The study briefly reviews the life and work of Alfons Maria Jakob (1884–1931), a notable representative of pre-war German neuropathology. Today Jakob is mainly remembered by neurologists for the spongiform encephalopathy with progressive dementia and spasticity that he, and Kiel neuropathologist Hans Gerhard Creutzfeldt (1885–1964), described independently. However, Jakob has left additional contributions to neuroanatomy, neuropathology and neuropsychiatry in the form of original articles and valuable monographs.