He was the father of physiologist Heinrich von Recklinghausen β His father was an elementary school teacher and a sexton. His mother died shortly after his birth in The Recklinghausens were a patrician family who put multiple councilors and mayors in their positions. He then attended high school at Ratsgymnasium, Bielefeld. He subsequently undertook an educational journey to Vienna , Rome , and Paris.
From to , Recklinghausen was an assistant at the Pathological Institute in Berlin. At the age of 32 years old, Recklinghausen was already a Professor of Pathological Anatomy; a habilitation was unnecessary because of his academic and scientific background.
The theme of his inaugural address was "De corporibus liberis articulorum" "On the loose bodies of the joints".
In , the first of his five children was born. His son Heinrich Jacob von Recklinghausen later acquired a name for himself as a doctor, blood pressure researcher, and philosopher. In his Rectorate speech, he dealt with the medical teaching: About the historical development of medical education, its preconditions and its task. Additionally Recklinghausen was one of the founders of the German Society for Pathology in After his retirement in , he was still working on a comprehensive monograph on the rickets and osteomalacia , which was completed in the year of his death.
He is buried next to his wife at the Saint Louis cemetery in Robertsau. The tombstone bears the inscription:. In Recklinghausen wrote his inaugural thesis De pyaemiae theoriis , concerning differing theories on pyaemia. In he released a monograph that reviewed previous literature done by Robert William Smith 33 years prior, added two new cases, and characterized the tumors of neurofibromatosis type I or NF-1 as neurofibromas , consisting of an intense commingling of nerve cells and fibrous tissue.
