Ludwig Edelstein (23 April 1902 – 16 August 1965) was a classical scholar and historian of medicine.

Personal life and career

Edelstein was born in

Berlin, Germany Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constituent ...

, to Isidor and Mathilde Adler Edelstein. He attended the

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 ...

from 1921 to 1924 and received his Ph.D. at the

University of Heidelberg } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

in 1929. He was married to Emma J. Levy on 25 Oct. 1928. Because he and his wife were

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

, Edelstein lost his academic position and had to flee from

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 ...

in 1933 when the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

s came to power.*Rütten, Thomas, ''Ludwig Edelstein at the Crossroads of 1933. On the Inseparability of Life, Work, and Their Reverberations'', Early Science and Medicine, Volume 11, Number 1, 2006, pp. 50–99(50
PDF
/ref> Upon his arrival in the US in 1934, he took up an appointment at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

. Subsequently, he taught at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

and the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

, from which he resigned rather than sign the

Levering Act The Levering Act (Cal. Gov. Code § 3100-3109) was a law enacted by the U.S. state of California in 1950. It required state employees to subscribe to a loyalty oath that specifically disavowed radical beliefs. It was aimed in particular at employees ...

loyalty oath A loyalty oath is a pledge of allegiance to an organization, institution, or state of which an individual is a member. In the United States, such an oath has often indicated that the affiant has not been a member of a particular organization or ...

. He then returned to Johns Hopkins, where he had appointments at the university in Philosophy and at the School of Medicine in History of Medicine. At the university he taught ancient Greek philosophy in undergraduate and graduate seminars and courses. Edelstein's 1943 translation and commentary on the Hippocratic Oath was influential on contemporary thinking about medical ethics. He was an inspiring and beloved teacher. Several of his Hopkins students became accomplished scholars. He retired from Hopkin s and spent his last years at New York's Rockefeller institution when it transformed from being a medical research institute into being a science university.

Works

* ''The Hippocratic Oath: Text, Translation, Interpretation'' (1943) * ''Asclepius: Collection and Interpretation of the Testimonies'' (1945) with Emma J. Edelstein * ''Wielands "Abderiten" und der Deutsche Humanismus'' (1950) * ''Plato's Seventh Letter'' (1966) * ''The Idea of Progress in Classical Antiquity'' (1967) * ''The Meaning of Stoicism'' (1968) Martin Classical Lectures Volume XXI * ''Ancient Medicine: Selected Papers of Ludwig Edelstein'' (1967) edited by Owsei Temkin and C. Lilian Temkin * ''Posidonius: Volume I: The Fragments'' (1972) editor with Ian G. Kidd

References

External links

*
Oral history interview transcript with Ludwig Edelstein on 7 May 1962, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives
* Obituary by Malcolm L. Peterso

1902 births 1965 deaths Writers from Berlin German Ashkenazi Jews Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States People who lost German citizenship People with acquired American citizenship American people of German-Jewish descent American classical scholars American medical historians American scholars of ancient Greek philosophy Classical scholars of Johns Hopkins University 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers {{US-med-historian-stub

Personal life and career

Works

See also

References

External links