Julius Morgenroth

Julius Morgenroth

Julius Morgenroth (born October 19, 1871 in Bamberg ; died December 20, 1924 in Berlin ) was a German doctor and the founder of chemotherapy in Germany.

life and work

Julius-Morgenroth-Platz, Berlin

Julius Morgenroth, who came from a Jewish family, studied medicine at the universities of Freiburg , Würzburg and Munich , where he obtained his doctorate in 1896. He then worked briefly in Frankfurt / Main, where the pathologist and anatomy professor Carl Weigert and the neurologist Ludwig Edinger imparted important knowledge.

In 1897 Morgenroth went to Berlin, where he became assistant to the serologist Paul Ehrlich at the "Institute for Serum Testing" . From 1899 to 1905 Morgenroth then worked in the Frankfurt "Institute for Experimental Therapy" founded and directed by Ehrlich (later the Paul Ehrlich Institute ). After a short study visit to the Naples Zoological Station , he was director of the bacteriological department of the Charité's Pathological Institute in Berlin from 1906 to 1919 . He then headed the newly established department for chemotherapy at the Berlin Institute for Infectious Diseases (today the “ Robert Koch Institute ”). Morgenroth also taught as ao. Professor at the Friedrich Wilhelms University

Today Morgenroth is best known for the immunity theory he helped develop and chemotherapy, of which he is considered to be a co-founder. He realized that bacterial infections can be cured with the help of chemotherapy. In the course of this research, Morgenroth found a highly effective chemotherapeutic drug against pneumococci in the quinine derivative Optochin . His research on bacterial pathogens causing wound infectious diseases ( streptococci , staphylococci , gas bacilli ) is also important. Morgenroth did some basic work here, especially during World War I. In derivatives of quinine he found preparations that cause internal disinfection. He developed the acridine compound "Rivanol" for local surgical wound disinfection.

Awards

• Appointment to the secret medical council.

Honors

In 1938 the street named after Morgenroth in Wilmersdorf was renamed "Dünkelbergsteig" by the National Socialists because of its Jewish origins, after the forest scientist and politician, Friedrich Wilhelm Dünkelberg (1819–1912). On September 2, 1996, the square in front of the citizens' office on Hohenzollerndamm was renamed "Julius-Morgenroth-Platz".

Publications (selection)

• About e. Case v. Purpura haemorrhagica, Diss. Munich 1896;
• About d. Influencing d. experimental trypanosome infection by quinine, in: SB d. Prussia. Ak. d. Wiss., 1910, 2nd half-vol., Pp. 732-48 (with L. Halberstädter);
• About d. Influencing d. experimental trypanosome infection by quinine and the like Quinine derivatives, ibid., 1911, 1st half-volume, pp. 30-37 (with dems.);
• About d. Healing effect v. Quinine derivatives b. experimental trypanosome infection, in: Berliner klin. Wschr. 48, 1911, pp. 1558-60 (with dems.);
• Chemotherapy d. Pneumococcal infection, ibid. 48, 1911, pp. 1560 f., 1979-83 (with R. Levy);
• About d. Effect d. China alkaloids on d. Cornea, ibid. 49, 1912, pp. 2183-85 (with S. Ginsberg);
• Experimental chemotherapy and problem d. internal disinfection b. bacterial infections, in: Die Naturwiss. 1, 1913, pp. 609-15;
• The reason d. experimental chemotherapy by Paul Ehrlich, ibid. 2, 1914, pp. 251-58;
• Recent advances u. Questions d. Chemotherapy, ibid. 12, 1924, pp. 219-30.

Web links

• Curriculum vitae in the German biography