Gräfe studied medicine at
Halle and
Leipzig, and after obtaining his licence from Leipzig, he was in 1807 appointed a private physician to Duke
Alexius of Anhalt-Bernburg. In 1811, he became a professor of surgery and director of the
ophthalmological institute at the
University of Berlin. His lectures at the University of Berlin attracted students from all parts of Europe. During the
Sixth Coalition against
Napoleon, he was a superintendent of military hospitals. When peace was concluded in 1815, Gräfe resumed his professorial duties. He was also appointed physician to the
general staff of the
Prussian army, and he became a director of the Friedrich Wilhelm Institute and of the Medico-Chirurgical Academy (
Charité). Gräfe died suddenly at
Hanover, where he had been called to operate on the eyes of the crown prince. His grave is preserved in the
Protestant Friedhof II der Jerusalems- und Neuen Kirchengemeinde (Cemetery No. II of the congregations of
Jerusalem's Church and
New Church) in
Berlin-Kreuzberg, south of
Hallesches Tor. He was a pioneer of
plastic and
reconstructive surgery, and a founder of German
rhinoplastic surgery. He developed his own techniques in regards to rhinoplasty, being modifications of the Italian methods of
Gasparo Tagliacozzi (1545–1599) as well as
Indian surgical practices from long ago. He also made contributions towards the development of
cleft palate repair, and was a pioneer of
eyelid surgery, coining the term "
blepharoplasty" in 1818. He is also reputed to have carried out the first reported
clitoridectomy in the Western Europe, which was done on a teenage girl regarded as an "imbecile" who was masturbating. ==Works==