Karl Lohmann (biochemist)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bust of Lohmann on the Biomedical Campus Berlin-Buch

Hans Karl Heinrich Adolf Lohmann (born April 10, 1898 in Bielefeld , † April 22, 1978 in East Berlin ) was a German biochemist. From 1937 to 1951 he was full professor of physiological chemistry at the Humboldt University in Berlin. From 1952 until his retirement in 1964 he was division manager at the Institute for Medicine and Biology in Berlin-Buch and Director of the Academy Institute for Biochemistry that emerged from it . From 1957 to 1964 he was President of the Institute for Nutritional Research of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin in Potsdam-Rehbrücke. His most important scientific achievement is the discovery of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in 1929.

Life

Karl Lohmann was born as the fifth child of a Westphalian farming family. He began studying chemistry at the University of Münster and graduated from the Georg-August University in Göttingen with a doctorate in 1924 . During his studies he became a member of the Alemannia Münster fraternity . At the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg he also completed a medical degree from 1931, which he finished with a medical doctorate in 1935. From 1924 to 1937 he worked as a research assistant for Nobel Prize winner Otto Meyerhof at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes for Biology and Medical Research in Berlin and Heidelberg . He then acted from 1937 to 1951 as a full professor of physiological chemistry and director of the Physiological-Chemical Institute at the Humboldt University in Berlin . Karl Lohmann was not a member of the NSDAP , the SA or the SS during the Nazi era . According to source studies, accusations of involvement with the Nazi regime cannot be proven. In his personal files, his humanistic sentiments and the distance he observed from the National Socialist regime were emphasized.

In the post-war period in Germany , Karl Lohmann was acting dean of the medical faculty of the Humboldt University in Berlin from 1945/46 . In this role he made a major contribution to the reopening of the university in January 1946. In 1947 he was, together with Otto Warburg and other well-known German scientists, a member of the board of trustees for the establishment of the Institute for Medicine and Biology of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin-Buch . From 1951 to 1961 Karl Lohmann acted as head of the biochemistry department at the Academy Institute for Medicine and Biology, from 1961 to 1964 as director of the institute for biochemistry that emerged from it , and from 1957 to 1964 as president of the institute for nutrition in Potsdam-Rehbrücke . In 1964 he retired.

Karl Lohmann was married to Helene Müller (1899–1980), the daughter of a Lüneburg medical council, and the father of two daughters. He died in East Berlin in 1978.

Scientific work

Karl Lohmann discovered adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in 1929 and developed methods for isolating ATP and for determining the ATP content of biological tissues . The “Lohmann reaction” is named after him, the reversible phosphate transfer from creatine phosphate to adenosine diphosphate (ADP) by the creatine kinase with the formation of ATP. It was the first description of a group-transferring enzyme reaction in the metabolism .

Karl Lohmann also described, partly together with Otto Meyerhof, numerous intermediate products and enzymes of the glycolysis chain : fructose-6-phosphate , dihydroxyacetone phosphate , glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate and phosphoenolpyruvic acid as well as glucose-6-phosphate isomerase , aldolase , triose phosphate isomerase and enolase . Together with Philipp Schuster, he succeeded in determining the structure of cocarboxylase in 1937, which they identified as a pyrophosphate derivative of vitamin B1 . Later research by Karl Lohmann and his colleagues dealt with inorganic polyphosphates in lower organisms and the metabolism of cancer cells as well as the effects of tumor inducers and inhibitors.

Honors

Karl Lohmann was appointed an external scientific member of the Heidelberg Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research on the initiative of Otto Meyerhof in 1938, which he was until 1948. In 1949 he became a full member of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin, which later became the Academy of Sciences of the GDR , and in 1955 of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina . The Humboldt University awarded him two honorary doctorates (1960 Dr. agr. Hc, 1966 Dr. med. Hc).

In 1951 he received the National Prize of the GDR and in 1958, on his 60th birthday, the Patriotic Order of Merit in silver . In 1978 he was honored with the Patriotic Order of Merit in gold. He received the Adolf Fick Prize in 1939 and was honored for his life's work in 1967 with the Cothenius Medal of the Leopoldina and in 1978 with the Helmholtz Medal of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR.

Lohmann medal

The Lohmann Medal is an award for medical professionals awarded by the Coordination Council of the Medical and Scientific Societies of the GDR. Anne Lise Schubel received it on her 80th birthday.

Karl Lohmann Prize

The Karl Lohmann Prize is awarded by the Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. V. for particularly important work in the context of a doctorate in the field of biochemistry. It is awarded every two years to outstanding young scientists (under 35 years of age). The Biochemical Society of the GDR, as its chairman from 1962–1965, donated this prize in his honor and since German reunification it has been continued by the Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology .

literature

Web links

Commons : Karl Lohmann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Willy Nolte (Ed.): Burschenschafter Stammrolle. List of members of the German Burschenschaft according to the status of the summer semester 1934. Berlin 1934. p. 301.
  2. ^ Eberhard Hofmann : Otto Meyerhof and Karl Lohmann - pioneers of today's biochemistry in the shadow of their time. In: Acta Historica Leopoldina. N. 55, 331-382 (2010), p. 342
  3. ↑ Ute Deichmann : Escape - Participate - Forget. Chemists and biochemists during the Nazi era. Wiley-VCH, Weinheim 2001, p. 435
  4. ^ Ernst Klee : German Medicine in the Third Reich. Second edition. S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2001, ISBN 3-10-039310-4 , p. 118
  5. ^ Eberhard Hofmann : Otto Meyerhof and Karl Lohmann - pioneers of today's biochemistry in the shadow of their time. In: Acta Historica Leopoldina. N. 55, 331-382 (2010), p. 365
  6. ^ Eberhard Hofmann : Otto Meyerhof and Karl Lohmann - pioneers of today's biochemistry in the shadow of their time. In: Acta Historica Leopoldina. N. 55, 331-382 (2010), p. 366
  7. ^ Eberhard Hofmann : Otto Meyerhof and Karl Lohmann - pioneers of today's biochemistry in the shadow of their time. In: Acta Historica Leopoldina. N. 55, 331-382 (2010), p. 370
  8. ↑ Heinz Bielka : History of the medical-biological institutes Berlin book. Second edition. Springer Verlag, Berlin and Heidelberg 2002, ISBN 978-3-540-42842-8 , pp. 175-177
  9. ↑ In 1948 the KWI for Medical Research was transferred to the Max Planck Society.
  10. ↑ Berliner Zeitung , 25./26. February 1978, p. 4
  11. ^ Coordination Council of the Medical and Scientific Societies of the GDR (WorldCat)
  12. ^ Karl Lohmann Prize - Homepage of the Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Accessed on February 1, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Lohmann, Karl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lohmann, Hans Karl Heinrich Adolf (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German biochemist
DATE OF BIRTH April 10, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Bielefeld
DATE OF DEATH April 22, 1978
Place of death East Berlin