Paul Morawitz

Who was Paul Morawitz?

Paul Oskar Morawitz was a German internist and physiologist whose most important work was in studying the coagulation of blood.

After completing his medical studies at Leipzig he completed his army service, then joined Dr Ludolf von Krehl in Tübingen as an assistant physician. Krehl inspired Morawitz in his studies of blood-related pathology. In 1907 he completed a disseration on blood circulation, and he was appointed in the same year as chief clinician of the University clinic at Freiburg im Breisgau. He progressed to become the Ordinarius and Director of the Medical inpatients at Greifswald in 1913, and in 1921 he took up a position in Würzburg. Finally, in 1926, he assumed the chair of Medicine in Leipzig. He died aged 57 of a heart attack.

Morawitz was a pioneer in the study of coagulation, and a 1905 landmark paper is still regarded as a springboard for further study of the physiology of blood; he perfected observations made earlier by Alexander Schmidt and described four coagulation factors: fibrinogen, prothrombin, thrombokinase and calcium.