Kurt Walter Merz

Kurt Walter Merz (born July 11, 1900 in Freudenstadt , † July 21, 1967 in Freiburg ) was a chemist and pharmacologist.

Life

After graduating from high school , he was drafted in 1918, after the end of the war he began his pharmaceutical training in his parents' pharmacy in Haslach . After passing the pharmaceutical pre-examination in Karlsruhe , he studied pharmacy in Freiburg . After the state examination in 1924, he went to Frankfurt and studied chemistry with Carl Mannich . His doctorate in 1926 was on "About some phenol bases derived from l-phenyl-3-aminobutane". This was followed by medical studies in Würzburg and Heidelberg , which he completed with a doctorate in 1928. He obtained his license to practice as a pharmacist in 1928 and as a doctor in 1929. He was with Walther Straub in Munich for a year before joining Mannich at the Pharmaceutical Institute in Berlin from 1930 to 1936 . There he completed his habilitation in pharmaceutical chemistry in 1932 .

In 1936 Merz first got the call to Königsberg to take over the chair for pharmaceutical chemistry. In 1937 he was employed there as a full professor and director of the Pharmaceutical Institute. During the Second World War he was called up as a doctor, but was able to continue teaching. After being taken prisoner by the Soviets, he went to Stuttgart as a general practitioner from 1946 to 1948 , before receiving the call from the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg in 1948 to work as full professor and director of the Pharmaceutical Institute, which he rebuilt. 1959/1960 he was rector of the university.

Based on Mannich, Merz focused his work on drug synthesis, the synthesis of various glycosides , as well as test methods for antibiotics and pharmaceutical analysis . He was significantly involved in the "German Pharmacopoeia (DAB) 7" and the "International Pharmacopoeia".

His "Textbook of Pharmacology for Pharmacists, Chemists and Biologists" was an important standard work in pharmacology and appeared in nine editions between 1943 and 1965.

From 1958 to 1961 Merz was the President of the German Pharmaceutical Society .

Honors

Since 1965 he was a member of the Leopoldina

Works

Abstract:

• Basics of pharmacology for pharmacists, chemists and biologists, Stuttgart: Wiss. Verl.-Ges., 1944, 2nd, erg. And verb. Ed.
• The dimensional analytical determination of the iron preparations by DAB.G., Berlin-Schöneberg (: EF Keller), 1940
• About some phenol bases derived from 1-phenyl-3-aminobutane, Borna-Leipzig: Noske, 1926
• The pharmacon in our time, Freiburg i. Br .: Schulz, 1959
• Basics of pharmacology Stuttgart: Wissenschaftl. Verl.-Ges., 1965, 9., new edit. Ed.

literature

• Holm-Dietmar Schwarz:  Merz, Kurt Walter. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-428-00198-2 , pp. 203 f. ( Digitized version ).

predecessor	Office	successor
Anton Vögtle	Rector of the University of Freiburg 1959–1960	Hans Thieme