Erwin Jacobsthal

Wolfgang Jakob Erwin Jacobsthal (born May 30, 1879 in Strasbourg ; † April 28, 1952 in Pueblo Nuevo Tiquisate in Guatemala ) was a German bacteriologist and serologist .

Live and act

A stumbling block for Erwin Jacobsthal in front of the UKE

Erwin Jacobsthal was a son of the music professor Gustav Jacobsthal . From 1896 to 1901 he completed a medical degree at the University of Strasbourg . He received his license to practice medicine and did his doctorate in 1902 on "Typhus bacilli in the bark". He then worked as an assistant doctor for seven years. He dealt with a wide range of topics in internal medicine, infectious, mental, skin and sexually transmitted diseases. He also dealt intensively with bacteriology, serology and pathological anatomy. In addition to Strasbourg, he practiced in Wiesbaden, Frankfurt am Main and Marburg.

In 1909 Jacobsthal went to Hamburg as a secondary doctor at the Pathological Institute of the St. Georg General Hospital . Here he should set up and manage a bacteriological-serological laboratory. In 1912 he was promoted to senior physician in charge. Jacobsthal worked bacteriologically in particular on the control of diphtheria . Serologically, he concentrated on diagnosing syphilis . After receiving his habilitation in bacteriology and serology in 1919, he taught as a private lecturer at the Medical Faculty of Hamburg University . In 1928 the health authorities appointed him "Senior Senior Physician and Professor". In more than 50 publications he described pathological and bacteriological investigations. He dealt in particular with the serology of syphilis, with which he became internationally known. Jacobsthal discovered the cold bond in the Wassermann reaction , which is still considered decisive today. He was an active member of the Medical Association Hamburg and the Natural Science Association in Hamburg. He was also involved in the German Pathological Society , the German Dermatological Society and the Free Association for Microbiology .

Jacobsthal was originally of the Jewish faith, but brought up Christian. Before his marriage to Louise Romeiss, he was baptized in 1905 and converted to the Lutheran faith. The National Socialists still regarded him as a "non-Aryan". On the basis of the law to restore the civil service , Jacobsthal was therefore no longer allowed to teach since July 1933 and lost his job in the hospital. He opened a practice as a resident specialist in serology with his own laboratory, which was most recently located in Rothenbaumchaussee . In July 1934, the couple left the German Reich and emigrated to Guatemala. In Guatemala City , he headed the bacteriological-serological laboratory of the Sanidad Pública. He also taught as a professor at the Bacteriological Institute of the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala . Due to political unrest, he had to give up these offices in 1945. He then headed the laboratories of the United Fruit Company .

Jacobsthal, who died in exile in 1952, wrote on several research assignments until the 1940s.

literature

• Anna von Villiez, Heiner Freiersleben: Jacobsthal, Erwin . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 6 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2012, ISBN 978-3-8353-1025-4 , p. 138-139 .