Hans-Georg Schweiger (August 21, 1927 in Königsberg, Prussia – November 15, 1986 in Wilhelmsfeld) was a German cell biologist and a former director of the

Max Planck Institute for Cell Biology The Max Planck Institute for Cell Biology was located in Ladenburg, Germany. It was founded 1947 as Max Planck Institute for Oceanic biology in Wilhelmshaven Wilhelmshaven (, ''Wilhelm's Harbour''; Northern Low Saxon: ''Willemshaven'') is a ...

Education and career

Schweiger grew up in

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was named ...

. After serving in the

Reich Labor Service The Reich Labour Service (''Reichsarbeitsdienst''; RAD) was a major organisation established in Nazi Germany as an agency to help mitigate the effects of unemployment on the German economy, militarise the workforce and indoctrinate it with Naz ...

for military service, being a prisoner of war in the United States and working as an assistant teacher, Schweiger began studying chemistry at the

Humboldt University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...

in 1947. After his preliminary studies, he switched to medicine, where he passed the state examination in 1953. In 1955, Schweiger received his doctorate from the

University of Hamburg The University of Hamburg (german: link=no, Universität Hamburg, also referred to as UHH) is a public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('' Allgemeines Vor ...

with a thesis on glucose absorption in the

intestinal mucosa The gastrointestinal wall of the gastrointestinal tract is made up of four layers of specialised tissue. From the inner cavity of the gut (the lumen) outwards, these are: # Mucosa # Submucosa # Muscular layer # Serosa or adventitia The mucosa is ...

. After completing his doctorate, Schweiger works at the Institute for Biochemistry at the Humboldt University of Berlin. In 1958 he moved to the Max Planck Institute for Marine Biology (since 1968 the

) in

Wilhelmshaven Wilhelmshaven (, ''Wilhelm's Harbour''; Northern Low Saxon: ''Willemshaven'') is a coastal town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the western side of the Jade Bight, a bay of the North Sea, and has a population of 76,089. Wilhelmsha ...

, where he worked in the group of

Joachim Hämmerling Dr. Joachim Hämmerling (9 March 1901 - 5 August 1980) was a pioneering Danish-German biologist funded by Nazi Germany who determined that the nucleus of a cell controls the development of organisms. His experimentation with the green algae ''Ac ...

. In 1969, Schweiger was appointed director of the Max Planck Institute for Cell Biology. Under his direction, the institute moved to

Ladenburg Ladenburg is a town in northwestern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It lies on the right bank of the river Neckar, northwest of Heidelberg and east of Mannheim. The town's history goes back to the Celtic and Roman Ages, when it was called Lopo ...

near Heidelberg in 1977. Schweiger worked intensively on the interaction of the cell nucleus with the cytoplasm and in particular with the chloroplasts - this enabled him to demonstrate the transfer of chloroplast genes to the cell nucleus. Schweiger was a founding member of the German Society for Cell Biology and its President from 1979 to 1981. From 1985 until his death, Schweiger was Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of Cell Biology.

References

{{reflist 1986 deaths 1927 births People from Königsberg Max Planck Society people Cell biologists Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Max Planck Institute directors University of Hamburg alumni Phycologists