Robert Janker: “Living” images from inside the body - visualizing physiological processes with analogue X-ray techniques
Thorsten Kohl & Maiko Mundt
The radiologist Robert Janker (1894-1964) from Bonn is considered one of the pioneers of X-ray cinematography. In 2011, his extensive bequest was handed over to the German Röntgen Museum in Remscheid/Lennep - the birthplace of Conrad Röntgen. The collection is impressive due to its size and the quality of the existing film and slide material for functional diagnostics, as well as its broad temporal scope - thanks to Janker's long creative period. Whereas in the early days of “Roentgenologie” (X-ray-Genology), physicists and electrical engineers provided the technical infrastructure and the technical knowledge, with the physicians contributing the “examination material” in the form of the patients, Robert Janker, as a surgeon, radiologist and developer of technical systems, united this interdisciplinary configuration in one person, which makes him significantly interesting for biographical research.
In addition to biographical research, the project will also focus on other research areas such as the history of medicine and technology, media archaeology, visualization and historical epistemology. As part of a bachelor's thesis completed at the IMGWF (Sabine Wünsche, 2018), an internet presence was developed that can be used to access information about the project: www.robert-janker.de.