Otto Meyerhof

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Otto Meyerhof, 1923

Otto Fritz Meyerhof (born April 12, 1884 in Hanover , † October 6, 1951 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania ) was a German biochemist who, together with Archibald Vivian Hill , received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1922 for his research on the metabolism in muscles . In particular, the Stockholm Nobel Committee paid tribute to Meyerhof for his discovery of the relationship between oxygen consumption and lactic acid production in muscles.

Life

Memorial plaque to Otto Meyerhof at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel

Otto Fritz Meyerhof was born on April 12, 1884 to Jewish parents at Theaterplatz 16 A (today: Rathenaustraße) in Hanover ; the father Felix Meyerhof was a wealthy textile merchant; the mother Bettina, b. May, was a housewife. Around 1888 the Meyerhof family moved from Hanover to Berlin , where Otto Fritz graduated from high school in 1903 and then began studying medicine .

During this time he joined the circle of friends of the philosopher Leonard Nelson , who later taught in Göttingen , with whom he remained on friendly terms throughout his life. After Nelson's early death, together with Franz Oppenheimer and Minna Specht , he edited the treatises of the Fries' School, New Series , which Nelson had re-established until 1937 . It was here in 1907 that Meyerhof met his fellow student Arthur Kronfeld , who was also highly interested in philosophy . The math student and painter Hedwig Schallenberg, whom he married in 1914, also belonged to the group. The marriage had three children: daughter Bettina, married Emerson, later became a pediatrician, son Gottfried ("Geoffrey") (1916–2003) became a well-known civil engineer in Canada, and son Walter (1922–2006) became a physics professor at the Stanford University .

He continued his studies in Freiburg , Strasbourg and Heidelberg continues and doctorate here in December 1909 with Franz Nissl , director of the Psychiatric University Hospital , with one on the work of the philosopher Jakob Friedrich Fries based epistemological work which was entitled "Contributions to the psychological Theory of Insanity ". He dealt with psychoanalysis in a working group led by his friend Kronfeld, while Otto Warburg got interested in the biochemical research of muscle metabolism and familiarized himself with it at the clinic where Viktor von Weizsäcker also worked . Inspired by Warburg, Otto Meyerhof worked in 1910/1911 at the Stazione Zoologica in Naples on the biochemistry of fertilized sea urchin eggs.

In 1912 Meyerhof went to Kiel University , completed his habilitation in 1913 and became a professor there in 1918.

In 1922, as an assistant at the Physiological Institute at Kiel University, he and AV Hill were awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for research into energy conversion in muscles.

The offer of a professorship in the United States , which he received after the Nobel Prize in 1923, he proposed in 1924 in favor of the appointment to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Biology in Berlin, from where he in 1929 to that of Ludolf von Krehl initiated Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg , where he worked as director of the Physiological Department from 1930 and made other groundbreaking discoveries. During this time Gustav Embden , Otto Meyerhof and Jakub Parnas clarified the mechanism of glycolysis (Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas-Weg). Meyerhof was elected a full member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences in 1931 . He dedicated himself to the phosphorylated energy suppliers of the intermediate metabolism (ATP). The "Meyerhof quotient" is the relationship between anaerobic degradation and aerobic reconstruction. In 1935 Otto Meyerhof was withdrawn from his honorary professorship, which had existed since 1929, for racist reasons. In 1937 he left the academy and since 1947 he was re-admitted as a corresponding member.

As the director of an institute that was not directly state-owned, Meyerhof was initially able to keep the management of the institute in 1933, regardless of his Jewish origin, but the Baden Minister of Education revoked his teaching license in 1935 under National Socialist influence . In the following years, the institute colleagues stuck to Meyerhof, but the working conditions deteriorated to the point of unbearable, so that Meyerhof fled to Switzerland in September 1938 with the help of his former student Alexander von Muralt and from there went to Paris . In 1940 he fled from the invading German troops to the United States via Spain and Portugal. There the Rockefeller Foundation paid him a research professorship in physiological chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia . In 1949 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences . Here he died of his second heart attack at the age of 67, having survived the first seven years before.

In 2001, the University of Heidelberg erected an honorable memorial in his memory with the establishment of the Otto Meyerhof Center for Outpatient Medicine and Clinical Research .

The Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology awards the Otto Meyerhof Prize every two years to outstanding young scientists in the field of molecular and cell biology.

On April 23, 2018, a new city sign was attached to Otto Meyerhof's birthplace in Hanover; the old tablet had disappeared for years for unknown reasons.

literature

  • Ekkehard Hieronimus : Otto Meyerhof , in: Life and fate. On the inauguration of the synagogue in Hanover , with photos by Hermann Friedrich et al., Publisher: Landeshauptstadt Hanover, press office, in collaboration with the Jewish Community of Hanover eV, Hanover: [Beeck in commission], [1963], pp. 150–160
  • Joseph S. Fruton: Meyerhof, Otto . In: Charles Coulston Gillispie (Ed.): Dictionary of Scientific Biography . tape 9 : AT Macrobius - KF Naumann . Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 1974, p. 359 .
  • Wolfgang U. Eckart : Otto Meyerhof. In: Wolfgang U. Eckart and Christoph Gradmann (eds.): Ärztelexikon. From antiquity to the 20th century. Beck, Munich 1995, pp. 252-253; Medical glossary. From antiquity to the present. 2nd Edition. Springer, Berlin 2001, p. 219 f .; 3. Edition. Springer, Berlin 2006, p. 228, doi: 10.1007 / 978-3-540-29585-3 .
  • Michael Engel :  Meyerhof, Otto. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-428-00198-2 , pp. 393-396 ( digitized version ).
  • Eberhard Hofmann : Otto Meyerhof - humanist and natural scientist. From philosophy to the Nobel Prize. In: Acta Historica Leopoldina. No. 65, 2016, pp. 299–369. * Gottfried Meyerhof: Memories of the life of Otto Meyerhof in Germany. In: Naturwissenschaftliche Rundschau . 44th year, 1991, issue 19, pp. 384–386.
  • David Nachmansohn , Severo Ochoa and Fritz Lipmann : Otto Meyerhof. In: Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA. Volume 34, 1960, pp. 152-182.
  • Hans Hermann Weber : Otto Meyerhof. The implementation of the energy of the nutrients in the performance of living things. In: Hans Schwerte , Wilhelm Spengler (ed.): Researchers and scientists in Europe today. 2. Physicians, biologists, anthropologists (= designers of our time. Vol. 4). Stalling, Oldenburg 1955, pp. 246-255.

Web links

Commons : Otto Fritz Meyerhof  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ List of Nobel Prize winners for Physiology and Medicine on the website of the German Historical Museum .
  2. ^ Walter Selke , Christian Heppner: The family of the Nobel Prize winner Otto Meyerhof in Hanover. In: Hannoversche Geschichtsblätter. Volume 71, 2017, ISBN 978-3-86525-602-7 , pp. 156-166.
  3. ^ Dawn Levy, Walter Meyerhof, professor emeritus of physics, dies at 84 , Stanford Report, June 7, 2006. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
  4. ↑ a b Wolfgang U. Eckart : Otto Meyerhof , in: Wolfgang U. Eckart and Christoph Gradmann (eds.): Ärztelexikon. From antiquity to the present , 3rd edition 2006 Springer Verlag Heidelberg, Berlin, New York p. 228. Ärztelexikon 2006 , doi: 10.1007 / 978-3-540-29585-3 .
  5. ↑ Otto Meyerhof: On the energetics of cell processes. Medical habilitation thesis Keil 1913.
  6. ^ Wolfgang U. Eckart : Meyerhof, Otto. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 984 f.
  7. ^ Wolfgang U. Eckart: Meyerhof, Otto. In: Encyclopedia of Medical History. 2005, p. 984 f.
  8. ↑ Bernd Sperlich, who was born in Hanover, wins the Nobel Prize
personal data
SURNAME Meyerhof, Otto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Meyerhof, Otto Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American biochemist, Nobel Prize winner
DATE OF BIRTH April 12, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Hanover
DATE OF DEATH October 6, 1951
Place of death Philadelphia , Pennsylvania