Das Leben von Prof. Dr. Fritz Jakob Heinrich Lewy (1885-1950)

Title: The life of Prof. Dr. Fritz Heinrich Lewy (1885-1950) Objective: To investigate the life of Lewy, who in 1912 discovered the intraneuronal inclusions that later came to be known as "Lewy-bodies". Background: Although Lewy described the Lewy-Bodies for the first time in 1912, the importance of his discovery should only be recognized many years later. Unfortunately, only a few data on the scientific and private life of Lewy are available and no detailed bibliography is accessible. Methods: Systematic analysis of available literature and documents led to identification of gaps for further research. Besides research on the internet, more than 100 civil registry of-fices, libraries, universities or archives in England, Germany, Israel, Nether¬lands, Po-land, Switzerland and USA were contacted or visited in order to collect documents. Results: More than 300 documents were collected and much new information on the subject was identified. Concerning the bibliography, we were able to collect over 200 publica-tions of Lewy. It was possible to go further than the current state of research on the biography on Lewy in any aspect of Lewy´s private life by providing many unpublished details. Lewy was born as Fritz Jakob Heinrich Lewy in Berlin on January, 28th, 1885 and attended medical school in Berlin (1904 - 1908) and Zurich (1906). Until the First World War Lewy worked in institutes of the Universities of Breslau and Munich, where he worked with Alois Alzheimer and discovered the so called “Lewy-bodies”. After his military service, Lewy was a house officer at the Charité in Berlin. Despite all difficulties, he founded and headed a neurological institute from 1932 until his dismissal for racial reasons in 1933. The Lewys emigrated to England 1933 and to the USA in 1934. As a country for transit, England did not provide any perspective of settling down to "displaced persons". Upon arrival in America in 1934, Lewy became a Rockefeller fel-low and was appointed to the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was visiting professor in neurophysiology, consultant in the department of neurosurgery and later visiting professor in neuroanatomy. During his naturalization process in 1940, Lewy changed the spelling of his name to “Frederic Henry Lewey”. During the Second World War Lewy conducted research and worked as consultant in the US Army. In 1949 Lewy left his job at the University and died on October, 5th, 1950 of a coronary thrombosis. Conclusions: This work not only presents Lewy´s life in a detailed way, but also reveals facets of his unknown personality. The bibliography gives a survey of his scientific work. Besides representing a review of all available literature about Lewy, this work intends to be also a posthumous tribute to the man, physician and scientist Prof. Dr. Fritz Heinrich Lewy.