Walther Ahrens

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Walther Ahrens

Walther Christian Bernhard Friedrich Ahrens (born March 31, 1910 in Teupitz ; † July 8, 1981 in Dresden ) was a German microbiologist and hygienist .

Life

Walther Ahrens was the son of the psychiatrist Wilhelm Ahrens. This worked as the director of the Neuruppin state institute, which he tried to save from National Socialism . That is why he was released in November 1933 and moved to Halle (Saale) . Walther himself had been educated at a grammar school in Sorau since 1919 , where he received his school- leaving certificate in 1930 . Then he began to study medicine at the Georg-August University in Göttingen . There he became active in the Corps Hildeso-Guestphalia Göttingen . When he was inactive, he moved to the Friedrich Alexander University and the University of Innsbruck . Temporarily back in Göttingen, he went to the Schlesische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität and finally to the Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg . There he passed his medical examination in 1936. He then did internships in Berlin and Oranienburg . He was then approved and then in 1937 assistant at the Leipzig University Hospital . From 1938 he worked as an assistant at the investigation office of the Hygiene Institute at the University of Halle. In 1939 he was promoted to Dr. med. PhD . In connection with this he was promoted to assistant in the investigation office.

From 1940 he served as a private in the medical service of the Wehrmacht , in the medical replacement department in Leipzig. In the same year he joined the National Socialist German Workers' Party . He also became a member of the National Socialist Aviation Corps and the National Socialist People's Welfare . From 1942 on he worked as a senior platoon leader for the air raid paramedics in Halle-Nord. During the war, he worked out a way of quickly diagnosing typhus with dry blood . Nevertheless, he did not belong to the networks of researchers of the Schutzstaffel and the Wehrmacht. In December 1945 he was finally released; the Soviet military administration allowed him to continue working informally. In 1946 he completed his habilitation in microbiology and hygiene.

After that, Ahrens first became a representative of the hygienist Paul Schmidt (1872–1950). In 1947 he was promoted to senior assistant, the next year to lecturer and in 1951 to professor with teaching assignment . In the following year, however, he became professor of hygiene and director of the Institute for Hygiene and Microbiology at the Technical University of Dresden . In 1954 he also began teaching hygiene, microbiology and epidemiology at the Dresden Medical Academy . There he was promoted to full professor in 1969 , which he remained until his retirement in 1975. He took over the management of the Institute for Medical Microbiology and Epidemiology on a provisional basis in 1969, and from 1971 to 1975 in full.

Ahrens found new methods of diagnosing epidemics . He also made sure that pathogens causing epidemic diseases can be more easily detected. He used milk sugar as a nutrient medium , which he received as centrifuge sludge from dairies. He also found a new disinfectant against tuberculosis bacteria .

literature

  • Dorit Peschel:: The professors of the TU Dresden 1828 - 2003 , Böhlau Verlag, Cologne, 2003, p. 37f.
  • Caris-Petra Heidel, Marina Lienert: The professors of the Medical Faculty Carl Gustav Carus Dresden and its predecessor institutions 1814 - 2013 , course Saur Munich, 2014

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1996, 77 , 462.
  2. ↑ Dissertation Investigations with the dry blood sample according to Chediak for the diagnosis of syphilis and their significance in relation to other syphilis reactions .
  3. ↑ Harry Waibel : Servants of many masters. Former Nazi functionaries in the Soviet Zone / GDR. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 2011, ISBN 978-3-631-63542-1 , p. 19.
  4. ^ Habilitation thesis Serodiagnostische Schnellformen zur Disease Diagnosis, 1947 .
personal data
SURNAME Ahrens, Walther
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ahrens, Walther Christian Bernhard Friedrich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German microbiologist and hygienist
DATE OF BIRTH March 31, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Teupitz
DATE OF DEATH July 8, 1981
Place of death Dresden