In Memoriam: Professor Alois Matthias Memmesheimer
After World War I, Memmesheimer continued his medical studies in Berlin and in Bonn, where he received his doctorate while working in the university clinic. This was followed by posts at the skin clinic in Essen, and at the universities of Kiel and Bonn, where he qualified as a university lecturer in 1926 and became a private lecturer. Finally, Memmesheimer also worked at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio (USA) and at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York City, and in 1930 he became an associate professor at the University Skin Clinic in Tübingen, Germany. The busy scientist also undertook research trips to Central America and the west coast of the USA to investigate the infectious disease leprosy. In 1931, he finally became the Director of the skin clinic in Essen, Germany. Critical statements against the Nazi regime led to his arrest and imprisonment, and it was only through advocates close to Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen that he was able to return to his post in Essen.
During the second world war, he continued to advance and rose to the position of Chief Physician at the Naval Hospital in Emden, and in 1941 he was also appointed consultant dermatologist to the Wehrmacht navy. Following World War II, Memmesheimer rebuilt the skin clinic in Essen. He held numerous honorary posts and enjoyed a high reputation in the world of medicine.
Professor Memmesheimer was married to Elisabeth Weißgerber, and they had three children. Their son Paul became an art historian, their son Alois became a doctor like his father, and the third child was their daughter Anna Elisabeth, who studied economics.
When Professor Memmesheimer died in Essen on 14 January 1973, he left behind more than a very considerable life’s work as a dermatologist. There was another passion that must have fascinated him and led him to the world of numismatics. His important collection of coins and medals of the German state Palatinate had already been auctioned on 19 and 20 April 1979 at the Münz Zentrum in Cologne. It is documented by auction catalogue XXXV of the Albrecht und Hoffmann GmbH, with almost 900 coins and medals of the Palatinate and the Palatine collateral lines, as well as a numismatic library with a good 150 items. The collection was published under the title “Palatinate. Private Collection from the Estate of a Palatine Scholar” and remains a significant citation work today.
We thank the present generation of the Memmesheimer family for commissioning the House of Künker to auction the Mainz collection offered in this catalogue. Almost 50 years after the collector’s death, these treasures are now to be passed on to others.
Today we wonder where this busy professor of dermatology and participant in both world wars found the time to also intensively collect coins and medals. It will probably remain one of the secrets that Professor Memmesheimer took to his grave; in any case, we know that he bought coins from the Wolff collection at Leo Hamburger’s auction as early as 1929.
Fritz Rudolf Künker
Osnabrück, December 2022
Spring Auction Sale 386
- Bracteates
- Mainz
- Library Prof. Dr. Niklot Klüßendorf
- Medieval and Modern Times
- Gold Coins
- German Coins since 1871