Eduard Albert was born in 1841 in Žamberk to the family of the watchmaker František Vojtěch Albert. He studied at the grammar schools in Rychnov nad Kněžnou and Hradec Králové, where he took an interest in literature, poetry and the natural sciences. As his family was far from wealthy he had to earn extra money as a tutor during his studies, which is how he made the acquaintance of a lawyer, Dr Flanderka, who recommended him to his friend Dr Carl von Rokitansky, a renowned anatomist in Vienna. Albert enrolled to study medicine at the University of Vienna and became assistant to Cvíděňské. Rokitansky and acted as his recorder , když mu sloužil jako during forensic autopsies. This gave him an excellent knowledge of anatomy and after completing his studies in 1867 he decided to embark on a career as a surgeon. Within just five years of graduating, his expertise and talent secured him the post of head of the Surgical Clinic in Innsbruck. He was one of those modern doctors who were beginning to operate aseptically – i.e. with gloves and aseptic instruments; he was also keenly interested in science and wrote a large textbook on surgery. The Albert intestinal suture is named after him and is still in use today. He gradually became a generally well-known and respected figure, he treated Emperor Francis Joseph, and researched and travelled all over Europe. He also often returned to his native Bohemia, which he always saw as his main home and which he supported during his brief political career in the Austrian parliament. In 1881 he built a summer residence in his home town of Žamberk, where he spent more and more time and where he was visited by some of the leading figures in Czech science, culture and politics. His stepbrother Václav Kumpošt founded the popular science journal Vesmír. The complex of buildings that make up the Faculty of Science and Medicine of Charles University in Albertov, Prague, was named after Eduard Albert.
