---
title: "Friedrich Maass"
type: "entity"
entity_kind: "person"
status: "hub"
canonical_name: "Friedrich Maass"
aliases: ["Dr. Friedrich Maass"]
first_seen: "2026-07-30T00:00:00.000Z"
writer_model: "claude-sonnet-5"
connects_to: ["external chest compression","CPR history","priority vs paternity","Rudolph Boehm"]
---


German surgeon credited by one source (a 2021 Creighton University CME
deck) as the first to advocate chest compression over ventilation alone in
human patients, in 1891, after using external compressions to restart the
hearts of two young patients. He matters to the vault as one of two
competing named figures for the pivotal human-application milestone in the
chest-compression lineage that predates Kouwenhoven's 1958 discovery by
decades — a different, independent historical review instead credits
Niehaus (1880, unsuccessful) and Koenig (1885, eight successful cases) for
the same milestone. The disagreement between the two accounts is recorded,
not resolved.

## References
- [[claim-external-chest-compression-demonstrated-decades-before-kouwenhovens-1958-accident]]
- Captures: 2026-07-30-read-kouwenhoven-jude-knickerbocker-closed-chest-cardiac-massage