Nobutsugu Koenuma

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Grave of Nobutsugu Koenuma in the cemetery of Wriezen
Koenuma monument in the park in front of the town hall

Nobutsugu Koenuma (also Koyenuma ; Japanese 肥 沼 信 次 , Koenuma Nobutsugu ; born October 9, 1908 in Hachiōji ; † March 8, 1946 in Wriezen ) was a Japanese doctor who worked in Germany.

Life

Nobutsugu Koenuma was born in the Japanese city of Hachiōji near Tokyo as the eldest son of a surgeon and his wife.

Koenuma completed his medical degree at the Japanese Medical School in Tokyo and later worked as a research assistant in the Department of Radiology in the Medical Faculty of the Imperial University of Tokyo .

In the spring of 1937 Koenuma came to Germany as a Japanese government scholarship holder. He first studied at the cooking institute of the Berlin Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität (today Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin ), but then switched to their institute for radiation research as a scientific guest. In 1939 Koenuma received a scholarship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation .

Over the next four years he worked initially as a research assistant and later as a scheduled assistant at the Institute for Radiation Research. As early as 1937 he had published numerous specialist articles. In February 1944 Koenuma completed his habilitation thesis on the subject: "About the mechanism of action of X-rays and the ultraviolet on aqueous protein and thymonucleic acid solutions".

With the Eastern Front approaching Berlin in 1945, the Japanese embassy recommended all compatriots to leave Berlin. Due to a love affair with a German, Koenuma decided to stay close to Berlin.

After the defeat of Germany and the establishment of the Soviet occupation zone in East Germany, Koenuma was summoned by the Soviet district commander to Wriezen in September 1945 to be the chief doctor there to fight the rampant infectious diseases, especially typhus . The epidemic station was set up in the building of today's town hall of Wriezen.

Under adverse conditions and at the risk of his life, Koenuma treated countless epidemic patients in Wriezen - almost all of them German refugees from the former German eastern regions, made house calls and tried to acquire the drugs that were needed in large quantities.

As a result of the lack of hygiene in the epidemic ward, he fell ill with typhoid fever himself in February 1946 , from which he died on March 8, 1946.

For his services he was posthumously made an honorary citizen of the city of Wriezen on July 3, 1994 .

In December 2008, the Koyenuma Fund was set up at the Oderbruch Foundation. The Japanese painter Tatsuhiko Yokoo and the German sculptor Axel Anklam were commissioned to create a memorial to Koenuma, on which the city of Wriezen holds a memorial event every year. He is buried in the cemetery right next to the memorial.

In memory of its Japanese honorary citizen, the city of Wriezen has named a beach park after him. The local high school has established lively German-Japanese relations with Koenuma's hometown in Japan through a student exchange program.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Koenuma, Nobutsugu
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 肥 沼 信 次 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese doctor in Germany
DATE OF BIRTH October 9, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Hachiōji
DATE OF DEATH March 8, 1946
Place of death Spices