Drigalski, Karl Rudolf Arnold Arthur Wilhelm von

Bacteriologist, Hygienist

Born: 21.06.1871 in Dresden

died: 12.05.1950 in Wiesbaden

After studying medicine at the Kaiser Wilhelm Military Academy in Berlin from 1895 to 1907, Drigalski served as a medical officer, first at the Charité hospital and then with one of the guard regiments stationed in Berlin. Here he gained a great deal of experience in combating typhus infections, which he dealt with intensively in the course of his medical studies.

The decisive success of his research work was the development of the so-called Drigalski plate, which proved that typhus bacilli continued to exist even after the carrier had recovered from the disease.

In 1906, he habilitated and was appointed private lecturer at the TH Hannover. Two years later, Drigalski established himself as a city doctor in Halle and at the same time received an honorary professorship at the university there. In 1913, he was appointed full professor of hygiene at the University of Halle.

After the outbreak of the First World War, Drigalski served as a medical officer on the Western Front and was responsible for the medical hygiene of field hospitals and the containment of epidemics. After the end of the war, he returned to Halle, but moved to Berlin in the mid-1920s, where he was appointed Ministerial Councillor and became Head of the Department of Public Health. During this time, he also took over the editorship of the "Deutsche Zeitschrift für öffentliche Gesundheitspflege".

Shortly after his retirement in 1942, Drigalski moved from Berlin to Wiesbaden, the hometown of his wife, the writer Liesbet Dill. The shortage of medical professionals and the reconstruction of the public health system led to him joining the Ministry of the Interior of the newly founded state of Hesse. From 1946 to 1948, he was head of the Department of Public Health and also served as managing director of the German Association for Public Health Care and Policy.