Hans Herken

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Hans Herken (born  June 30, 1912 in Düsseldorf ; †  March 21, 2003 in Berlin ) was a German pharmacologist who was professor and director of the Institute for Pharmacology at the Free University of Berlin from 1953 to 1983 . He is considered a co-founder of biochemical pharmacology in Germany and was also significantly involved in the 1970s in the development of guidelines for the testing of new drugs and in the 1976 revision of the German Drugs Act .

Life

Grave site at the Dahlem forest cemetery

Hans Herken was born in Düsseldorf in 1912 and began studying medicine at the University of Erlangen , where he was also accepted into the Corps Baruthia in 1931 . He continued his studies at the Universities of Graz , Heidelberg and at the Medical Academy in Dusseldorf continued where he in 1936 with a thesis on the pathology of the lacrimal gland doctorate . Six years later he obtained his habilitation at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin , where he subsequently worked as a private lecturer .

After the Second World War , he was appointed to the Freie Universität Berlin , which had been newly founded five years earlier, in 1953 , where he succeeded Wolfgang Heubner as professor and director of the Institute for Pharmacology until 1983. From 1962 to 1964 he was chairman of the German Pharmacological Society. On thalidomide process from 1968 to 1970 he was involved as main auditor.

Hans Herken died in Berlin in 2003 and was buried in the forest cemetery in Berlin-Dahlem . One of his three children was the anatomist Rainer Herken .

Act

Hans Herken, who is considered one of the co-founders of biochemical pharmacology in Germany, published around 260 scientific publications over the course of his career , in particular on the treatment of edema , the pharmacological influence of brain functions and the induction of drug- degrading enzymes . He was significantly involved in the development of new diuretics . From 1957 he acted as co-editor of the specialist journal Naunyn-Schmiedebergs Archiv and for more than three decades as editor of the book series “Handbuch der Experimental Pharmakologie”.

In addition, he played a key role in the development of the Free University of Berlin and its Benjamin Franklin University Hospital and in the 1960s initiated the first German chair for clinical pharmacology as well as the establishment of university institutes for embryo pharmacology, clinical pharmacology and neuro-psychopharmacology. In the 1970s he also participated in the development of binding guidelines for animal testing and the clinical testing of new drugs, as well as in the 1976 revision of the German Drugs Act .

Awards

Hans Herken was accepted into the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina in 1977 and in the same year made an honorary member of the German Society for Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology , which also awarded him its highest distinction in 1981 with the Schmiedeberg plaque . Also in 1981 he received the Albrecht von Graefe Medal from the Berlin Medical Society . From 1989 he was an honorary member of the German Society for Internal Medicine . In addition, he received the Great Federal Cross of Merit .

Works (selection)

  • Manual of Experimental Pharmacology. Volume 24: Diuretics. Berlin 1969 (as editor)
  • Animal testing of medicinal products. Frankfurt am Main 1981
  • Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology. Volume 102: Selective Neurotoxicity. Berlin and New York 1992 (as editor)
  • Post-war pharmacology in Berlin: memories of a piece of eventful university history from 1945–1960. Berlin 1999

literature

  • Franz von Bruchhausen: Obituary Prof. Dr. med. Hans Herken. In: BIOspectrum. 9 (3) / 2003. Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, p. 291, ISSN  0947-0867
  • Günter Schultz: Hans Herken 1912-2003. In: BIOspectrum. 9 (4) / 2003. Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, p. 397, ISSN  0947-0867
  • Personal details - Died. Prof. Dr. med. Hans Herken. In: Deutsches Ärzteblatt . 100 (21) / 2003. Deutscher Ärzte-Verlag, p. A1465, ISSN  0012-1207
  • Klaus-Henning Usadel: In memoriam. Prof. Dr. med. Hans Herken. In: The internist. 44 (8) / 2003. Springer-Verlag, S. M165, ISSN  0020-9554

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1960, 19 , 1013
  2. ↑ Dissertation: Contribution to the pathological histology of the lacrimal gland .
  3. ↑ Habilitation thesis: About the hydrolysis of d-peptides by ferments from tissue extracts and serums .
personal data
SURNAME Herken, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pharmacologist
DATE OF BIRTH June 30, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Dusseldorf
DATE OF DEATH March 21, 2003
Place of death Berlin