Path. Res. Pract. 187,385-386 (1991 )

Editorial

Franz Biichner January 20, 1895 - March 9, 1991

Franz Buchner, pathologist of international eminence and past-editor of this journal, died in Freiburg, the we\lknown town at the entrance of the Black Forest where he had lived for over 70 years. Instead of recapitulating the great number of national and international academic and civic honors accumulated during a long life of indomitable activity in research and teaching, some of the scientific and literary highlights of his career should be recalled here. © 1991 by Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgan

Among the pathologists of his time, Franz Buchner has formed the image of Central European pathology in a unique fashion. His first scientific discovery had been the definition of gastric and duodenal ulcers as a result of mucosal maldigestion, and of the healing potential implied in suppressing it - a concept that has become almost axiomatic today. It earned him the venia legendi of Freiburg University in 1927, when he had already approached his second field of interest, cardiac pathology. Franz Buchner coined and introduced the term of "coronary insufficiency", and published his first comprehensive monograph on "Coronary Infarction and Coronary Insufficiency" in 1935. At that time, to attempt a synopsis of clinical findings and pathoanatomical fundaments of these diseases was pioneer work. In 1939, a second monograph on coronary insufficiency followed, now also covering right ventricular insufficiency in acute and chronic cor pulmonale. These observations revealed the overall significance of hypoxemia as a pathogenetic factor. Stimulated by the rapid progress of aviation in the thirties, Franz Biichner conceived and developed a general pathology of hypoxia, which also included the most important embryopathies, interpreted for the first time as a cause of epistatic factors. The related experimental studies inaugurated and carried out by his team in the fifties were able to reproduce the main deformations of human embryogenesis by exogenous hypoxia, simultaneously defining and confirming experimentally the impact of determination periods on specific prenatal malformations. Nevertheless, cardiac pathology remained a favorite field of Biichner's interest, and a third monograph was published in 1973 011 "Cardiac Infatction, Coronaty Thrombosis, and Acute Coronary Death in Man". Today we realize that these works have laid the foundations not only of cardiac pathology, but also of modern clinical cardiology. In all his studies, the identification of definite patterns of disease and their detailed morphologic description was Franz Buchner's foremost objective. In a lecture to the German Society of Pathology held in Vienna when he was president of the 1958 session, Buchner emphasized that 0.l44-0.HR/91 10 I S7 -03R5 $].5010

386 . Editorial General Pathology, not Systemic Pathology, represented the very heart of our discipline. He stressed in particular rhat pathology must never resolve itself in the mere parmership with the clinician for the immediate service to the patient. Based on the scientific discoveries and concepts of the 19th century, especially those of Rokitansky and Virchow, he wanted to maintain General Pathology as the chief objective in science and academic teaching: According to his own definition, "the major law of all science demands that the observation of concrete reality serve to derive and formulate the general rule". He even extended the scope of his own discipline to deal with some of the more general problems of human living. In several of his publications he attempted to encompass the whole span of medical knowledge and philosophy, and four of his books in particular reflect his endeavour to present the problems of responsibility in medicine in general, and the special dangers inherent in its advanced subspecialties. In 1961, he published a book on "The Grandeur and Peril of Modern Medicine", later enriched by other contributions to his last monograph of 1985 on "Man under the Aspects of Modern Medicine". Many articles published over the years have formulated his warnings against the danger of intellectual hybris, and of losing the fundamental respect for the mystery of life as such. It is well remembered how, during World War II, he raised his voice to protect what was called "worthless lives", in an era when organized barbarism and terror was nearly destroying our continent. Franz Biichner's rigid standpoint was founded on elementary concepts of modern humanity and an essentially christian and humanistic

Being a confirmed morphologist, Biichner always found that form offered the best and most fruitful approach to scientific discovery and knowledge. However, his main theme has never been form as such, but form as an expression of function; thus, general pathology for him was always connected and almost identical with pathophysiology. In this concept, too, he had always been a true disciple of Ludwig Aschoff. Called to the Freiburg chair of pathology in 1906, Aschoff had simultaneously accepted the editorship of this journal, founded by Ernst Ziegler. He had determined the style and scope of the journal for 35 years, and after his death in 1941, Franz Biichner succeeded him in this service. "The problem of the form in pathology" was the first important article published by the new editor. Form as an expression of function, and functional as a sequel to structural changes, were the fundamental concepts. For 29 years, the inner and outer "face" of the journal was shaped by Biichner (1941-1970). Those were difficult years, during and after the war, and we have to admire the foresight and wisdom which ensured that the standard of the periodical was not only maintained, but considerably improved on an international level. Between 1950 und 1963, the Freiburg Institute of Pathology was host to many fellows of international scholarships from Japan, the USA. France, Spain and many other European countries. In analogy, our own journal has developed from a mainly German to an increasingly international organ of pathology, adhering to the principles of Franz Biichner. At the end of a fruitful and impressive life, and some 20

conviction. This uncompromising attitude even brought

years after his active editorship, we want to express our admiration and gratitude for an oeuvre of enormous

him arrest and detention in 1941, after a public speech in the great hall of Freiburg University on "The Oath of Hippocrates". Returning to a dictum from his laudatio for Ludwig Aschoff's 75th birthday, the author had postulated that "the laws of biological genesis and formation are valid also for the moral formation of the human soul and

spirit".

impact devoted to the benefit not only of this journal, but of pathology as a basic part of medical science. Sendenhorst near MiinsterlFRG, Ekkehard Grundmann April 9, 1991

Franz Büchner. January 20, 1895--March 9, 1991.

Path. Res. Pract. 187,385-386 (1991 ) Editorial Franz Biichner January 20, 1895 - March 9, 1991 Franz Buchner, pathologist of international eminenc...
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