Ernst Derra

Ernst Derra (born March 6, 1901 in Passau , † May 9, 1979 in Weihermühle near Haag in Upper Bavaria ) was a German surgeon and university professor. He was a pioneer in cardiac surgery.

Career

The son of a sculptor grew up in Passau. After graduating from high school Leopoldinum (Passau) , he studied medicine in Munich, Heidelberg and Vienna. In 1922 he was reciprocated in the Corps Bavaria Munich . In 1926 he worked at the Medical University Clinic in Innsbruck . With a doctorate at Paul Morawitz in the Department of Internal Medicine in 1927, he was at the University of Leipzig to Dr. med. PhD. In 1929 he moved to the University Hospital Bonn , where he completed his habilitation in 1936 . In the post-war period in Germany Derra was chief surgeon at St. Marien Hospital in Bonn in 1946/47 . From 1947 to 1969 he was the undisputed director ( full professor ) of all surgery at the Düsseldorf Medical Academy . The first operations on a ductus arteriosus (1949) and the use of the heart-lung machine (1955) are worth mentioning .

At that time, the Medical Academy in Düsseldorf was undergoing a major renovation. Since the city could not afford these investments, the academic council under the leadership of Ernst Derras pushed the expansion of the Medical Academy into a full university in the early 1960s. As a thank you for the architectural design of the new surgery building, a staircase to Prof. Derra (sic!) Was created in an exposed position (main foyer) , which led freely from the ground floor into the administration rooms on the second floor. The staircase served as a memorial; Derra himself or even patients did not use it. In 1958/59 he published the Handbook of Thoracic Surgery at Springer . In 1963 he was President of the German Society for Surgery , which elected him an honorary member in 1970.

Honors

• 1957 elected to the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina
• 1965 Gold Medal from the Humboldt Society
• 1966: Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany , Great Federal Cross of Merit
• 1976: Paracelsus Medal

Streets in Düsseldorf and Passau are named after him.

Web links

• Heinrich Bürkle de la Camp (Ed.): Surgeons directory , 5th edition. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York 1969, ISBN 3-642-49513-3 , p. 148
• Ernst Derra in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1960, 104/1501.