Hellmuth Kleinsorge (* 12 April 1920 in Beuel; † 7 July 2001) was a German medical doctor.

Life

Hellmuth Kleinsorge studied medicine in

Jena Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...

. In 1953, after his dissertation and habilitation, he became director of the "Medizinische Poliklinik in Jena". In 1958 - 1960 he was also head of the medical faculty of Jena University (then in the

German Democratic Republic East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

). He was the first to show the blood sugar decreasing effect of

sulfonamide In organic chemistry, the sulfonamide functional group (also spelled sulphonamide) is an organosulfur group with the Chemical structure, structure . It consists of a sulfonyl group () connected to an amine group (). Relatively speaking this gro ...

s (particularly

carbutamide Carbutamide (brand name Glucidoral) is an anti-diabetic drug of the sulfonylurea class, developed by Servier. It is classified as first-generation. It was patented A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the lega ...

) and he could also show the anti-arrhythmic effects of

ajmaline Ajmaline (also known by trade names Gilurytmal, Ritmos, and Aritmina) is an alkaloid that is classified as a 1-A antiarrhythmic agent. It is often used to induce arrhythmic contraction in patients suspected of having Brugada syndrome. Individuals ...

. As he did not give his acceptance to the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the B ...

he had to leave is position in Jena in 1962 and became director of a local hospital in Schwerin. He fled the GDR in 1968 and became head of research at Knoll AG (which later became part of the

BASF BASF SE (), an initialism of its original name , is a European Multinational corporation, multinational company and the List of largest chemical producers, largest chemical producer in the world. Its headquarters are located in Ludwigshafen, Ge ...

). He also held a professorship at the "Klinikum Mannheim der Universität Heidelberg". From 1981 - 1987 he was CEO of the Medizinisch-Pharazeutische-Studiengesellschaft and scientific advisor of the Paul Martini Stiftung. From 1987 - 1992 he was editor of the "Neuen Ärztliche", a daily paper for medics from the publishing house of the

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The (; ''FAZ''; "Frankfurt General Newspaper") is a German newspaper founded in 1949. It is published daily in Frankfurt and is considered a newspaper of record for Germany. Its Sunday edition is the ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung'' ( ...

. Until his death Hellmuth Kleinsorge was consultant to the pharmaceutical industry, as well as to scientific publishing houses and public institutions. Amongst his awards were the Ernst-von-Bergmann-Plakette of the

German Medical Association The German Medical Association (GMA) (), founded in 1947 and based in Berlin, is the co-ordinating body of physicians' self-regulation in Germany. It co-ordinates the activities of the 17 State Chambers of Physicians which are responsible for regula ...

as well as the Bundesverdienstkreuz am Bande (

Federal Cross of Merit The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest state decoration, federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first List of president ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kleinsorge, Hellmuth Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 2001 deaths 1920 births German pharmacologists East German physicians East German emigrants to West Germany