Wolfgang Rosenthal

Personal

Vocation

Notable

German oral surgeon who pursued a parallel career as a bass-baritone singer until the mid 1930s. Rosenthal's contribution to medicine was wide-ranging. One area in which he made a particular difference over many years was that of Cleft lip and palate treatment. Over the years he developed new operations and treatment methods to optimize through reconstruction both the functionality and the appearance of affected mouth parts. Methods he developed are identified by the name "Schönborn-Rosenthal". After the destructive bombing of the Johanniskirche in Leipzig it became necessary to identify the physical remains of Johann Sebastian Bach before they could be reburied at the Thomaskirche nearby: Rosenthal was able to combine his knowledge of anatomy with his insights (confirmed by further anatomical investigations) into the physical effect of a lifetime of organ playing on a musician's legs to provide the necessary identification. Rosenthal suffered a fall in his work room at his home in February 1971 and broke his femur. During the Summer of 1971 Wolfgang Rosenthal then died, on 10 June, aged 88, in a Berlin hospital from the complications following the break. The Wolfgang Rosenthal Society, committed to self-help by and for people with mouth deformities, was established at Hüttenberg and named after him in 1981. Link to Wikipedia biography