Paula Hertwig

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Paula Hertwig 1947

Paula Julie Elisabeth Hertwig (born October 11, 1889 in Berlin ; † March 31, 1983 in Villingen-Schwenningen ) was a German biologist.

Life

Paula Hertwig at the founding congress of the Democratic Women's Association of Germany on 7–9. March 1947 in the Admiralspalast in Berlin.

The daughter of Oscar Hertwig , sister of the anatomist Günther Hertwig and niece of the zoologist Richard Wilhelm Karl Theodor Ritter von Hertwig studied zoology, botany and chemistry at the University of Berlin and was awarded a Dr. med. PhD. Then she was an assistant at the Anatomical-Biological Institute of the University of Berlin.

In 1919 she was the first woman to complete her habilitation in zoology at what was then Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin. Afterwards she was a private lecturer for general biology and genetics at this institute. In 1921 she was also appointed as an assistant at the Institute for Heredity and Breeding Research at the Agricultural University, where she worked for Erwin Baur . From 1927 to 1945 she was an associate professor for heredity at the Biological-Anatomical Institute of the Medical Faculty of Berlin University. As the first biologist at a German university, she taught biology for medical students there. In 1940 she was appointed head of the zoological department of the Institute for Heredity.

Paula Hertwig, who belonged to the German State Party , was elected to the Prussian Landtag in 1932 and again as a member of the last Prussian Landtag in February 1933.

During the time of National Socialism , she became a member of the Nazi lecturers ' association in 1937 , but did not join the NSDAP . From 1937 she worked with the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research and became secretary of the German Society for Hereditary Science . From 1939 she also worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Heredity and Breeding Research at the University of Berlin in Zehlendorf. From 1941 to 1942 she took part in the DFG research project genetic damage experiments on mice .

In May 1945 she received a call to the medical faculty of the University of Halle , where she became professor for general biology and genetics in 1948. At the founding congress of the Democratic Women's Association of Germany (DFD) in March 1947, she was elected a member of the federal executive committee. From 1947 to 1948 she was chairwoman of the Saxony-Anhalt regional association of the DFD and from March 1948 to March 1949 a member of the 1st People's Council in the Soviet Zone .

In 1953 she was elected a member of the Leopoldina . Since 1955 she was a member of the Saxon Academy of Sciences . In 1956 she received the National Prize of the GDR and the Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze and in 1959 the title of Outstanding Scientist of the People . She retired the following year.

In 1972 Paula Hertwig moved to Villingen in the Black Forest; in June of the same year the Medical Faculty of Heidelberg University awarded her an honorary doctorate.

Alongside Emmy Stein, Paula Hertwig is one of the founders of radiation genetics . The Hertwig-Weyers Syndrome , which describes oligodactyly in humans as a result of radiation exposure, is named after her and her colleague Helmut Weyers .

literature

  • Short biography for:  Hertwig, Paula . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
  • Andreas Herbst (eds.), Winfried Ranke, Jürgen Winkler: This is how the GDR worked. Volume 1: Lexicon of organizations and institutions, departmental union management , League for Friendship between Nations (= rororo-Handbuch. Vol. 6348). Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1994, ISBN 3-499-16348-9 , p. 190.
  • Sybille Gerstengarbe: Paula Hertwig: geneticist in the 20th century; a search for traces (Acta Historica Leopoldina series), Stuttgart: Wissenschaftliche Verlags-Gesellschaft 2012, ISBN 978-3-8047-3030-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Democratic Women's Federation of Germany (ed.): History of the DFD, Verlag für die Frau, Leipzig 1989, p. 68, ISBN 3-7304-0223-4 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Second updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, p. 248.
  3. ↑ Berliner Zeitung , March 11, 1947, p. 2.
  4. ^ Members of the SAW: Paula Hertwig. Saxon Academy of Sciences, accessed on October 27, 2016 .
  5. ^ New Germany , May 8, 1956, p. 2
personal data
SURNAME Hertwig, Paula
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hertwig, Paula Julie Elisabeth (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German biologist and politician, MdV, MdL
DATE OF BIRTH October 11, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH March 31, 1983
Place of death Villingen-Schwenningen