Background
His father, Friedrich von Bärensprung (1779-1841), was mayor of Berlin in 1832-1834.
His father, Friedrich von Bärensprung (1779-1841), was mayor of Berlin in 1832-1834.
In 1843 he obtained his doctorate at Halle an der Saale, then furthered his studies in pathology at Prague, where he was also involved with entomological research. In 1845 he became a clinical assistant to Peter Krukenberg (1788-1865) at Halle, and several years later, founded a private clinic in Halle (1850). Bärensprung is credited as being the first physician to demonstrate a definite link between herpes zoster and a lesion of the dorsal root ganglion.
Subsequently, he identified nine varieties of the disorder, of which he classified according to the nerve involved.
In 1854, he provided the first description of tinea cruris, a condition that is sometimes referred to as "Bärensprung"s disease" in medical literature. These measures, he reasoned, were an effective means to stop the spread of epidemics such as tuberculosis and scrofulosis.
Among his written works was Atlas der Hautkrankheiten, an atlas on skin diseases that was edited and published posthumously by Ferdinand von Hebra (1867). In the field of entomology, he was instrumental in the founding of the journal, Berliner Entomologische Zeitschrift, in which he published papers on Hemiptera.