Paul Grawitz

Paul Grawitz

Paul Albert Grawitz (born October 1, 1850 in Zerrin , Bütow district , † June 27, 1932 in Greifswald ) was a German physician and pathologist . His name is now associated with the description of the Grawitz tumor ( Grawitz tumor , hypernephroma or renal cell carcinoma).

Life

Grawitz was born in 1850 as the son of the landowner Wilhelm Grawitz and his wife Agnes, b. Fischer, born in Western Pomerania . He first studied medicine at the University of Halle and moved to Berlin University in 1870 . During his studies he became a member of the Germania Halle fraternity in the winter semester of 1869/70 . It was in 1873 with the work "Two rare tumor cases, together with observations on the Contraktilität of tumor cells"  doctorate . After he was already a student trainee with Rudolf Virchow , Grawitz worked from 1875 to 1886 as an assistant at Virchow's pathological institute. Here he completed his habilitation in pathology and pathological anatomy in 1884 .

In 1886 Grawitz was appointed associate professor at the University of Greifswald , where he succeeded Friedrich Grohé in the chair for pathological anatomy, which he held until his retirement in 1921. In 1886 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina .

In Greifswald, he expanded the pathological specimen collection started by Grohé into a museum set up for this purpose in 1905. In 1909 he published a 700-page museum guide, which also served as a guide for self-study of pathological anatomy and as a textbook for students. Grawitz was a popular university professor . The Prussian state appointed him a secret medical councilor . Grawitz was rector of the university in 1896/97 and wrote the commemorative publication of the medical faculty for the 450th anniversary of the university in 1906 . He was twice chairman of the Greifswald Medical Association , one of the oldest medical-scientific societies in German-speaking countries that still exists today, and later, like Virchow, an honorary member of the association.

Grawitz died in Greifswald in 1932 and was honored by Otto Lubarsch in an obituary as the Nestor of German Pathology. Grawitz was buried in a grave of honor in the Greifswald old cemetery .

plant

The Grawitz tumor associated with his name or "Struma lipomatodes aberrata renis" (renal cell carcinoma) was described by Grawitz as early as 1883 in Berlin. At that time, however, he assumed that the tumor he described consisted of immigrated adrenal tissue (hence the old name "hypernephroma"; the adrenal gland is also called glandula adrenalis or glandula suprarenalis ; hyper means above ; the kidney is called ren in Latin and nephron in ancient Greek ; the suffix -om indicates a tumor).

When he was appointed to Greifswald, Grawitz was considered the "most controversial, but at the time undoubtedly most important researcher" in his field. Grawitz's scientific interests were broad, but mostly connected with an inflammatory process. So he worked to mold and bred the first pure cultures of the pathogenic fungi Trichophyton schoenleinii (causative agent of Favus , even "favid"), Trichophyton tonsurans (causative agent of tinea corporis gladiatorum , also " Matt fire " or "Ringerflechte") or Malassezia (causative agent of Pityriasis versicolor ).

Other areas of work were cardiac hypertrophy after nephritis , peritonitis or the cause of inflammation by chemical substances. Here Grawitz demonstrated that not only pathogens but also chemical substances can cause inflammation.

Grawitz '»slumber cell theory « about the inflammation-stimulated transformation of connective tissue and elastic fibers in the intercellular space into leukocytes with nuclear and cellular substance and thus the formation of cells from connective tissue led to numerous controversies at the time. It did not last. However, in the 1950s, his grandson Paul Busse-Grawitz tried to support this theory.

family

Grawitz 'younger brother was the hematologist Ernst Grawitz (1860-1911). From the marriage of Grawitz's daughter Lotte with the pathologist Otto Busse (1867-1922) came the grandson Paul Busse-Grawitz (1900-1983), who also worked as a pathologist. Grawitz's nephew was the later " Reichsarzt SS "  Ernst-Robert Grawitz (1899–1945).

Fonts

• About the development of pathological tumors. Reimer, Berlin 1884.
• Atlas of pathological tissue theory. Schoetz, Berlin 1893
• History of the Medical Faculty Greifswald 1806–1906. Abel, Greifswald 1906 ( digitized version ).
• Instructions for self-study of pathological anatomy. Guide through the museum of the pathological institute in Greifswald. Adler, Greifswald 1909.

literature

• Wilhelm Katner:  Grawitz, Paul Albert. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 7, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1966, ISBN 3-428-00188-5 , p. 13 f. ( Digitized version ).

Web links

• Literature by and about Paul Grawitz in the catalog of the German National Library
• Literature about Paul Grawitz in the state bibliography MV

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ernst Elsheimer (ed.): Directory of the old fraternity members. Edition 1925/26. Frankfurt am Main 1925/26, p. 140.
2. ^ Otto Lubarsch : Paul Grawitz †. Virchow's Archives 1932; 286 : I-II. doi : 10.1007 / BF01887233
3. ↑ Paul Grawitz: The so-called lipomas of the kidney. Arch Path Anat. 1883; 94 : 39-63. doi : 10.1007 / BF01929242
4. ↑ Sabine Schuchart: Paul Albert Grawitz was wrong, but his name stayed , in: Deutsches Ärzteblatt , Volume 117, Issue A, Issue 4/2020 of January 24, 2020, p. [52].
5. ^ Paul Albert Grawitz: The development of kidney tumors from adrenal tissue , Archive for Clinical Surgery , Volume 30, Berlin 1884, pp. 824-834.
6. ^ Gottfried Holle: Lines of development of morphological research in the mirror of the Greifswald chair for pathological anatomy. Zbl Path 1982; 126 : 417-423.

predecessor	Office	successor
Victor Schultze	Rector of the University of Greifswald 1896	Jakob Weismann