Born Aug. 29, 1904, in Berlin. German surgeon and urologist.
Forssmann graduated from the medical faculty of the Friedrich-Wilhelm University in Berlin in 1928. In 1956 he became a professor of surgery and urology at the Johann-Gutenberg University in Mainz. From 1964 to 1970 he was an honorary professor at the Medical Academy in Düsseldorf and a professor at the University of Düsseldorf.
In 1929, Forssmann developed a method for the catheterization of the heart, which he tested on himself by passing a tube into his right atrium through a cubital vein. Two years later he used this method in angiocardiography. In 1956, Forssmann shared a Nobel Prize with A. Cournand and D. Richards.