Hansjürgen Matthies

Hansjürgen Matthies (6 March 1925 – 22 August 2008) was a German pharmacologist and neuroscientist.[1]

Hansjürgen Matthies
Born(1925-03-06)6 March 1925
Stettin, Pomerania, Germany
Died22 August 2008(2008-08-22) (aged 83)
Magdeburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany
OccupationPharmacologist
Neuroscientist
Academy Rector
Political partyNSDAP 1943
SED 1946
Spouse(s)2
Children6

He served as a professor and the Institute Director at the Magdeburg Medical Academy, and was also the director of another academic institute outside the university. Colleagues describe him as "the doyen of Neuroscience in Magdeburg" and more widely in the German Democratic Republic.[1] After the political changes of 1989/90 his work continued at the institution now remodelled as the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg and the closely associated Leibnitz Institute for Neurobiology.

Life

Matthies was born in Stettin in 1925. During the Second World War he was a soldier, joining the NSDAP (Nazi Party) in 1943, the year of his eighteenth birthday.[2] Towards the end of the war he was captured by the British, and on his release he became a member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands / SED), newly formed in April 1946 in the Soviet occupation zone within what remained of Germany. He embarked on the study of medicine, obtaining his doctorate, which he produced under the supervision of Friedrich Jung, from the Humboldt University of Berlin in 1953. He received his habilitation, a further academic qualification, in 1957.[3]

In 1957 he took over as director (installed from 1957 till 1960 as "acting director") of the Institute for Pharmacology and Toxicology which had been recently established within the Magdeburg Medical Academy.[3] He became a professor in 1959 and in 1960 was given a teaching professorship at The Academy.[3] Between 1962 and 1967, and again from 1973 till 1979, he was also Rector of the Medical Academy.[3]

In 1981 he founded the Magdeburg Institute for Neurbiology and Brain research, which he headed up as its Director.[4] During 1992/93 Magdeburg University underwent a far reaching reconfiguration, which led to its re-emergence with a new name. The Research Institute that Mattheis had founded back in the days of the German Democratic Republic re-emerged in 1991/92 as the Leibnitz Institute for Neurobiology. However, in 1990 Hansjürgen Matthies had reached his sixty-fifth birthday, and this was the year in which he formally retired from his academic responsibilities.

He died in Magdeburg in 2008.

Work
Publications (not a complete list)
  • 10 Jahre Medizinische Akademie Magdeburg. Magdeburg 1964
  • Mathematische Modellierung von Lebensprozessen. Berlin 1972
  • Neurobiologie. Jena 1977 (als Mitautor; Neuauflage München 1994)
  • Medizinische Pharmakologie in zwei Bänden. München 1988
  • Orotsäure: Neurobiologische und biochemische Grundlagen ihrer Wirkung. Berlin 1989

He was the author of 467 scientific publications[3] including at least 11 substantial works.[5] The focus of his research was on the cellular mechanisms involved in human memory functions.

Awards and honours

Further reading
  • Matthies, Hansjürgen. In: Werner Hartkopf: Die Berliner Akademie der Wissenschaften. Ihre Mitglieder und Preisträger 1700–1990. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-05-002153-5, P. 233.
  • Hansjürgen Matthies. In: Monika Zimmermann (Editor/compiler): Was macht eigentlich...? 100 DDR-Prominente heute. Ch. Links, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-86-153064-3, P. 180−182.
  • Hansjürgen Matthies: Die Entwicklung der Neurowissenschaften in der DDR. Leute, Ereignisse und das Gedächtnis. Posthum herausgegeben von Renate Matthies, Henry Matthies, Jan Matthies, Janine Haschker, geb. Matthies. Klotz Verlag, Eschborn bei Frankfurt am Main und Magdeburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-88074-384-7.

References
  1. "Hansjürgen Matthies Honorary Lecture: Hansjürgen Matthies was the doyen of Neuroscience in..." (PDF). 13th Magdeburg International Neurobiological Symposium "Learning and Memory: Cellular and Systemic Views": Detailed Meeting Program. Leibniz-Institut für Neurobiologie (LIN), Magdeburg. 23 February 2015. p. 3. Retrieved 6 August 2015.
  2. Harry Waibel (2011). Diener vieler Herren: Ehemalige NS-Funktionäre in der SBZ/DDR. Lang, Frankfurt am Main. p. 212. ISBN 978-3-631-63542-1.
  3. "Über den Autor und weitere Mitwirkende". Amazon. Retrieved 7 August 2015.
  4. Dirk Hubrich (January 2014). "Verleihungsliste zum Ehrentitel "Hervorragender Wissenschaftler des Volkes" von 1952 bis 1989" (PDF). DGO – Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ordenskunde e. V., Königswinter. p. 9. Retrieved 7 August 2015.
  5. "Gesamter Bestand Hansjürgen Matthies". Katalog der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek. Deutsche Nationalbibliothek,Frankfurt am Main. Retrieved 6 August 2015.
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