Gerhardt Katsch

Eberhard Katsch (1920–1942: nephew and family foster child) | office = | predecessor = | successor = }}

Gerhardt Katsch (14 May 1887 –⁠ 7 March 1961) was a German internist. Between 1928 and 1957 he served as Professor of Internal medicine at the University of Greifswald. It was on the initiative of Katsch that in 1930 a residential facility providing clinical and socio-medical care for Diabetic patients was established at Garz on the Island of Rügen. It was the first institution of its kind in Germany. Gerhardt Katsch is widely regarded –⁠ alongside Oskar Minkowski and Karl Stolte –⁠ as one of the three principal pioneers of modern diabetes management in Germany.

As head of the Greifswald University Hospital (as the University Clinic has subsequently been renamed) and the longest serving medical officer at Greifswald, at the end of April 1945 Katsch was involved, together with Rudolf Petershagen, the local military commander, in a speculative visit to what remained of Anklam, where the rapidly advancing Red army was encamped. They successfully engaged in negotiations with Soviet officers, as a result of which Greifswald was surrendered bloodlessly to the Soviets on 29/30 April 1945.

After the war ended, between 1947 and his death in 1961, Gerhardt Katsch headed up the "Institute for Diabetes Research and Treatment" in the former "Schloss" at Karlsburg (just outside Greifswald), which quickly became one of the most important clinical and academic institutions in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). After he died the institute was renamed in his honour, "Institut für Diabetes „Gerhardt Katsch“". Provided by Wikipedia