Ernst Josef Lesser

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Ernst Josef Lesser (born December 7, 1879 in Stettin , † March 1, 1928 in Mannheim ) was a German physiologist and one of the discoverers of insulin . He was a staunch supporter of the Zionist movement . Ernst Josef Lesser was married to the painter and photographer Marianne Lesser-Knapp , Elly Heuss-Knapp's sister , and was thus brother-in-law of the future German President Theodor Heuss .

Ernst Josef Lesser, around 1920

Life and achievement

Ernst Josef Lesser was born in Stettin as the son of a respected Jewish silk merchant. The father Adolf Lesser had been an officer in the war in 1870/71, the mother had completed training as a teacher.

After graduating from the Marienstiftsgymnasium , he studied medicine in Freiburg im Breisgau , Berlin and Munich from 1898 . Because of anti-Semitic remarks by a fellow student , there was a mensur in Freiburg . In 1903 he completed his medical studies with the state examination and received his doctorate under Carl von Voit in the field of metabolic physiology.

Until 1906 he then devoted himself to studying chemistry in Munich. In Halle an der Saale he became Julius Bernstein's assistant and was able to complete his habilitation that same year. In 1910 he was appointed director of the laboratory of the Mannheim Municipal Hospital under the medical director Franz Volhard . 1911–1913 Lesser devoted himself to glucose metabolism and research into glycogen cleavage . As the Polish physiologist and biochemist Jakub Karol Parnas reports, he made the observation that the administration of pancreatic extracts could reduce the sugar excretion of diabetic frogs. Lesser called the substance “glucopausin”. The First World War , which he took part in on the front in Macedonia, and the subsequent emergency prevented this research from being continued immediately.

Lesser maintained a close and friendly relationship with leading figures of his time, such as Martin Buber , Chaim Weizmann , Július Šimon and Max Weber . In 1914 he traveled to Palestine for the first time to help found a university in the Holy Land.

At the end of 1927 Lesser fell ill with pancreatic cancer and committed suicide on March 1, 1928.

In memory of him and his successor in office Siegfried Walter Loewe , the University Hospital Mannheim donated the Lesser-Loewe-Foundation eV

literature

  • Robert Ammon: Ernst Josef Lesser and his contribution to the discovery of insulin . (Special dr. From Mannheimer Hefte 1968, 1, 29–37; Lesser-Loewe-Colloquium f. Dynam. Biochemistry). Mannheim: Clin. Chem. Inst., Mannheim d. Univ. Heidelberg; Mannheim: Städt. Hospitals, 1968.
  • Heinz Walter:  Lesser, Ernst. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 14, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-428-00195-8 , p. 336 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Lesser, Ernst Josef. In: Karl Otto Watzinger : History of the Jews in Mannheim 1650-1945. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1984, pp. 121-122, ISBN 3-17-008696-0 .

References and comments

  1. ↑ Source: Ernst J. Lesser. About nutritional experiments with the end products of peptic and tryptic protein digestion. Inaugural dissertation . Munich 1903.
  2. ↑ Source: Ernst J. Lesser. About the electromotive force of the frog skin current and its relationship to temperature . Habilitation thesis. Halle-Wittenberg 1906.
  3. ↑ Source: Biochemische Zeitschrift 196 (1928): 1
  4. ↑ Source: Dt. Ärzteblatt from February 28, 1991
  5. ↑ Source: Eckart Otto. Max Weber's Studies of Ancient Judaism . Mohr Siebeck 2002. P. 54 ff. Quote from the Weber - Lesser correspondence

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Lesser, Ernst Josef
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lesser, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physiologist
DATE OF BIRTH December 7, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Szczecin
DATE OF DEATH March 1, 1928
Place of death Mannheim