Hermann Levinson

Hermann Levinson (11 January 1924 in Klingenthal, Saxony, Germany, – 1 November 2013) was a German biologist and physiologist. He lived with his wife Anna Levinson in Starnberg and has worked at the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology since 1971, and at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology since 2004, in Seewiesen and Erling (Upper Bavaria, Germany).

Levinson is the only son of the high school teacher Leopold Levinson and his wife Charlotte Levinson (née Braun). In 1933, when the National Socialists (NSDAP) established a totalitarian government, the family left Germany. They first moved to Karlovy Vary and later to Prague (Czechoslovakia). Shortly after passing his Abitur examinations at an English high school in Prague, Hermann Levinson fled to Haifa (at that time, British Mandate of Palestine). He reached the coast of Haifa, and was met by British officials who transferred him to a French warship named Patria. This ship was eventually blown up by unknown offenders on 25 November 1940 near Haifa. The survivors of shipwreck were rescued by British soldiers, received the status of "enemy alien“ and were retained in the detention camp of Atlit (approx. 20 km south of Haifa). Hermann Levinson was kept in this camp until autumn 1941.

In October 1941, H. Levinson joined the Malaria Research Station of the Hebrew University (Director: Prof. Dr. Gideon Mer) in Rosh Pina (Upper Galilee, Palestine) and performed examinations of the mosquito species Anopheles saccharovi, Anopheles sergentii and Anopheles superpictus for availability of the sporozoans Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium malariae, Plasmodium vivax or Plasmodium ovale, inhabiting the blood-sucking females of the above mosquito species. He also investigated the suppression of larval populations of Anopheline species in their aquatic breeding sites by either biological, physical or chemical measures.

At the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, H. Levinson studied chemistry, microbiology, zoology as well as entomology, and also investigated the development of resistance towards DDT and other organic insecticides in cyclorrhaphous fly species, wherefore he received the degree of M.Sc. in 1954. Later, he performed advanced research on the nutritional requirements and metabolism of Musca domestica var. vicina (Cyclorrhapha, Diptera) under the supervision of Professors E.D. Bergmann and G. Fraenkel, and was awarded the degree of Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1959.

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