Accessible online at: www.karger.com/journals/dsu The name Theodor Kocher (fig. 1) is obviously known to surgeons working not only in his hometown Bern, Switzerland, but also in the rest of the world. Outside Bern, probably, his name today is usually connected to ‘the Kocher maneuver’, or to some instrument, rather than to the 1909 Nobel laureate. Bern’s doctors and surgeons are proud of Theodo...