Werner Theodor Otto Forssmann was born in Berlin on August
29, 1904, the son of Julius Forssmann and Emmy Hindenberg. He was
educated at the Askanische Gymnasium (secondary grammar school)
in Berlin. Leaving school in 1922, he went to the University of
Berlin to study medicine, passing his State Examination in 1929.
For his clinical training he went to the University Medical
Clinic, working under Professor Georg Klemperer, and he studied
anatomy under Professor Rudolph Fick. For clinical instruction in
surgery he went, in 1929, to the August Victoria Home at
Eberswalde near Berlin.
It was here that he was the first to develop a technique for the
catheterization of the heart. This he did by inserting a cannula
into his own antecubital vein, through which he passed a catheter
for 65 cm and then walked to the X-ray department, where a
photograph was taken of the catheter lying in his right
auricle.<