The history of local anesthesia began with the discovery of the anesthetic properties of cocaine by the physician Carl Koller from Vienna 130 years ago. After he had realized the options for painless surgery using this substance, he analyzed cocaine in detail from this point of view and evaluated the drug's significance in animal experiments, in self-experiments and in colleagues. The findings of his experiments were accurately recorded by Koller and after his death remained in the possession of the family for a long time until his daughter Hortense Becker-Koller handed these documents over to the Library of Congress in Washington. These recordings were recently studied and will now be presented to the public for the first time ever.