Dr. med. Ernst Oppenheimer
- Frankfurt a. Main, 30.12.1888
- Mill Valley, CA, USA, 06.02.1962
- Member since 1929
- Escaped to the USA in 1936
- Hamburg
- Pharmakologist
“I was born on December 30th, 1888 as the son of the general practitioner and “Sanitätsrat” Dr. med. [Wilhelm, 1860-1920; note I-Ko] Oscar Oppenheimer in Frankfurt a.M. I spent my school years at the Reformrealgymnasium Musterschule, which I left at Easter 1909 with a certificate of maturity. I studied: 1 semester in Edinburgh, 5 semesters in Munich, the rest in Freiburg i.Br.” His mother was Frida Oppenheimer, née Oppenheimer (1877-1905), a cousin of his father. Ernst Oppenheimer added this CV to the written version of his dissertation.
Training and place of work
In 1914, at the Pharmacological Institute of the University of Freiburg, he successfully completed extensive research “On the question of the fixation of digitalis bodies in the animal organism and particularly their behavior in relation to blood” under the direction of Walther Straub, whose main research area was digitalis glycosides. This work produced important findings on the binding of glycosides and steroids in the blood, which were still acknowledged in an article by the biochemist Ulrich Westphal in 1977.
After his state examination in 1914, Oppenheimer began as a medical intern at the Pharmacological Institute of the University of Freiburg. This training was interrupted by the First World War. From 1914 to 1918, Oppenheimer was employed as a doctor in the medical service. From 1919 to the end of 1921, he was able to continue his pharmacological research in Freiburg under Walther Straub. He wrote several publications on the pharmacological behavior of bromides, which are components of antiepileptics and tranquilizers (and are still used in numerous medications today). At the same time, he became an instructor at the University of Freiburg. In the Freiburg Pharmacology Institute and in the German Society for Pharmacology, founded in 1920 under the decisive activity of his boss, Walther Straub, Oppenheimer made important contacts for his further research and life. To name: Georg Pietrkowski, Heinrich Wieland (later Heidelberg), Paul Trendelenburg (later Berlin) and others.
During his time in Freiburg he married Emma Sophie Müller (1893-1979). They already knew each other from Frankfurt and married in 1919. Their son Klaus was born in 1920, later Lieselotte (1923) and Renate (1929).
In 1922 Oppenheimer decided to pursue a permanent career in the industry. He initially started as an employee in the pharmacological and scientific department of I.G. Farben formerly Fr. Bayer, Leverkusen. Then, in a major career leap, he moved to the Krause-Medico-Gesellschaft in Munich in 1923 as head of the scientific department (G. Pietrkowski had been on the scientific advisory board at KMG since 1920). In 1927, on the recommendation of the pharmacologist Heinrich Wieland (Heidelberg), he began working as scientific director of the specialty department (manufacturing finished medicinal products) at C.H. Boehringer Sohn, Ingelheim. In 1923, Boehringer had established a branch in Hamburg-Moorfleet, so that Oppenheimer was active in Ingelheim and Hamburg. His area of responsibility also included “propaganda” [information, advertising, PR note I-Ko]. Oppenheimer acquired 8 patents for Boehringer from the chemist Helmut Legerlotz, among others, including for the preparation synephrine, an adrenaline derivative for increasing blood pressure. Oppenheimer had the clinical-pharmacological characterization carried out by Gustav Kuschinsky in Paul Trendelenburg’s institute in Berlin. It was successfully launched on the market as Sympatol®. Boehringer particularly praised Oppenheimer for “having this previously unimportant preparation profiled by Prof. Trendelenburg and his colleagues”. In 1929, Oppenheimer (along with 13 other colleagues) was given power of attorney at Boehringer’s branch in Hamburg-Moorfleet. In 1930, he signed a contract with Boehringer to become head of the company’s newly established pharmacological department and would be responsible, among other things, for initiating clinical trials of all substances manufactured by Boehringer. Initially, a laboratory was to be rented at the St. Georg Pharmacological Institute in Hamburg and, from 1932, a separate laboratory was to be set up at Boehringer in Hamburg or Ingelheim, including technical assistance. However, this did not happen due to the global economic crisis.
After he resigned from Boehringer in 1932, Ernst Oppenheimer became director of the Chemische Fabrik Promonta company in Hamburg on January 1, 1933. At that time, Promonta produced extracts from various animal organs, particularly from endocrine glands, for therapeutic purposes, in addition to other pharmaceuticals. The employment relationship ended two years later [StAHH 314-15_F 1903]. According to his lawyer, Ernst Oppenheimer did not see any advancement for himself in Germany at that time. It cannot be ruled out that he was fired by Promonta for racist reasons (until 1911 he was a member of the Jewish community, then, like his brother Georg, a member of the Protestant church). Oppenheimer could not ignore the Nazi political developments that threatened him and his family. He sent applications abroad, including to the “Society for Chemical Industry in Basel” (CIBA). A confidential, very positive letter of recommendation from Boehringer, requested by CIBA, provides information about this, emphasizing his stringent, efficient and reliable working methods.
1936 Escape to the USA
In July 1936, Oppenheimer got a job at CIBA in Basel. The escape to the USA was probably agreed upon from the beginning of the employment. CIBA had issued a surety bond for Ernst Oppenheimer.
In December, Emma and the daughters travelled from Hamburg to Southampton where they met with Ernst. On December 16, 1936 they travelled together (their son finished school in St. Gallen, Switzerland and followed in 1937) on the SS Aquitania to New York, USA. From 1937, Ernst Oppenheimer was head of the Pharmacology Department of the newly founded CIBA Pharmaceutical Company in Summit, NJ, USA, and from 1943 until his retirement in 1952 he was Vice President of the Research Department. His medical-pharmacological research focus was on endocrinology, particularly in the steroid sector. He was very closely associated with the Endocrine Society, which granted the “Ernst Oppenheimer Award” for outstanding research work, sponsored by CIBA, every year from 1944 to 2014.
Towards the end of his career, he developed a collaboration with Frank H. Netter, with whom Ernst Oppenheimer published the famous “The CIBA Collection of Medical Illustrations” – known as the “Netter Atlas” for short – from 1953 to 1962. As Netter wrote in his tribute (see below), he initially experienced Oppenheimer as a loud, energetic person, always insisting on going through all the drawings intensively and in detail. While his direct, blunt critical comments were initially hard to bear, Netter later described them as helpful and committed to the cause. A professional, scientific, mutually respectful and personal friendship developed between Netter and “Oppy” – as he called him. Thanks to his extensive network of clinicians and scientists, Oppenheimer was able to persuade important personalities to contribute work on the “CIBA Collections”.
Frank Netter and the endocrinologist Peter Forsham (Metabolic Research Unit, University of California, San Francisco) describe Ernst Oppenheimer in their obituary as a pharmacologist and physician who was absolutely committed to research and science. His determination, straightforwardness and critical discussions made him an outstanding and valued colleague in industry as well as among doctors and scientists in the USA and internationally. Forsham described it as a fortunate coincidence that Ernst Oppenheimer came to CIBA Pharmaceuticals in 1937 because of the political upheavals in Europe.
Ernst and Emma Oppenheimer moved to Mill Valley, CA, in 1952 so that Oppenheimer could attend weekly research meetings with Forsham as an “emeritus consultant”. Ernst Oppenheimer initiated and supported the creation of Volume 4 of the “CIBA Collections”: “Endocrine System and selected Metabolic Diseases” until his death in 1962, but he did not live to see its publication.
After 1945, Ernst and Emma Oppenheimer visited Germany, several times with their children, mostly to Hanau to visit Emma ´s family.
Emma Oppenheimer suffered a stroke in 1969 and later moved to Seattle to be near her daughter, Renate, and died in 1979.
Ernst Oppenheimer’s brother, Georg Oppenheimer, lived in Frankfurt am Main. He was deported to Theresienstadt in 1942 at the age of 52 and murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1943. A stumbling block commemorates him in Frankfurt.
His sister Gertrud Oppenheimer was a chemist in Berlin, fled to Great Britain in 1936 and to the USA in 1937. She died in an automobile crash in 1948.
Acknowledgements
My very special and deep thanks go to Ernst Oppenheimer’s grandchildren, Jody and Eric McVittie. They sent details, including from their mother, as well as the very valuable photos. I am very grateful to Dr. Katrin Lege, Boehringer Archive, who provided great insights into E. Oppenheimer’s life and activities. My sincere thanks go to Dr. Harro Jenss for his inspiring discussions and his infectious enthusiasm for the project.
An article by Prof. Irmtraut Koop, MD, Hamburg, Germany,
translated by Irmtraut Koop, supported by Jody McVittie with many thanks.
Sources
Staatsarchiv Hamburg:
- StAHH 314-15_F 1903 / Oppenheimer, Ernst Adolf, Dr., 1936-1948
- StAHH 231-7 B 1998 -69 Band 1 / C. H. Boehringer Sohn Zweigniederlassung
- StAHH 352-3_VF4 / Chemische Fabrik Promonta GmbH, Hammer Landstrasse
- StAHH 621-1_99 Chemische Fabrik Promonta GmbH
Company archive Boehringer Ingelheim (FABI), HReg 11/1, Dr. Ernst Oppenheimer
Jody und Eric McVittie, grandchildren of Ernst Oppenheimer, Seattle, USA; personal communications
References
Kuschinsky, G. Untersuchungen über Sympatol, einen adrenalinähnlichen Körper. Naunyn- Schmiedebergs Arch Exp Pathol Pharmakol 1930; 156: 290-308
Löffelholz, K. The persecution of pharmacologists in Nazi Germany and Austria. Naunyn-Schmiedebergs Arch Pharmacol 2001; 383: 217-25
Löffelholz K., Trendelenburg U. Verfolgte deutschsprachige Pharmakologen: 1933 – 1945. 2.Auflage, Frechen, Schrör 2008, S. 119
Muscholl E. Die frühen Jahre der DGPT, wissenschaftliche Höhepunkte auf Tagungen und klassische Arbeiten ihrer Mitglieder. DGPT Mitteilungen 1995; 17: 3-10
Netter, FH, Forsham, PH. Dedicated to Ernst Oppenheimer, M.D. In: The CIBA COLLECTION of MEDICAL ILLUSTRATIONS, volume 4 ENDOCRINE SYSTEM and SELECTED METABOLIC DISEASES, F.H.Netter, P.H.Forsham (guest ed.), New York: Colorpress 1965, S.vi-vii
Philippu, A. Geschichte und Wirken der pharmakologischen, klinisch-pharmakologischen und toxikologischen Institute im deutschsprachigen Raum. Innsbruck, Berenkamp 2004, S. 798
Westphal, U. Zur Bindung von Steroidhormonen an Serumproteine. Klin. Wschr. 1977; 55:877-880
Weblinks
https://www.ancestry.de/ [accessed 19.3.2024)
https://frankfurt.de/frankfurt-entdecken-und-erleben/stadtportrait/stadtgeschichte/stolpersteine/stolpersteine-im-nordend/familien/oppenheimer-georg [accessed 13.4.2024)













