Erich Martini (zoologist)

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Erich Martini (undated)

Erich Christian Wilhelm Martini (born March 19, 1880 in Rostock ; † December 5, 1960 in Hamburg ) was a German zoologist, physician and the founder of medical entomology in Germany.

Life

Erich Martini was the son of the President of the Higher Regional Court Carl Martini (1845–1907) and his wife Agnes (Caroline Christina), b. Kessler (1855-1881). After attending high schools in Rostock and Schwerin , he studied zoology and medicine at the universities in Rostock, Tübingen and Munich from 1899 to 1905 . His academic teachers included Friedrich Blochmann (1858–1931), Richard von Hertwig and Dietrich Barfurth . In 1902 he was Oswald Seeliger (1889 to 1907) in Rostock as a doctor of philosophy doctorate with a thesis on the development of a nematode and 1905 Dr. med. with a thesis on a counter top . In 1908 he completed his habilitation as a private lecturer in anatomy at the medical faculty of the University of Rostock with a paper on threadworms. Further publications on nematodes rounded off this work. His observations on cell constancy are discussed as scientifically interesting .

In 1912 Martini was commissioned to set up a department for entomology at the Institute for Ship and Tropical Diseases Hamburg (ISTK), today's Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine . In 1913/14 he went on a study trip to North and Central America. During the First World War he worked as a senior physician and as a staff physician in the reserve on the Eastern Front, initially as a troop doctor, then at the Deputy General Command in Gdansk. Here he dealt with the spotted fever problem in Poland caused by lice , which in his eyes was primarily a Jewish problem. Therefore, he arranged for the mostly Jewish rafts of wood on the Vistula in front of the Reich border to be thoroughly cleaned on the rehabilitation ship and also vaccinated against cholera and smallpox on this occasion. Later he became chief physician of various military hospitals in the Carpathians , the Alps and Italy, most recently malaria hygienist with Army Group Scholz in the Balkans. On January 1, 1919, he returned to the Hamburg Tropical Institute. He remained there until his retirement from the civil service after the Second World War, director of the department of entomology. In the meantime he married Erna Hansen, one of his employees at the ISTK, and had two children with her: Oskar (* 1936) and Hildburg (* 1939).

Gravestone Erich Martini,
Ohlsdorf Cemetery

On May 1, 1933, before the admission ban , Erich Martini joined the NSDAP and on September 23, 1933 he became a member of the National Socialist German Lecturer Association . From 1936 he headed the scientific department at the German Hygiene Museum in Dresden . In 1940 the Wehrmacht appointed him to the rank of senior staff doctor at the Military Medical Academy in Berlin. From April 1940 he headed the Colonial Medical Institute at the Military Medical Academy . When Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler was planning the establishment of an entomological institute for the Waffen-SS and Police as part of the Research Foundation of German Ahnenerbe in 1942 , Wolfram Sievers suggested Erich Martini and Peter Mühlens as leaders. However, Himmler was against "doctors and hygienists". He wanted “specialized zoologists”, which is why Eduard May finally got the post. Martini was appointed to the advisory board to support the work of the institute. Here he was particularly committed to securing the Waffen SS against typhus and other diseases that were transmitted by lice.

In 1945 Martini retired at the age of 65 at her own request. Since then he has not taught at the University of Hamburg either . After Ernst Klee , Martini was suspended from duty by the military government in 1947. Shortly after the end of the war, he exchanged letters with his former Jewish assistant Otto Hecht , who only survived the Nazi era by emigrating in good time . Perhaps Martini was hoping for relief from him in his denazification process .

On December 2, 1960, Martini was hit by a tram. In the following fall, he suffered a fractured skull and a severe concussion. He died three days later without ever regaining consciousness.
Erich Martini was buried in the Ohlsdorf cemetery in Hamburg, grid square O 16 (north of Cordesallee , east of Ringstrasse ).

Research and popular science work

Martini conducted research mainly in the field of applied and medical entomology. With his book Calculations and Observations on the Epidemiology and Combating Malaria , he put malaria control on a quantitative basis. His textbook on medical entomology , first published in 1923, developed into a standard work and was last published in its fourth edition in 1952. With the non-fiction book Paths of Epidemics , published in 1936, he tried to popularize his field. It was also reissued after the war and continued with Epuchen im Menschen . He also wrote a biography of Bernhard Nocht .

Alleged involvement in biological warfare

Frank Snowden, professor of history at Yale University , wrote a book on malaria in Italy in the 20th century. In it he accuses the Wehrmacht of deliberately causing a malaria epidemic in Italy in 1944, in his words "the only known example of biological warfare in Europe in the twentieth century". The two leading German malaria specialists Erich Martini and Ernst Rodenwaldt were allegedly involved in this action .

One of Benito Mussolini's great propaganda acts had been the draining of the Pontine Marshes , creating a whole new province, Littoria . The swamps had been notorious for malaria since ancient times. In 1943, the 5th US Army landed near Naples during its Italian campaign and fought its way towards Rome in the narrow corridor between the Apennines and the Mediterranean . In addition, the leadership of the Wehrmacht feared an Allied landing near Ostia . In both cases, the flooding of the Pontine Marshes created a water hazard, which was covered by martial law .

Until it was drained, the mosquito species Anopheles labranchiae was the most dangerous vector of malaria in this area. Unlike other Anopheles species, it has the special feature that it can also cope with brackish water . In November 1943 Martini and Rodenwaldt visited the future battlefield together with the Italian malaria specialist Enzo Mosna, where Mosna expressed his fear that the flooding could lead to a resurgence of A. labranchiae . The drainage pumps had been stopped a month earlier. Snowden points out that some pumps are now reversing salt water into the swamps, which is not justified by military necessity. Other pumping stations were blown up and drainage ditches were mined. The national crisis supply of quinine , which Italy had stored for the renewed outbreak of a malaria epidemic, was transported away. The German measures had no effect on the course of the fighting: The 5th US Army crossed the area before the malaria season began again in June 1944. The Italian malaria specialist Alberto Coluzzi, who visited the area immediately afterwards, had the impression that the Wehrmacht had done everything possible to cause the largest possible epidemic. Indeed, in 1944 the civilian population suffered severely from malaria. While there were only around a thousand cases in the early 1940s, the number for 1944 is estimated at over 100,000.

The bioweapons expert Erhard Geißler , however, considers Snowden's accusation to be unfounded. He also confirms the presence of Rodenwaldt and Martinis, but interprets them as a measure to secure his own troops. Geissler points out that there is no corresponding order in the files on the German side. In addition, Hitler had explicitly and repeatedly forbidden at least biological warfare with bacteria.

Honors

In 1935 Martini was elected a member of the Leopoldina . In 1938 he was a member of the Presidium of the VII International Entomologists Congress in Berlin. The German Entomological Society honored him in 1954 with the award of the Fabricius Medal. In the same year he also received the Escherich Medal of the German Society for Applied Entomology. Both societies are now combined in the German Society for General and Applied Entomology . Furthermore, Martini received Bernhard Nocht medal and until 1930 for excellent work in the field of microbiology imparted Fritz-Schaudinn medal of ISTK. The University of Hamburg awarded Martini an honorary doctorate on his 80th birthday .

Works (selection)

  • Calculations and observations on the epidemiology and control of malaria based on experiences in the Balkans . Gente, Hamburg 1921.
  • Medical entomology textbook . (1923) 3rd ed., Fischer, Jena 1946; 4th, revised edition there in 1952.
  • Paths of Plagues . 3rd revised and expanded edition. Enke, Stuttgart 1955.
  • Bernhard Nocht: A picture of life . Bernhard Nocht Institute for Ship and Tropical Diseases, Hamburg 1957.
  • Epidemics in man . Enke, Stuttgart 1959.

In total, Martini published around 300 articles.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Fritz Peus : Prof. Dr. Erich Martini in memory . In: Journal of Applied Entomology . Vol. 48, 1961, pp. 339-344. doi : 10.1111 / j.1439-0418.1961.tb03811.x
  2. ↑ Erich Martini: On furrowing and gastrulation in Cucullanus elegans . In: Journal of Scientific Zoology . Vol. 74, No. 4, 1903, pp. 501-556, plates XXVI-XXVIII.
  3. ↑ Erich Martini: Observations on Arcella vulgaris . In: Journal of Scientific Zoology . Vol. 79, No. 4, 1905, pp. 574-619, Tafeln XXVIII-XXX.
  4. ↑ Erich Martini: About subcuticula and side fields of some nematodes. I. In: Journal of Scientific Zoology . Vol. 81, No. 4, 1906, pp. 699-766, panels XXXI-XXXIII.
  5. ↑ Erich Martini: About subcuticula and side fields of some nematodes. II. In: Journal of Scientific Zoology . Vol. 86, No. 1, 1907, pp. 1-54, panels I-III.
  6. ↑ Erich Martini: About subcuticula and side fields of some nematodes. III (With remarks about determinate development.) . In: Journal of Scientific Zoology . Vol. 91, No. 2, 1908, pp. 191-235.
  7. ↑ Erich Martini: About subcuticula and side fields of some nematodes. Comparative histological part. IV Actual. In: Journal of Scientific Zoology . Vol. 93, No. 4, 1909, pp. 535-599, panels XXV and XXVI.
  8. ↑ Erich Martini: About subcuticula and side fields of some nematodes. Comparative histological part. V Summary and theoretical considerations. In: Journal of Scientific Zoology . Vol. 93, No. 4, 1909, pp. 600-624.
  9. ↑ Sven Tode with the assistance of Kathrin Kompisch: Research - Healing - Teaching: 100 Years of the Hamburg Tropical Institute . P. 11. pdf
  10. ^ Wolfgang U. Eckart : Medicine and War. Germany 1914-1924 , 3.7 Lice, typhus, anti-Semitism, Ferdinand Schönigh Paderborn 2014, pp. 181 + 182, ISBN 978-3-506-75677-0 .
  11. ↑ Gottlieb Olp: Outstanding tropical doctors in words and pictures . Ärztliche Rundschau, Munich 1932, p. 520.
  12. ↑ a b c Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 392.
  13. ↑ Rainer Hering: "... that when you feel guilty you want to react as I hope you will.": An exchange of letters about the "Third Reich" between the tropical medicine specialists Erich Martini and Otto Hecht 1946/47. In: Journal of the Association for Hamburg History. Vol. 84, 1998, ISSN  0083-5587 , pp. 185-224, here p. 188. pdf
  14. ↑ Erhard Geissler: Biological weapons - not in Hitler's arsenals . Studies on Peace Research Vol. 13. Lit, Münster 1999, ISBN 3-8258-2955-3 .
  15. ↑ Rainer Hering: "... that when you feel guilty you want to react as I hope you will.": An exchange of letters about the "Third Reich" between the tropical medicine specialists Erich Martini and Otto Hecht 1946/47. In: Journal of the Association for Hamburg History. Vol. 84, 1998, ISSN  0083-5587 , pp. 185-224, here p. 190. pdf
  16. ↑ Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke: Hamburgische Biografie 2 .: Personenlexikon . Christians, 2003. ISBN 978-3767213661
  17. ↑ Rainer Hering: "... that when you feel guilty you want to react as I hope you will.": An exchange of letters about the "Third Reich" between the tropical medicine specialists Erich Martini and Otto Hecht 1946/47. In: Journal of the Association for Hamburg History. Vol. 84, 1998, ISSN  0083-5587 , pp. 185-224, here pp. 198f. pdf
  18. ↑ Celebrity Graves
  19. ↑ Leonard Jan. Bruce-Chwatt and Julian de Zulueta: The Rise and Fall of malaria in Europe . Oxford University Press, 1980, p. 87.
  20. ^ Frank M. Snowden: The Conquest of Malaria: Italy, 1900-1962 . Yale University Press, New Haven and London 2006, p. 187: "the only known example of biological warfare in twentieth-century Europe"
  21. ↑ Erhard Geißler: German biological warfare in Italy? Not just pure speculation, but distortion of the facts . In: Military Medical Monthly . Vol. 54, No. 4, 2010, pp. 131-137.
  22. ^ Member entry by Erich Martini at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on April 11, 2015.
  23. ^ F. Weyer: Erich Martini 80 years old . In: Scoreboard for pest science . Vol. 33, No. 3, 1960, p. 44.
  24. ↑ Anonymos (1938): The tasks of the VII International Entomologists Congress . Journal of Pest Science 14 (8): 86-87. doi : 10.1007 / BF02337873
personal data
SURNAME Martini, Erich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Martini, Erich Christian Wilhelm (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German zoologist, physician and the founder of medical entomology in Germany
DATE OF BIRTH March 19, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Rostock
DATE OF DEATH 5th December 1960
Place of death Hamburg