Hans Krebs

1900 Hildesheim (Germany) – 1981 Oxford (UK)
Physician, biochemist, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1953
Countries: Germany, UK

When Hans Krebs spends the night at Harnack House in 1932 to take part in Otto Warburg’s renowned Biology and Medicine Evening, he could not imagine that he – like his former boss Warburg – will one day also receive the Nobel Prize. He is awarded the honour, together with Fritz Lipmann, in 1953 for the discovery of the citric acid cycle. His achievement is also aided by findings produced by his friend Albert von Szent-Györgyi.

In 1930, the young physician works as an assistant to Otto Warburg at his new Institute for Cell Physiology in Dahlem. In 1932, he goes to Freiburg to qualify as a professor. Shortly after the Nazis come to power, Krebs, who stems from a Jewish family, leaves Germany and enrols as a student again in Great Britain, this time in biochemistry. He finds a position at the University of Sheffield. In 1954, he accepts a chair at Oxford.