Friedrich Dessauer

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Friedrich Dessauer, around 1932

Friedrich Dessauer (born July 19, 1881 in Aschaffenburg ; † February 16, 1963 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German physicist , especially biophysicist in Germany, Turkey (1934 to 1937) and Switzerland, X-ray pioneer , philosopher, member of the Reichstag at the center , socially committed entrepreneur and publicist .

Life

Friedrich Dessauer was born the tenth child of an industrialist couple. His father Philipp Dessauer (1837–1900), whose ancestor was Alois Dessauer , was the founder of the white paper and cellulose factory in Aschaffenburg. His mother was Elisabeth Maria Karoline Vossen (1843–1920), the daughter of paint manufacturer Franz Daniel Vossen from Liège. His nephew was Guido Dessauer . Already in his youth he was fascinated by scientific and medical research, especially the X-rays discovered by Conrad Röntgen in Würzburg in 1895 and their medical uses.

Dessauer studied electrical engineering and physics at the University of Munich and at the TH Darmstadt from 1899. His first publication in 1903 dealt with the new X-ray method. Radiation damage during his research into the use of X-rays severely damaged his face and he received multiple plastic surgeries. In connection with this, he was exempted from military service. Due to the death of his father, he first interrupted his studies, continued it from 1914 at the University of Frankfurt am Main and then graduated in 1917 with the state examination in biophysics and with the dissertation on a new high-voltage transformer and its application to generate penetrable X-rays . Before that, he first set up a laboratory, then the VEIFA company with up to 500 employees for X-ray machines and other medical devices, from which he parted in 1916. In 1921 Dessauer became head of the newly founded Institute for Physical Basics of Medicine in Frankfurt.

After the First World War he joined the Center Party and in March 1919 became a member of the Frankfurt City Council and the Frankfurt Center Board. As a socially minded employer, he campaigned for overcoming the class struggle and supported the cooperation between the center, SPD and DDP in the Frankfurt city council. His special interest was economic and social policy. Dessauer was also elected First Chairman of the Caritas Association . From 1923 to 1934 he was a member of the Reichstag. In December 1924 he entered the Reichstag in Berlin . Dessauer was a member of the Reichstag until November 1933. From 1924 he was a member of the Reich Executive Committee of the Center Party. There he was close to the views of Joseph Wirth , so he belonged to the left wing of the party. Therefore, he also played a leading role in the democratic defense organization Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold and belonged to the pacifist peace union of German Catholics . As the founder and co-owner of the left -wing Catholic Rhein-Mainische Volkszeitung , whose publishing director he had appointed Josef Knecht , Dessauer warned early on of Nazism. In the parliamentary group he spoke out against the approval of the so-called Enabling Act in 1933 , but then agreed to join the parliamentary group. In 1933 he was removed from all his offices by the National Socialists. The center politician was arrested in July 1933 and charged with incitement to unfaithfulness in the “Small People's Association Trial” in Mönchengladbach , but acquitted on December 20, 1933 by the District Court President Starting, who publicly attested Dessauer “impeccable patriotic sentiments”.

Notwithstanding the acquittal, the University of Dessauer initially refused to teach . On February 6, 1934, students raided Dessauer's private house, Dessauer was temporarily arrested again and retired on May 14, 1934 because of "non-Aryan descent" under the Civil Service Act , as one of his grandfathers was Jewish. Dessauer now accepted an invitation to Turkey . After Dessauer's emigration to Turkey in 1934, his university “Institute for Physical Basics in Medicine” became a “ Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Biophysics” of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in 1937 . His former assistant, the biophysicist Boris Rajewsky (1893–1974), was allowed to rename it and pass it on. Dessauer was appointed professor of radiology and biophysics at the University of Istanbul . At the Medical Faculty of Istanbul he began to set up the Radiological Institute as director in 1934. He also founded a biophysical institute. In 1937 he was offered a position in Switzerland and, also for health reasons, he left Turkey, went to Switzerland and from 1938 taught at the Physics (or Biophysical-Radiological) Institute in Freiburg . In 1948 he returned from exile and, in accordance with his interests and publications, which were now focused on philosophical and theological questions, gave primarily lectures on the philosophy of science at the University of Frankfurt am Main, where he had been called back to his original chair in 1950. He had retained the management of the physics institute until his discharge. Dessauer died on February 16, 1963, like many radiation physicists, of the consequences of excessive radiation contamination, due to which he had several plastic facial operations performed on himself. He found his final resting place in the Aschaffenburg old town cemetery.

Services

Dessauer devoted most of his life to research into radioactivity, with particular emphasis on its applicability in medical technology. In 1920 he founded the Physical Foundation of Medicine there as an honorary professor at Frankfurt University and served as its director. In 1922 he was appointed to the University of Frankfurt a. M. to full professor. For example, due to his studies in 1922 on the mechanism of action of X-rays when they act on biological substances and processes, he is considered the founder of quantum biology . With hit theory, he was able to quantitatively record the effects of radiation on living cells.

Friedrich Dessauer is an honorary citizen of the cities of Frankfurt am Main and Aschaffenburg . The Friedrich-Dessauer-Gymnasium in Frankfurt-Höchst and the Friedrich-Dessauer-Gymnasium in Aschaffenburg, the Friedrich-Dessauer-Schule in Limburg as well as various other schools and the Friedrich-Dessauer-Straße in Frankfurt am Main are named after him. The largest Catholic student residence in Frankfurt am Main also bears his name (Friedrich-Dessauer-Haus). The VDE Rhein Main lends annually the Friedrich-Dessauer-Award for graduates with outstanding achievements in the fields of electrical engineering and information technology.

Awards

Works

  • Guide to the X-ray method. 1903; 6th edition 1924.
  • The temptation of the priest Anton Berg (under the pseudonym Jakob Stab). Josef Kösel Verlag, Munich 1921.
  • For the therapy of carcinoma with X-rays. Lectures on the physical basics of deep therapy. Publishing house Theodor Steinkopff, Dresden / Leipzig 1922.
  • Dosage and nature of the X-ray effect in depth therapy. Leipzig 1924.
  • Life, nature, religion: the problem of transcendent reality. Cohen, Bonn 1924.
  • Philosophy of technology. The problem of realization . Cohen, Bonn 1927.
  • Liberation of technology (with Karl A. Meissinger). JG Cotta'sche, Stuttgart / Berlin 1931.
  • Ten years of research in the physico-medical border area. Leipzig 1931.
  • Knowledge and confession: Discussion of ideological problems with special consideration of the book "Weltbild eines Naturforschers" by Arnold Heim . Walter, Olten 1944.
  • with Franz Xaver von Hornstein : soul under the spell of technology. Otto Walter, Olten 1945; 2nd, improved and expanded edition ibid / Freiburg im Breisgau 1952.
  • World journey of knowledge. Isaac Newton's life and work . Rascher, Zurich 1945.
  • Wilhelm C. Roentgen . One night's revelation. Walter, Olten 1945; 2nd edition 1946.
  • Atomic energy and atomic bomb. Comprehensive scientific presentation and appreciation. Otto Walter, Olten 1945; 2nd, extended edition Josef Knecht, Frankfurt am Main 1948.
  • Man and cosmos. One try. Otto Walter, Olten 1948; 2nd edition Josef Knecht, Frankfurt am Main 1949.
  • Religion in the light of modern science. Josef Knecht, Frankfurt am Main 1950.
  • Scientific knowledge; Contributions to natural philosophy . Josef Knecht Publishing House, Frankfurt am Main 1951
  • Teleology in nature. Ernst Reinhardt, Munich / Basel 1949 (= Faith and Knowledge. Volume 3).
  • Encounter between science and theology. Knecht, Frankfurt am Main
  • On the trail of infinity. Knecht, Frankfurt am Main
  • Weltmann - Christian? Knecht, Frankfurt am Main
  • On the edge of things. Knecht, Frankfurt am Main
  • Heritage and Future of the West. Marion von Schröder Verlag, Hamburg
  • The case of Galileo and us. Knecht, Frankfurt am Main
  • Quantum Biology: Introduction to a New Branch of Knowledge. Springer, Berlin / Göttingen / Heidelberg 1954 (2nd edition 1964)
  • Dispute over technology. Knecht, Frankfurt am Main 1956
  • The devil school. From the legacy of a doctor. Frankfurt a. M. 3rd edition 1957
  • Prometheus and the Evils of the World. Frankfurt Knecht, Frankfurt am Main 1959
  • Counterpoints of a researcher's life. Memories. American travel letters. Knecht, Frankfurt a. M. 1962

literature

  • Michael Habersack: Friedrich Dessauer (1881–1963): a political biography of the Frankfurt biophysicist and member of the Reichstag . Schöningh, Paderborn 2011, ISBN 978-3-506-77129-2 .
  • Bernd Haunfelder : Member of the Reichstag of the German Center Party 1871–1933. Biographical handbook and historical photographs (= photo documents on the history of parliamentarism and political parties. Volume 4). Droste, Düsseldorf 1999, ISBN 3-7700-5223-4 , p. 304.
  • Dieter Mayer: Friedrich Dessauer and the magazine "German Republic". On the use of a democrat against the destruction of the Weimar Republic . In: Alfred Engelmann (Ed.): Festschrift 1833-1938. 150 years of the Friedrich-Dessauer-Gymnasium Aschaffenburg . Aschaffenburg 1983, pp. 166-179.
  • Martin Goes: Friedrich Dessauer 1881–1963. On the person and on the expulsion by the National Socialists from office and fatherland . Aschaffenburg 1995
  • Martin Goes: Friedrich Dessauer (1881–1963): X-ray pioneer from Aschaffenburg and since 1934 in exile. In: Würzburg medical history reports. Volume 14, 1996, pp. 209-232.
  • Johannes Schaber:  Dessauer, Friedrich. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 14, Bautz, Herzberg 1998, ISBN 3-88309-073-5 , Sp. 924-932.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive  on 2007-06-13)
  • Werner E. Gerabek : Dessauer, Friedrich. In: Werner E. Gerabek, Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 295.
  • Ali Vicdani Doyum: Alfred Kantorowicz with special consideration of his work in İstanbul (A contribution to the history of modern dentistry). Medical dissertation, Würzburg 1985, pp. 78-81.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ali Vicdani Doyum: Alfred Kantorowicz with special reference to his work in İstanbul (A contribution to the history of modern dentistry). Medical dissertation, Würzburg 1985, p. 79.
  2. ↑ Ali Vicdani Doyum: Alfred Kantorowicz with special reference to his work in İstanbul (A contribution to the history of modern dentistry). Medical dissertation, Würzburg 1985, p. 79.
  3. ↑ Monika Ebert: Friedrich Dessauer - border crosser between physics and medicine . In: Aschaffenburg yearbook. Volume 16, 1993, pp. 341-360.
  4. ^ A. Bayer: The small people's association trial in December 1933 in Mönchengladbach . 1982, p. 17.
  5. ↑ Ali Vicdani Doyum: Alfred Kantorowicz with special reference to his work in İstanbul (A contribution to the history of modern dentistry). Medical dissertation, Würzburg 1985, p. 79 f.
  6. ↑ Ali Vicdani Doyum: Alfred Kantorowicz with special reference to his work in İstanbul (A contribution to the history of modern dentistry). Medical dissertation, Würzburg 1985, pp. 78-81
  7. ^ Aschaffenburg old town cemetery
  8. ^ Richard H. Beyler: Exhuming the Three-Man-Paper. Target-Theoretical Research in the 1930s and 1940s. In: Phillip R. Sloan, Brandon Fogel (Eds.): Creating a Physical Biology. The Three-Man-Paper and Early Molecular Biology. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago / London 2011, ISBN 978-0-226-76782-6 , pp. 99-132, here: pp. 106-111.
  9. ↑ Friedrich Dessauer School, Limburg (Lahn)
  10. ^ Viola Schneider: Friedrich Dessauer .
personal data
SURNAME Dessauer, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physicist, entrepreneur, publicist and politician (center), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH July 19, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Aschaffenburg
DATE OF DEATH February 16, 1963
Place of death Frankfurt am Main