Bruno Wolff

Bruno Wolff (born March 26, 1870 in Berlin , † November 10, 1918 in Rostock ) was a German gynecologist and pathologist. As a participant in the war and a Jewish monarchist, he died the day after the German Republic was proclaimed.

Life

At the Friedrichswerder Gymnasium , Bruno Wolff passed the Abitur in 1889. He then studied medicine at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg , the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin and the Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg . He passed the medical state examination in Berlin in 1894 and was awarded a Dr. med. PhD. After obtaining his license to practice medicine, he was an assistant at the pathological-anatomical institute in Frankfurt am Main .

Gynecology in Berlin

After two years as a volunteer assistant at the Charité and in Leipzig, he completed specialist training in gynecology with Adolf Gusserow at the Charité from 1897 . In retrospect, he thought it was a mistake out of his own weakness to have stayed there despite inadequate training and failed habilitation . From 1902 to 1911 he was a specialist in obstetrics and gynecological diseases in Berlin and Charlottenburg. He headed the gynecological polyclinic of the Jewish community and in 1910 was elected doctor in charge of the obstetric and gynecological department of the Jewish community hospital.

See also : Jewish life in Berlin

Pathology in Rostock

Probably mediated by Ernst Schwalbe , he dared to change his subject and start again in 1911 - at the age of 41. In the Rostock pathology department he was first assistant and from 1912 assistant. In 1913 he completed his habilitation in pathology. After two years as a private lecturer , he was appointed professor on February 28, 1915. He died as a result of sepsis that he contracted during an autopsy due to a defective rubber glove . His boss Schwalbe wrote an obituary listing 50 of Wolff's publications . His posthumously published work on the biological significance of pregnancy is a reference to Goethe's The Metamorphosis of Plants .

family

Wolff's father was Julius Wolff , a pioneer in orthopedic surgery. His mother Anna b. Weigert was a sister of the pathologist Carl Weigert and a cousin of the bacteriologist Paul Ehrlich .

Bruno Wolff was married to Katherina Pinner Wolff, a daughter of the chemist Adolf Pinner . Born on June 3, 1877 in Berlin, she outlived her husband by 42 years. She died on June 16, 1960 in Freiburg. The legal historian Hans Julius Wolff emerged from the marriage.

Be German

Wolff adored Wilhelm II. In six diaries he describes his experiences in the First World War . In 1917 he added the prologue :

“To be German means to be true, to be loyal, to be just, to be conscientious and brave; To be German means to have respect above all for saints, nobles and greats, what moves human hearts; To be German means to draw from the depth of the mind and the clarity of thought. To be German means to be free from cynicism and frivolity, from chauvinism and intrigues [sic]. Language can only reproduce what the people's soul can understand. We only have foreign words for cynicism, frivolity, chauvinism and intrigues "

- Bruno Wolff

Works

• The biological significance of pregnancy in phylogeny and its developmental significance in ontogeny . Anatomical booklets. 171/173 issue, pp. 356-401. Digitized

literature

• Ernst Schwalbe: Prof. Dr. Bruno Wolff † , in: Central sheet for general pathology and pathological anatomy 30 (1919/20), pp. 57–60 (with list of publications, digital copy )
• Gustav Willgeroth : The Mecklenburg doctors from the oldest times to the present. Schwerin: Publishing house of the state office of the Mecklenburg Medical Association 1929 ( digitized version ), p. 312.

Web links

• Entry on Bruno Wolff in the Catalogus Professorum Rostochiensium
• Estate of Bruno Wolff's son Hans Julius Wolff (1902–1983) with numerous sources on family history.

Colleague of the same name

The gynecologist Bruno Wolff, also from Berlin, lived from 1874 to 1941.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dissertation: About the medullary sponge of the retina .
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Katherina Pinner Wolff (2015)
3. ↑ ^{a b} Schwabe's obituary for Wolff
4. ↑ Habilitation thesis: About fetal hormones .
5. ^ Entry on Bruno Wolff in the Catalogus Professorum Rostochiensium
6. ↑ Nachlass Hans Julius Wolff (juedischesmuseum.de) ( Memento of the original from August 14, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ^ The 6 war diaries of Prof. Dr. Bruno Wolff (Jewish Museum Frankfurt)
8. ↑ We were neighbors