Electricity still carries risks despite modern protective measures. The first known fatal electrical accident on Austrian territory occurred in 1882. It involved an engineer who died after, at that time, no one believed in a possibility of resuscitation.
In 1906, the young internist Stefan Jellinek (1871–1969) presented for the first time, as part of the Hygiene Exhibition in the Viennese Prater, a small selection of preparations and devices showing the effects of lightning strikes and electric current on humans and animals.
The later Electropathological Museum emerged from this collection, which was splendidly opened on 29 October 1936 in the Allgemeines Krankenhaus.