In Memoriam Professor Heinrich Herzog

By 1950, Heinrich Herzog was back in Switzerland and before too long landed up in Basel – where he was to stay for good. Here he met his future wife, Dorothea Christ, a young and highly motivated historian of the fine arts, who throughout her life was involved in museums and the Staatsarchiv in Basel. They got married in 1951. Unfortunately their wish to have children was not fulfilled. They spent almost 60 years together in wonderful harmony, until Dorothea died in August 2009. Professor Herzog’s academic career centered around the Bürgerspital (later Kantonsspital), i.e. the Basel University Medical School, which was his ‘home’ from now on. His mentor, Professor Hans Straub, was quick to sense the abilities of his new coworker. In 1959, Professor Herzog was appointed a ‘Privatdozent’ (Associate Professor), and in 1960 the running of the Lung Division was entrusted to him. After a short but demanding training in bronchology (Paris) he became Professor of Medicine in 1963. From this point on, there was an almost never-ending influx of young colleagues looking for a teacher with a record of high qualities in scientific achievement, lecturing, training skills and with a good sense of humour. In the ensuing years, quite a few of his former students could be found in leading positions at university clinics and hospitals in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Over and above his merit as a scientist, clinician and teacher, he impressed me with his virtues that sprang from his wisdom, cheerfulness and empathy and made him a caring physician, who was the ‘best friend’ of his patients. He anticipated intuitively everything that is said and published nowadays on the practise of medical ethics. Respiration has the sad duty to inform its readers about the death of the founder and mentor of this journal: Professor Dr. Heinrich Herzog-Christ died in his 95th year on December 18, 2014. Heinrich Herzog was born in 1920 and grew up in Zollikon on the shores of the Lake Zurich, then a village close to the City of Zurich, where he graduated in medicine. Doing his military service while still a student, he contracted pleurisy, and when nasty complications arose, he was sent to a sanatorium in Davos. This chance encounter with a ‘Lungenheilstätte’ (lung clinic) laid the path along which his scientific career was later to develop: he published an investigation on the X-ray appearance of the hilar region. The Swiss National Society of Radiology awarded him a prize for this paper which was also to serve as his doctoral thesis. The young physician was keen to spread his wings and began to explore the scientific world of pulmonary research at the time. He began his journey in Geneva and in Chur, but before very long he was spending time in the USA, the UK and France, where he made friends for life with many who were later viewed as part of the scientific elite. Professor Paul Sadoul (Nancy, 1914–2011) in France was a close contemporary of Heinrich Herzog, and their lives show a surprising number of parallels. With their own distinct personalities they had at that time a formative influence on the practise of pulmonary medicine: Professor Sadoul promoted (patho-)physiology and research on lung function, while Professor Herzog was drawn to the rapidly evolving clinical, diagnostic and therapeutic aspects of pneumology. Published online: February 18, 2015