Heinrich Finkelstein (31 July 1865 in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

– 28 January 1942 in

Santiago de Chile Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

), was a German Jewish

pediatrician Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until the ...

and a pioneer in pediatric nutrition.

Life

His father was a businessman and the head of the local Jewish community in Leipzig. Heinrich studied first Natural Sciences in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

and

, and eventually awarded a Ph.D. in Geology. Only then he began the study of Medicine, graduating in 1892.

Career

He chose to specialize in

Pediatrics Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until th ...

under Prof.

Otto Heubner Johann Otto Leonhard Heubner (January 21, 1843 – October 17, 1926) was a German internist and pediatrician who was a native of Mühltroff. He studied medicine at the University of Leipzig, and in 1867 became an assistant to Carl Reinhold Aug ...

, following him from Leipzig to Berlin, where Heubner had been appointed as the first professor of Pediatrics at the

Charité The Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Charité – Berlin University of Medicine) is one of Europe's largest university hospitals, affiliated with Humboldt University and Free University Berlin. With numerous Collaborative Research Cen ...

. From 1901 to 1918 Finkelstein was the assistant medical director of the Berlin Asylum Kürassierstraße for Children and the Municipal Orphanage, where he combined medical skills with social commitment. In 1910 Finkelstein, together with Langstein, von Pfaundler, von Pirquet, and Salge, founded the Zeitschrift für Kinderheilkunde. In 1918, after the death of

Adolf Aron Baginsky Adolf Aron Baginsky (May 22, 1843 – 15 May 1918) was a German professor of diseases of children at Berlin University. He was an older brother to otorhinolaryngologist Benno Baginsky (1848-1919).Ludwig Ferdinand Meyer, he developed the first artificial milk protein milk, thus saving the life of thousands of infants who suffered from eating disorders. Although respected and honored internationally as a pediatrician, being a Jew, he never received an Ordinary professorship and was only a lecturer at the Berlin University. On 1 March 1933, shortly before the Nazis gained power, he retired. But in 1935, he lost his teaching position and license to practice medicine. In 1936 he was invited as visiting professor to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

but soon returned to Berlin to be near his sister, his only family (he never married). The November pogrom of 1938 led him to leave Germany for good. Heinrich Finkelstein immigrated to

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

, but he was too old and too sick to start again from scratch.

Salvador Allende Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (, , ; 26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean physician and socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 3 November 1970 until his death on 11 September 1973. He was the fir ...

, who later became Chile's president, was then the health minister, and put him an honorary pension which was withdrawn shortly after the fall of the government. Colleagues from the University of Santiago procured him a pro forma appointment as doorman to the Hospital, which secured him his daily bread. Nevertheless, in difficult cases, he kept being called as a consultant. Finkelstein's wrote a book on infant diseases (Lehrbuch der Säuglingskrankheiten) that was printed both in German and Spanish, in which he summarized his experience and his vision of a holistic medicine. This work became a standard reference textbook for generations of pediatricians in Europe and Latin America, well into the postwar period. On 28 January 1942 Heinrich Finkelstein died in Santiago de Chile.

Works

*Heinrich Finkelstein: Der Laubenstein bei Hohen-Aschau. Ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Brachiopodenfacies des unteren alpinen Doggers. Dissertation, München 1888. (Auch in: Neues Jahrbuch für Mineralogie. Beilageband VI) *Heinrich Finkelstein: Die durch Geburtstraumen hervorgerufenen Krankheiten des Säuglings. Fischers Medizinische Buchhandlung, Berlin 1902 (Berliner Klinik, Heft 168) *Heinrich Finkelstein: Lehrbuch der Säuglingskrankheiten. Privatdruck, Fischers Medizinische Buchhandlung, Berlin 1903–1912 *Louis Ballin, Heinrich Finkelstein: Die Waisensäuglinge Berlins und ihre Verpflegung im Städtischen Kinderasyl. Ein Beitrag zu Fragen der Anstaltsbehandlung von Säuglingen. Urban & Schwarzenberg, Berlin, Wien 1904 *Heinrich Finkelstein: Lehrbuch der Säuglingskrankheiten. Verlag H. Kornfeld, Berlin 1905–1912 *Heinrich Finkelstein, Ludwig F. Meyer: Über Eiweißmilch. Ein Beitrag zum Problem der künstlichen Ernährung. Karger, Berlin 1910 in Jahrbuch für Kinderheilkunde. Bd. 71, der dritten Folge 21. Bd.) *Heinrich Finkelstein; Eugen Emanuel Galewsky; Ludwig Halberstaedter (Hrsg.): Hautkrankheiten und Syphilis im Säuglings- und Kindesalter. Ein Atlas. J. Springer, Berlin, 1922 *Heinrich Finkelstein; Ferdinand Rohr: Die Behandlung der tuberkulösen Bauchfellerkrankungen im Kindesalter. Halle a. S. 1922–1923 (Sammlung zwangloser Abhandlungen aus dem Gebiete der Verdauungs- und Stoffwechselkrankheiten. Band 8,1) *Heinrich Finkelstein: Lehrbuch der Säuglingskrankheiten. 3., vollständig umgearbeitete Auflage, Julius Springer, Berlin 1924 *Heinrich Finkelstein: Der gesunde Säugling. Safari Verlag, Berlin o.J. m 1930*Heinrich Finkelstein: Säuglingskrankheiten. Elsevier, Amsterdam 1938 *Heinrich Finkelstein: Tratado de las enfermedades del lactante. Ed. Labor, Barcelona; Madrid; Buenos Aires; Rio de Janeiro 1941

Sources

* Wunderlich P.: Heinrich Finkelstein (1865–1942)--pediatrician and pioneer in social pediatrics. A biographical sketch]. Kinderarztl Prax. 1990 Nov;58(11):587-92.Article in German * Robert J. Karp, MD; Sabine Chlosta, MD: Failure to Thrive: Recalling Milton Levine and Heinrich Finkelstein Pediatric Annals November 2008 * I. A. A.: HEINRICH FINKELSTEIN, M.D. 1865–1942 Obituaries , March 1942 Am J Dis Child. 1942;63(3):582. * Biography in the website of th
Charite
Hospital

External link

{{DEFAULTSORT:Finkelstein, Heinrich 1865 births 1942 deaths Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to Chile German pediatricians Jewish scientists 19th-century German Jews