Herxheimer, Gotthold

Pathologist

Born: 03.10.1872 in Wiesbaden

died: 24.02.1936 in Cape Town

Herxheimer, the son of a Jewish medical family who had lived in Wiesbaden for two generations, followed in the footsteps of his father Salomon Herxheimer (1842-1899) and studied medicine in Strasbourg, Berlin and Greifswald, where he received his doctorate. After several years as an assistant doctor in Göttingen and Frankfurt am Main, he took over the prosecture at the municipal hospital in Wiesbaden in 1902 and became a titular professor in 1907.

In 1920, he was one of the founders of the Association of West German Pathologists and, as an internationally recognized expert, was elected chairman of the German Pathological Society in 1931.

Herxheimer had either converted to the Protestant faith at a young age or was non-denominational. In 1933, he asked for a leave of absence due to his poor health, but was in fact forced to resign his post for racist reasons and emigrated to South Africa. By this time, thanks to his work, the small Wiesbaden institute had become a "center of pathological-anatomical work in Germany" (Zoske).