target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="#ulink_5e6962f4-0843-53d9-abfa-165bb7573def">Fig. 8. Prof. Oskar Minkowski in Breslau (photo collection Dr. Jörgens).
Fig. 9. Vossische Zeitung, Berlin June 21, 1931.
Minkowski and his team were very successful scientifically. Minkowski later regretted only one major mistake during his career as a researcher, namely that he had missed the discovery of insulin. The analysis of Zülzer’s extract should have attracted his attention – but he paid little attention to this work and later regretted it, very much. The full story about Zülzer’s extract is recounted in the chapter by V. Jörgens [this vol., pp. 58–63].
During his time in Breslau, Minkowski became one of the leaders of German Internal Medicine. When the German government decided to send a team of the best German physicians to Moscow to support the care of Lenin, Minkowski was one of those chosen.
Fig. 10. Cemetery Heerstrasse in Berlin Charlottenburg. Professors Hermann and Oskar Minkowski (photo Dr. Jörgens).
Oskar Minkowski was nominated six times for the Nobel Prize for physiology and medicine, but not in the year when the prize for the discovery of insulin was awarded. The first German insulin committee to monitor the quality of insulin preparations elected him as its chairman.
Fig. 11. Minkowski Street in Wrocław (the former Breslau), Prof. Leszek Czupryniak (photo Dr. Jörgens).
Fig. 12. Oskar Minkowski Prize of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (photo EASD).
After his retirement in 1926, Oskar Minkowski moved, with his wife, to Wiesbaden for a time. However, the couple eventually decided to move to Berlin where their daughter lived with her family. It was here that Minkowski caught pneumonia and, in a hospital in Fürstenberg on the Havel headed by one of his former students, he died on June 18, 1931 (Fig. 9). Today, within walking distance of the Nazi concentration camp of Ravensbrück, stands a commemorative memorial monument to Minkowski. Oscar Minkowski’s tomb, together with that of his brother Hermann, is located in the cemetery Heerstrasse in Berlin (Fig. 10).
Paul Morawitz, chairman of the German Congress of Internal Medicine, honored Minkowski in his opening speech in 1932: “With Oskar Minkowski we have lost one of our greatest. As a young assistant in Königsberg, he found β-hydroxy butyrate in the urine of diabetics. In Strasbourg, the 30-year-old discovered pancreatic diabetes in collaboration with von Mering. The discovery of hemolytic icterus was his third great achievement. There have been few clinicians whose life’s work can be compared to that of Oskar Minkowski. He attended our Congress beginning with its first session in 1882, one of the most faithful members. How often he spoke here! When his awe-inspiring figure entered the lectern, there was attentive silence: ‘The discoverer of pancreatic diabetes speaks! A great historical moment!’ Until the end we could admire in him – those qualities which made his successes possible: the crystal-clear mind, without any mysticism, his sharp criticism and at the same time that touch of fantasy – that artistic touch one needs to become an outstanding researcher… His works will live when all those who knew him face to face are no longer there” [14].
In 1938, Minkowski’s daughter, Laure Minkowski, forced by the odious policies of the Nazi government, opted to emigrate from Germany together with her husband and two sons. They settled in Buenos Aires, where Laure struggled to organize the emigration of her mother. On the last day of 1940, with the help of the Banting Society and the support of the Noble Prize winner Prof. Bernardo Houssay, who lived in Buenos Aires, Oskar’s widow, Marie Siegel Minkowski, was able to leave Germany to join her daughter in Argentina. Laure passed away in Buenos Aires in 1983 [15].
Minkowski’s son, Rudolph, earned his PhD in physics, and went on to become an astrophysicist. He left Germany in 1935 to take up a position at the Mount Wilson Observatory in California. Rudolph went on to become a well-known radio-astronomer and even has a protoplanetary nebula named after him, the Minkowski’s Footprint (Minkowski 92), located in the constellation of Cygnus.
The entire Minkowski family played an outstanding role in European science. They stand for innovative ideas followed by well-designed experiments and precise observation of unexpected results and their interpretation [15].
A street in Wrocław commemorates the name of Oskar Minkowski (Fig. 11). The European Association for the Study of Diabetes has, since 1966, awarded the Minkowski Prize for outstanding contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the field of diabetes mellitus (Fig. 12).
References
1Luft R: Oskar Minkowski: discovery of the pancreatic origin of diabetes. Diabetologia 1989;23:399–401.
2Naunyn B: Gedanken, Erinnerungen und Meinungen. Munich, Bergmann, 1925.
3Minkowski O: Über das Vorkommen von Oxybuttersäure im Harn bei Diabetes mellitus. Naunyn-Schmiedebergs Arch<italic></italic>1884;18:35–55.
4Minkowski O: Untersuchungen über den Einfluss der Leberexstirpation auf den Stoffwechsel.<italic></italic>Naunyn-Schmiedebergs Arch 1886;21:41–88.
5Von Mering J: Über künstlichen Diabetes. Centralbl Med Wissensch 1886;22:31–33.
6Houssay BA: The discovery of pancreatic diabetes. The role of Oscar Minkowski. Diabetes 1925;1:112–116.
7Von Mering J: Über die Abzugswege des Zuckers aus der Darmhöhle. Arch Anat Physiol 1877:379–415.
8Von Mering J, Minkowski O: Diabetes mellitus nach Pankreasexstirpation. Zentralbl Klin Med 1889;10:394.
9Von Mering J, Minkowski O: Diabetes mellitus nach Pankreasexstirpation. Arch Exp Path Pharm 1890;26:371–387.
10Joslin EP: Pathology of diabetes mellitus. Boston Med Surg J 1894;130:330–334.
