Theodor Schwann

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Th.Schwan, lithograph by Rudolf Hoffmann (1857)

Theodor Ambrose Hubert Schwann (born December 7, 1810 in Neuss , † January 11, 1882 in Cologne ) was a German anatomist and physiologist . In 1943 Ehrlich and Martin named the Schwann sheath in nerve fibers and the Schwann cell after him. He discovered the gastric ferment pepsin in 1836 and showed in 1839 that animals like plants are made of cells .

Life

Theodor Schwann was the son of the goldsmith and publisher Leonard Schwann (1778–1867) and his wife Elisabeth born. Rottels. After elementary school, Theodor Schwann attended the Progymnasium in Neuss, then the Marzellengymnasium in Cologne, where he received his Abitur in 1829.

Theodor Schwann

Schwann studied medicine at the University of Berlin under Johannes Peter Müller , who taught many German physiologists of the 19th century. He began studying medicine in Bonn in 1829 , and later moved to Berlin via Würzburg . During his time in Würzburg (around 1830) he was a member of the Amicitia student union , which is now called the Germania fraternity again . In Berlin he received his doctorate in 1834 with De necessitate aeris atmospherici ad evolutionem pulli in the ovo incubito . In 1836, while he was at the University of Berlin, he discovered pepsin in the extracts of stomach lining, an enzyme responsible for digestion . Pepsin was the first enzyme to be isolated from animal tissue . In 1837 Schwann showed that something in the air that is destroyed by heat causes decay, but the air itself does not decay. In addition, he proved independently of Friedrich Traugott Kützing and Charles Cagniard de la Tour that microorganisms, yeasts , are responsible for alcoholic fermentation .

Schwann became professor of anatomy at the Catholic University of Leuven in 1838 and of physiology, general anatomy and embryology at the University of Liège in 1848 . There he found out that the fermentation of sugar and starch were the result of life processes. He also researched muscle contraction and nerve structure . He discovered the striated muscle of the upper esophagus , the nuclei of the smooth and striated muscle fibers and the myelin sheath of additional axons , called Schwann cells. Schwann coined the term “ metabolism ” to describe the chemical transformations that take place in living tissue and formulated the basic principles of embryology by observing that an egg is a single cell that eventually develops into a complete organism .

Grave of the Schwann family in the Melaten cemetery in Cologne

In 1839, together with Matthias Schleiden, Schwann developed the cell theory , which characterizes cells as the basic units ("elementary parts") of plants and animals. Schwann and Schleiden recognized that some organisms are unicellular while others are multicellular . They also recognized that membranes and cell nuclei are among the general characteristics of cells and described them by comparing different animal and plant tissues. These observations and the cell theory were summarized in Schwann's microscopic investigations on the correspondence in the structure and growth of animals and plants and published in Berlin in 1839.

Schwann continued to stimulate research in this area with his cell theory. Today he is considered to be the founder of modern tissue science. Theodor Schwann died at the age of 71. He was buried in the family grave at the Melaten cemetery in Cologne (MA, between Lit.H + HWG).

Awards and honors

memory

The Theodor Schwann Monument in downtown Neuss

In 1910 a street in Cologne-Riehl was named after him.

In Neuss there was a Theodor-Schwann-Gymnasium , which was dissolved in 1993 and merged with the Marie-Curie-Gymnasium in the city of Neuss. The first comprehensive school in Neuss, the Janusz Korczak comprehensive school , found its home in the buildings of the old Theodor Schwann grammar school . Today there is still a large seated statue in the center of Neuss, which was erected at the beginning of the 20th century and commemorates the city's great son. The house where he was born has been preserved and a street in Neuss was named after him. Since February 2008 the advanced training college of the city of Neuss has borne the name of the researcher, today it is called Theodor-Schwann-Kolleg. The Schwann Schleiden Research Center for Molecular Cell Biology has existed in Göttingen since October 2011 . The German Society for Neuropathology and Neuroanatomy (DGNN) has been awarding a Theodor Schwann Prize for outstanding contributions to its annual congresses since 2003.

literature

Web links

Commons : Theodor Schwann  - album with pictures, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Theodor Schwann  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ H.-E. Ehrlich, H. Martin, Schwannomas (Neurilemmomas) in the head and neck. Surg. Gynec. Obstet., 76, 577-583, 1943.
  2. ^ Claudia Chehab: On the 125th anniversary of the death of the natural scientist Theodor Schwann. Lecture from January 11, 2007 ( online  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.stadtarchiv-neuss.de  
  3. ^ Theodor Schwann (1837): Preliminary communication regarding experiments on fermentation and putrefaction . In: Annals of Physics and Chemistry . Vol. 41, pp. 184-193
  4. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 220.
  5. ^ Entry on Schwann, Theodor Ambrose Hubert (1810 - 1882) in the archive of the Royal Society , London
  6. ^ List of members since 1666: Letter S. Académie des sciences, accessed on February 28, 2020 (French).
  7. ^ Rüdiger Schünemann-Steffen: Cologne Street Names Lexicon , 3rd exp. Ed., Jörg-Rüshü-Selbstverlag, Cologne 2016/17, p. 772.
  8. ↑ Further education college is now called Theodor Schwann College. Press release of the city of Neuss, February 7, 2008 ( online )
  9. ↑ Neuro- and Plant Biology of the University of Göttingen move into a new building on the north campus Press release of the Georg-August University of Göttingen, October 13, 2011 ( [1] )
  10. ^ Theodor Schwann Prize at the German Society for Neuropathology and Neuroanatomy (dgnn.de); Retrieved October 19, 2012
personal data
SURNAME Schwann, Theodor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schwann, Theodor Ambrose Hubert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physiologist
DATE OF BIRTH December 7, 1810
PLACE OF BIRTH Neuss
DATE OF DEATH January 11, 1882
Place of death Cologne