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Sauerbruch was born in Barmen near Wuppertal, Germany. He studied medicine in Marburg, Jena and Leipzig, where he graduated in 1902. He went to Berslau in 1903, where he developed and demonstrated his Sauerbruch chamber, a pressure chamber for operating on the open thorax, in 1904. During World War I, he developed several new prothesis types which could perform simple motions, for injured soldiers.
Sauerbruch worked at the University of Munich from 1918 to 1927 on operation techniques and diets for treating tuberculosis. From 1928 to 1949, he worked in Berlin, becoming of international fame for his risky (but mostly successful) operations. Sauerbruch died in Berlin at the age of 75.