Kurt Feremutsch

Kurt Feremutsch (born June 6, 1920 in Grenchen , † August 9, 2004 in Biel / Bienne ) was a Swiss neuroanatomist .

Life

He experienced his childhood in Solothurn , where he also attended primary schools. After the 5th school year, he entered the grammar school of the Solothurn Cantonal School in 1932 . He graduated from middle school in autumn 1939 with a type B literary armature. In October 1939 he began studying medicine at the University of Bern . Even before he passed his state examination in 1945, he devoted himself to morphological studies under Hans Bluntschli , which resulted in the dissertation on the one hand and the work on the pre-gravid genital tract and pre-implantation on the other. During the semester break, he worked two times as a deputy assistant doctor at the Zug Citizens Hospital. Completion of medical studies at the University of Bern with the federal state examination was in December 1945. In February 1946 he received his doctorate in medicine with an embryological thesis on "The histogenesis of clavicle development" under the direction of Hans Bluntschli. Until 1947 he carried out scientific work under Bluntschli at the Anatomical Institute of the University of Bern, partly together with Strauss.

In March 1947 he joined the Brain Anatomy Institute of the Waldau Psychiatric University Clinic (director Jakob Klaesi ), where he worked as a research assistant and found his field of work in neuroanatomy, to which he remained loyal to the end. 1947 to September 1949 neuroanatomical studies under Ernst Grünthal . In addition to his work at the Brain Anatomy Institute, he also led the women's department at the sanatorium and was an expert. He learned EEG diagnostics under Maurice Rémy and later became the independent head of the EEG ward at the Waldau Clinic.

After two years at the Brain Anatomy Institute of the Psychiatric University Clinic Waldau, he returned to the Anatomical Institute of the University of Bern (Director Erich Hintzsche ) from 1949 to 1950 . In the 1950/51 academic year he took over the prosecution at the anatomical institute, as prosector Fritz Strauss was in the USA.

In 1950/51 he received further scientific training at the Waldau Brain Anatomy Institute as a scholarship holder of the Academy of Medical Sciences. From 1950 to 1955 he continued his brain anatomical work in the Waldau and was at times clinical assistant, department doctor and at the same time research assistant at the Brain Anatomy Institute. Cytoarchitectonic structural analysis of the diencephalon. Study of neuropathology.

In 1953 he stayed for a short study visit at the Brain Research Institute ( Hugo Spatz ) in Gießen to find out about the organization of this research center with a view to reorganizing the Brain Anatomy Institute in Waldau. After a stay at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Gießen in 1955, he left the Waldau and finally returned to the Anatomical Institute as an assistant.

In 1954 he completed his habilitation for brain anatomy and brain pathology with a thesis on "structural analyzes of the human hypothalamus" (expert opinion: Erich Hintzsche, Jakob Klaesi, Bernhard Walthard). In 1962 he was promoted to senior assistant ad personam and was appointed a member of International Brain Research (IBRO). In 1963, at the invitation of the Belgian research group, he became an official collaborator and speaker at the “Symposium on the méthodologie de la différenciation morphologique du thalamus humain normal”, which was held in Loewen as part of the symposia of the World Federation of Neurology. In 1965/66 he was entrusted with the lectures and leading the first dissection course.

In 1967 Kurt Feremutsch was promoted to full-time professor of anatomy, especially neuroanatomy and head of the neuroanatomy department at the Anatomical Institute of the University of Bern and, in addition to a few lectures in anatomy, took over lectures and courses in neuroanatomy. And so it remained until his retirement.

Feremutsch died on August 9, 2004 in Biel.

Services

1945–1949 five papers on general and special embryology were published , which were shaped by his teacher Prof. Hans Bluntschli . From 1948 neuroanatomical work followed, which initially dealt with the blueprint and the cytoarchitectonics of the endbrain, especially of subcortical structures, as well as the methodology of cytoarchitectural structural analysis. After some work on structural analyzes on the human brain, Feremutsch turned to comparative cytoarchitectonics of the endbrain in primates. Among the more than 30 papers on this topic are some on embryology and pathological anatomy of the central nervous system .

In recognition of this work, Feremutsch was commissioned in 1955 to write the chapters Basal Ganglia , Thalamus and Mesencephalon for the Primatology Handbook . These three chapters appeared in 1960–1965 and have around 500 pages. In addition, Feremutsch also published some original works on these topics. The 14 original papers published during this period essentially relate to a publication of these structural analysis papers on primates.

In 1982 he retired. His farewell lecture took place on November 23, 1982 in the community lecture hall (Gertrud Woker) of the University of Bern: "Anthropological outlook - The human body's particularities and his spiritual existence". His scientific field of work was particularly concerned with cytoarchitectonics, the elucidation of the order pattern of nerve cells in the gray matter of the brain, on which he has published around 50 papers, in addition to a series of dissertations that were created under his direction.

Throughout his life he was preoccupied with “the form, structure and shape of man” (Greek morphé); in the first place it was the architecture in the «organ of the soul» (1953), the context of morphology and «mental faculties» (1965), but also «anthropological-ontological aspects» which transcend the boundaries of anatomy and which in his farewell lecture ( 1982) found expression.

Works

• The histogenesis of clavicle development. Inaugural dissertation, Bern 1946
• Structural analysis of the human hypothalamus. In: Mschr. Psych. Neurol. 130 (1955) (also habilitation thesis)
• The basal ganglia of primates. In: Primatologia von Hofer, Schultz and Starck Vol. II / 2 nervous system. Karger Basel (1961)
• Thalamus (of the primates). In: Primatologia von Hofer, Schultz and Starck Vol. II / 2 nervous system. Karger Basel (1963)
• Mesencephalon. In: Primatologia von Hofer, Schultz and Starck Vol. II / 2 nervous system. Karger Basel (1965)

swell

• Kurt Feremutsch's estate at the Institute for Medical History at the University of Bern
• Lecturers at the University of Bern 1528–1984. Supplementary volume on the university history of Bern 1528–1984, ed. by the Commission for Bern University History, Ed .: Pietro Scandola, Bern 1984
• DBE online
• Kürschner's German Scholars Calendar 2005