Abstract

Georg Ernst Stahl is one of the most outstanding physicians and naturalists of the so‐called Frühaufklärung in Germany. His scientific, philosophical, and ideological influence was deep and widespread in almost all the German states. As a professor at the University of Halle, the First Royal Physician in Berlin, and president of the Higher Medical Board of Prussia, he created a Stahlian school of medicine and chemistry, shaping some branches of medical thought, as well as of pure and applied chemistry. In the history of chemistry his name is generally associated with the theory of phlogiston, and in the history of medicine he is described as a vitalist.