German pharmacologists

Rudolf Magnus (2 September 1873, Brunswick – 25 July 1927, Pontresina) was a German pharmacologist and physiologist. He studied medicine, specialising in pharmacology, in Heidelberg, where he became associate professor of pharmacology in 1904. In 1908 he became the first professor of pharmacology in Utrecht, where he spent the rest of his working life.
Had he lived, he likely would have been awarded the Nobel Prize for his work on animal reflexes. The authors of Nobel, the Man and his Prizes by H.Schück et al., edited by the Nobel Foundation (2nd ed. Amsterdam, 1962, p. 311) wrote of Magnus and his co-worker De Kleyn: ‘The examiner [1927] declared that the work done by Magnus and De Kleyn clearly deserved a prize, and the prospects for an award seemed most favourable when Magnus unexpectedly died.’ For his life and work see, Rudolf Magnus, Physiologist and Pharmacologist: A Biography (2002, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences) by his son, Dr.Otto Magnus.
Magnus had five children, Karl (1903-1989) lung specialist; Margarete (Gretl)(1905-1968)who worked as his secretary and translator; Dorothea who died aged 11; Erica (1909-1991) architect; and Otto (1913-2014) neurologist.
Magnus is most widely known for his work as a physiologist. His book Körperstellung ("Posture")., a study of functional neurology, is his best known work.

Hans Horst Meyer (17 March 1853 – 6 October 1939) was a German pharmacologist. He studied medicine and did research in pharmacology. The Meyer-Overton hypothesis on the mode of action on general anaesthetics is partially named after him. He also discovered the importance of glucuronic acid as a reaction partner for drugs, and the mode of action of tetanus toxin on the body.

Paul Trendelenburg (24 March 1884, Bonn – 4 February 1931, Berlin) was a German pharmacologist.
He studied medicine at the universities of Grenoble, Leipzig and Freiburg, where from 1909 to 1918, he worked as an assistant in the pharmacological institute and at the surgical clinic. In 1912 he received his habilitation in pharmacology and toxicology, and from 1916 was an associate professor. In 1919 he became a full professor at the University of Rostock and later on, he served as a professor of pharmacology at the universities of Freiburg (from 1923) and Berlin (from 1927).He is known for his research of adrenaline, for the development of biological measurement procedures for the standardization of hormone preparations and for his investigations regarding the role of the hypothalamic hormones vasopressin and oxytocin. His name is associated with the so-called "Trendelenburg preparation", a preparation used in determining the actions of pharmacological agents on peristalsis.He was the son of surgeon Friedrich Trendelenburg and the brother of physiologist Wilhelm Trendelenburg. His son, Ullrich Georg Trendelenburg, was also a pharmacologist.

Alexander Ellinger (17 April 1870 in Frankfurt am Main – 26 July 1923 in Frankfurt am Main) was a German chemist and pharmacologist.
From 1887 he studied chemistry at the University of Berlin under August Wilhelm von Hofmann and at the University of Bonn as a pupil of August Kekulé. Afterwards, he studied medicine at the University of Munich, followed by work as an assistant in the institute of pharmacology at the University of Strasbourg. In 1897 he became an assistant to Max Jaffé in the laboratory of medicinal chemistry and experimental pharmacology at the University of Königsberg. In 1914 he was appointed professor of pharmacology at the newly established University of Frankfurt.He is remembered for his extensive biochemical research of several amino acids, especially tryptophan. In 1904 he isolated kynurenic acid from the urine of dogs that had been fed tryptophan. His other work included studies on the water exchange between body tissues and blood, on the formation on lymph, and with chemist Karl Spiro, he conducted investigations of blood coagulation.

Rudolf Albert Martin Boehm (Böhm) (19 May 1844, in Nördlingen – 19 August 1926, in Bad Kohlgrub) was a German pharmacologist, known for his work in the field of experimental pharmacology.
He studied medicine at the universities of Munich and Würzburg, and in 1868–70 served as an assistant to Franz von Rinecker at the Juliusspital in Würzburg. In 1871 he obtained his habilitation under Adolf Fick, then during the following year was named a professor of pharmacology, dietetics and history of medicine at the University of Dorpat. Later on, he worked as professor of pharmacology at the universities of Marburg (from 1881) and Leipzig (from 1884), where on four separate occasions he was named dean to the medical faculty. During his tenure at Leipzig, he oversaw the construction of its pharmacological institute (1886–88). Today the institute at Leipzig is known as the Rudolf-Boehm-Institut für Pharmakologie und Toxikologie.
His main research dealt with the pharmacological and toxicological properties of substances of plant origin and their effect(s) on the animal organism. He conducted extensive studies on the actions of digitalis, muscarine (a product of certain mushrooms), choline and curare. In 1895 he classified curare into three groups; "calabash curares" (usually taken from the family Loganiaceae, Strychnos species), "tubo curares" (derived from the family Menispermaceae) and "pot curares" (mixed Menispermaceae and Loganiaceae substances). He also performed significant research of carbohydrate metabolism.