Background
His father August Friedrich Hecker (1763–1811) was also a physician.
medical historian physician university professor
His father August Friedrich Hecker (1763–1811) was also a physician.
He particularly studied disease in relation to human history, including plague, smallpox, infant mortality, dancing mania and the sweating sickness, and is often said to have founded the study of the history of disease. In 1805, when Justus was 10, the family moved from Justus"s birthplace of Erfurt to Berlin, and Justus later studied medicine at the University of Berlin, graduating in 1817 and becoming a Privatdozent and then (in 1822) Extraordinary Professor.
In 1834, he became the university"s "ordinary professor" for the History of Medicine. He also cooperated with the professors of the "Medical Faculty of Berlin" on the encyclopaedic dictionary of the medical sciences.
