Hof in Mähren to parents who were native South Moravians from the Znaim region; his father worked as a family doctor in Hof. Shortly after little Franz was born, the family returned to South Moravia because doctor Gerstenbrand found a job as a family doctor in Unter Tannowitz. This is where Franz Gerstenbrand spent the days of his childhood and youth, graduating from a grammar school in Nikolsburg. Immediately after graduation, he had to enlist in the army, was assigned to the air force, and spent the rest of the war as an operational fighter pilot. After the war ended, he was captured by the Western Allies and, after being released from captivity in 1946, he returned to South Moravia where his family could no longer be found. Having searched for a longer period of time, he found his parents in Ebreichsdorf near Vienna where they later settled permanently. Gerstenbrand was accepted to the University of Vienna to study medicine and after graduation in 1950 he started working at the Department of Neurology and Psychiatry at AKH under the supervision of Professor Hoff. In 1967, he was habilitated on the basis of his thesis on apallic syndrome, in 1973 he was appointed as extraordinary professor, and in 1975 he became a full university professor. In 1975, he left the clinic in Vienna to become head of the neurology department at the Rosenhügel Municipal Hospital in Vienna. In 1976, he was invited to take over the university clinic in Innsbruck, which he accepted. Within a few years, he built a modern neurology centre on the foundations of a small provincial institute that soon became a benchmark for new European neurology. He had been head of the clinic in Innsbruck until 1995, when he retired. He returned to Vienna where he worked again at the Rosenhügel Hospital as consultant, and at the Karl Landsteiner Institute he pursued his late-career research topic, cosmic neurology. However, his main interest during these years was the leadership of the European Federation of Neurological Societies, of which he was president for six years and a member of the executive committee for another twelve years. He died in Vienna on 30 June 2017 at the venerable age of 93.

Keywords: Franz Gerstenbrand, South Moravia, Innsbruck, apalic syndrome.

Published: March 11, 2026  Show citation