This article is only available in the PDF format. Download the PDF to view the article, as well as its associated figures and tables. Carl Langenbuch, der die Ektomie erfand und für die Ausführung der Choledochotomie, Choledocho-Duodenostomie und Cholangio-Enterostomie ganz genaue Anleitung gab, verdient den Namen "Meister."... Langenbuch hat in der Chirurgie der Gallenwege überhaupt alles ersonnen, was zu ersinnen war, und so ist es bisher diesem einen Meister geblieben.—Hans Kehr, 1913. (Carl Langenbuch, who first devised ectomy and who gave detailed instruction for choledochotomy, choledochoduodenostomy and cholangioenterostomy, deserves the name "master."... In the surgery of the biliary passages Langenbuch has thought out everything that was to be thought out, and so far he has remained the only master.) In the surgical clinics, all over the world, operations on the biliary system are of almost daily occurrence. Thus, it is strange to realize that the first cholecystectomy in man was performed hardly half a century ago. It was Carl Langenbuch, the chief of the Lazaruskrankenhaus in Berlin who, on July 15, 1882, removed