Erich Blechschmidt

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Erich Blechschmidt (born November 13, 1904 in Karlsruhe , † April 19, 1992 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) was a German anatomist .

Life

The son of a doctor studied medicine in Freiburg , Munich and Vienna , received his doctorate in Freiburg in 1931 and qualified as a professor there in 1937 for anatomy. In the same year he joined the NSDAP , after having been a medic in the SA since autumn 1933 . After working at the anatomical institutes of the Universities of Gießen and Würzburg , he was appointed as a civil servant extraordinary professor at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen . From 1949 to 1973 he was a full professor of anatomy there. He was director of the anatomical institute. His special field of research was embryogenesis , especially the morphology of the early prenatal stages of humans. He was accused of having obtained his preparations mainly from forced abortions during National Socialism, which is not true.

Blechschmidt had the results of his research presented in plastic models, which form the “human embryological documentation collection Blechschmidt”, which is named after him today. This collection, unique in the world, is open to the public in the Anatomy Center of the University of Göttingen and is of high educational value. It consists of 64 models that show the development of the human embryo from fertilization to the end of the 8th week of pregnancy.

Create

Blechschmidt postulated so-called “ morphogenetic fields ” in embryogenesis , some of which are of a supernatural nature. He also believed that genes alone could not be responsible for the development of an embryo, because all genes are in turn controlled by genes, so that the first cause must be of a different nature.

Fonts (selection)

  • The prenatal stages of human development. An Introduction to Human Embryology. S. Karger , Basel 1960 (German-English parallel text).
  • From egg to embryo. The creative power of the human germ. An Introduction to Human Embryology. DVA , Stuttgart 1968; finally: How does human life begin? From egg to embryo. Findings and consequences. 8th edition. Christiana-Verlag , Stein am Rhein 2008, ISBN 978-3-7171-0653-1 .
  • Human embryology. Principles and basic concepts. Hippokrates-Verlag , Stuttgart 1974; New edition ibid. 1991 ISBN 978-3-7773-0366-6
  • Human anatomy and ontogenesis (= biological workbooks. Vol. 22). Quelle & Meyer , Heidelberg 1978. New edition: Ontogenesis of humans: Kinetic anatomy. Kiener Verlag, Munich 2012. ISBN 978-3-9433-2403-7
  • The preservation of individuality: man - person from the beginning. Human biological findings , Gustav-Siewerth-Akademie , Weilheim-Bierbronnen 1996 (= series of publications by the Gustav-Siewerth-Akademie. Volume 14). ISBN 3-928273-14-0
  • Human Early Development: An Introduction. Kiener, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-943324-00-6 .
  • Human Ontogeny: Kinetic Anatomy. Kiener, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-943324-03-7 .
  • Erich Blechschmidt font collection: face, head, nervous system. Edited by Konrad Obermeier. Kiener Verlag, Munich 2015 ISBN 978-3-9433-2411-2

literature

  • Alfred Häußler: On the death of Prof. Dr. med. Erich Blechschmidt. In: Medicine and Ideology. 14th year, August 1992, pp. 12-14.
  • Anikó Szabó: eviction, return, reparation. Göttingen university professor in the shadow of National Socialism, with biographical documentation of the dismissed and persecuted university professors: University of Göttingen - TH Braunschweig - TH Hannover - University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover. Wallstein , Göttingen 2000, ISBN 978-3-89244-381-0 (= publications of the working group History of Lower Saxony (after 1945), Volume 15, also dissertation at the University of Hanover 1998).
  • Florian G. Mildenberger : anatomist, anti-abortionist, anti-Darwinist: The three lives of Erich Blechschmidt (1904-1992). In: Medizinhistorisches Journal Volume 51, Issue 3 (2016), pp. 246–279.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d Alfred Häußler: On the death of Prof. Dr. med. Erich Blechschmidt. In: Medicine and Ideology. 14th year, August 1992, pp. 12-14 ( digitized version  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ).@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / eu-ae.com  
  2. Erich Blechschmidt: Color and figure in anomalous trichromats. Trute, Quakenbrück 1931 (dissertation, University of Freiburg, March 2, 1931).
  3. a b Anikó Szabó: Expulsion, Return, Reparation: Göttingen University Lecturers in the Shadow of National Socialism. Wallstein, Göttingen 2000, p. 187, fn. 493 ( online ).
  4. Michael Markert: The "Humanembryological Documentation Collection Blechschmidt": History of a Sensitive Collection, 1939-1973 . doi : 10.3249 / ugoe-publ-2 ( uni-goettingen.de [accessed September 24, 2019]).
  5. a b Erich Blechschmidt: The preservation of individuality: facts about human embryology (= word and knowledge. Vol. 12). 2nd Edition. Hänssler, Neuhausen-Stuttgart 1985.