Born 2 November 1839 at Kalkofen in the island of Wollin, and was educated at the Stettin Gymnasium, at Bonn, Würzburg, and Berlin. He then became assistant at St Hedwig's Hospital in Berlin, but on the outbreak of the Austro-German war in 1866 he was attached to a field hospital and was present at the battle of Königgratz. He subsequently travelled with Alfred Krupp in France and Italy, and during 1868-70 worked under Robert Wilms at the Bethanien Hospital, Berlin. During the Franco-Prussian war in 1870 he served with the 3rd Army Corps field hospital then under the command of Wilms, was present at Sedan, and at Versailles heard the King of Prussia proclaimed Emperor of Germany. In 1871 he was appointed surgeon to the newly opened Queen Augusta Hospital for Women in Berlin. Under the influence of Professor Volkmann in 1875 he adopted the Listerian principles in surgery and to perfect himself he visited Edinburgh in 1876 to study under Lister himself. Kuester was an original member of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chirurgie when it was founded in 1872, served for many years as its treasurer, was president in 1903, and an honorary member from 1922. He was appointed professor of surgery at Marburg in 1890 and held the post until he resigned in 1907, when he retired to live in Berlin. He celebrated his ninetieth birthday in November 1929 and died on Easter Eve, 19 April 1930. Kuester wrote on transfusion, 1874; on the treatment of cancer of the breast; on operations on the gall-bladder and the stomach; early operation of osteomyelitis; on fractures of the spine; on the surgery of the prostate, ureters, and kidneys. There is a photograph of him in the Honorary Fellows album. Publication: *Die Chirurgie der Nieren*. Stuttgart, 1896-1902. (*Deutsche Chirurgie*, 52B) *Geschichte der neueren deutschen Chirurgie*. Stuttgart, 1915. (*Neue deutsche Chirurgie*, 15.) [*Arch klin Chir* 1930, 159, 521, with portrait]