Fritz Schaudinn

Who was Fritz Schaudinn?

Fritz Richard Schaudinn was a German zoologist

Born in Röseningken, East Prussia, he co-discovered, with Erich Hoffmann in 1905, the causative agent of syphilis, Spirochaeta pallida. The work was carried out at the Berlin Charité.

Among Schaudinn's other contributions to medicine include his work in the field of amoebic dysentery and sleeping sickness, his confirmation of the work of Sir Ronald Ross and Giovanni Battista Grassi in the field of malaria research. He also demonstrated that human hookworm infection is contracted through the skin of the feet. He made noted contributions to zoology and was one of the developers of protozoology as an experimental science. Schaudinn was a graduate in zoology of the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin. Since 2002 an annual medical prize has been awarded in his name.

In 1898 with zoologist Fritz Römer, he participated on a scientific trip to Svalbard. Results of the expedition led to publication of Fauna Arctica, a project on Arctic fauna begun by Schaudinn and Römer and continued by August Brauer and Walther Arndt.