Family Grave of Theodor Kocher

History of the work

In the Bremgarten cemetery, not far from the Inselspital hospital, lies the family grave of Theodor Kocher. The city's register describes the monument as stone with four lion figures; who designed it and when it was made is not known. The city's cemetery brochure calls it an imposing grave of a notable person and points out that the inscriptions name many doctors in the family. The grave bears the number 9100/00 0653.

Emil Theodor Kocher was born in Bern on 25 August 1841 and died there on 27 July 1917. As a surgeon he researched above all the thyroid gland. In 1909 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, recognising his work on its physiology, pathology and surgery, the first surgeon ever to do so. According to the English Wikipedia he reduced mortality in his thyroid operations to below one per cent. On 23 July 1917 he still operated on an emergency case at the Inselspital; four days later he was dead.

Bern honoured Kocher in several ways. Shortly after his death, Inselgasse was renamed Kochergasse. A bust by Karl Hänny has stood at the main entrance of the Inselspital since 1927. His son Albert bequeathed a plot on Belpstrasse to the public; it became the Kocherpark, opened on 19 September 1944, with a bust by Max Fueter. Kocher's papers are held by the Burgerbibliothek Bern.

In the Bremgarten cemetery Kocher is one of two Nobel laureates who still have a grave; the other is the Peace Prize winner Charles Albert Gobat. Standing in front of the grave, you can count the four lions and read the names and professions on the stone.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Stadt Bern: Kunstwerke im öffentlichen Raum (opendata.swiss) · Wikipedia (de): Emil Theodor Kocher · Wikipedia (en): Emil Theodor Kocher · Stadtgrün Bern: Der Bremgartenfriedhof – Ein Spaziergang mit Geschichten (2023) · Stadt Bern: Persönlichkeiten und Prominenz auf dem Bremgartenfriedhof · Wikipedia (de): Bremgartenfriedhof · Wikimedia Commons: Foto