Paul Ehrlich

Background

Ehrlich was born 14 March 1854 in Strehlen in the Prussian Province of Silesia (now Strzelin, Poland). He was the second child of Rosa (Weigert) and Ismar Ehrlich, the leader of the local Jewish community. His father was an innkeeper and distiller of liqueurs and the royal lottery collector. After elementary school, Paul attended the Maria-Magdalenen-Gymnasium in Breslau, where he met Albert Neisser.

He studied medicine in Breslau and Strasbourg from 1872, with a short stay in Freiburg, and received his doctorate in Leipzig in 1878. He married Hedwig Pinkus in 1883 in the synagogue in Neustadt. The couple had two daughters, Stephanie and Marianne. After completing his clinical education and habilitation at the Charité in Berlin in 1886, Ehrlich travelled to Egypt and other countries in 1888 and 1889, in part to cure a case of tuberculosis.

Upon his return he established a private medical practice and small laboratory in Berlin-Steglitz. In 1891, Robert Koch invited Ehrlich to join the staff at his Berlin Institute of Infectious Diseases. In 1896 a new branch, the Institute for Serum Research and Testing, was established for Ehrlich's specialisation. In 1899 his institute moved to Frankfurt am Main and was renamed the Institute of Experimental Therapy.

In 1906 Ehrlich became the director of the Georg Speyer House in Frankfurt. In 1914, Ehrlich signed the Manifesto of the Ninety-Three. On 17 August 1915 Ehrlich suffered a heart attack and died on 20 August in Bad Homburg. He was buried at the Old Jewish Cemetery in Frankfurt.

Did You Know?

• He developed a dry specimen technique for differentiating white blood cells.
• Ehrlich's reagent was a pigment solution used for a urine test to distinguish types of typhoid.
• He was awarded the Cameron Prize of the University of Edinburgh in 1914.