Erich Hoffmann Explained

Erich Hoffmann (25 April 1868  - 8 May 1959) was a German dermatologist who was a native of Witzmitz, Pomerania.

He studied medicine at the Berlin Military Academy, and was later a professor at the Universities of Halle and Bonn.

Hoffmann is remembered for his research performed with zoologist Fritz Schaudinn (1871-1906) at the Charité Clinic in Berlin. In 1905 Schaudinn and Hoffmann discovered the bacterium that was responsible for syphilis, a spiral-shaped spirochete called Treponema pallidum, which they first called Spirochaeta pallida.^{[1] [2]} The organism was removed from a papule in the vulva of a woman with secondary syphilis. The two doctors documented their findings in a treatise called Vorläufiger Bericht über das Vorkommen von Spirochaeten in syphilitischen Krankheitsprodukten und bei Papillome.^[3]

Hoffmann left Germany during the era of National Socialism, but returned to Bonn after the war and established a laboratory. In the late 1940s he published two books about his life in medicine, titled "Wollen und Schaffen" and "Ringen um Vollendung".

Selected publications

• Book: Hoffmann . Erich . Die Ätiologie der Syphilis . 1906 . Verlag von Julius Springer . Berlin . 9783642917196 . en.

Notes and References

1. Kohl . P. K. . Winzer . I. . [The 100 years since discovery of Spirochaeta pallida] ]. Der Hautarzt; Zeitschrift Fur Dermatologie, Venerologie, und Verwandte Gebiete . February 2005 . 56 . 2 . 112–115 . 10.1007/s00105-004-0892-3 . 15657727 . 0017-8470.
2. Souza . Elemir Macedo de . A hundred years ago, the discovery of Treponema pallidum . Anais Brasileiros de Dermatologia . October 2005 . 80 . 547–548 . 10.1590/S0365-05962005000600017 . en . 0365-0596. free .
3. Fritz Richard Schaudinn, Erich Hoffmann: Vorläufiger Bericht über das Vorkommen von Spirochaeten in syphilitischen Krankheitsprodukten und bei Papillomen. Arbeiten aus dem kaiserlichen Gesundheitsamtes (Berlin), vol. 22, pp. 527–534, 1905.