Walther Flemming (Figure 2), a 19th century professor at the Institute for Anatomy in Kiel, Germany, was the first to document the details of cellular division.

Who first discovered cell division?

A cell division under microscope was first discovered by German botanist Hugo von Mohl in 1835 as he worked over the green alga Cladophora glomerata.

Who discovered cell division and mitosis?

The first person to observe mitosis in detail was a German biologist, Walther Flemming (1843–1905), who is the pioneer of mitosis research and also the founder of cytogenetics (see Fig. 3) (Paweletz 2001).