Alfons Maria Jakob

Alfons Maria Jakob
Alfons Maria Jakob (1884-1931)
Born	2 July 1884 Aschaffenburg/Bavaria
Died	17 October 1931 (aged 47) Hamburg Abscess and paralytic ileus
Nationality	German
Fields	Neurology
Known for	neuropathology

Alfons Maria Jakob (2 July 1884 in Aschaffenburg/Bavaria – 17 October 1931 in Hamburg) was a German neurologist who worked in the field of neuropathology.

He was born in Aschaffenburg, Bavaria and educated in medicine at the universities of Munich, Berlin, and Strasbourg, where he received his doctorate in 1908. During the following year, he began clinical work under the psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin and did laboratory work with Franz Nissl and Alois Alzheimer in Munich.

In 1911, by way of an invitation from Wilhelm Weygandt, he relocated to Hamburg, where he worked with Theodor Kaes and eventually became head of the laboratory of anatomical pathology at the psychiatric State Hospital Hamburg-Friedrichsberg. Following the death of Kaes in 1913, Jakob succeeded him as prosector. During World War I he served as an army physician in Belgium, and afterwards returned to Hamburg. In 1919 he obtained his habilitation for neurology and in 1924 became a professor of neurology. Under Jakob's guidance the department grew rapidly. He made significant contributions to knowledge on concussion and secondary nerve degeneration and became a doyen of neuropathology.