Samuel Mitja Rapoport
| Samuel Mitja Rapoport | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
27 November 1912 Volochysk, Russian Empire |
| Died | 7 July 2004 (aged 91) Berlin, Germany |
| Nationality | Austrian |
| Fields | Biochemistry |
| Institutions | Humboldt University of Berlin |
| Alma mater | University of Vienna |
| Spouse | Ingeborg Rapoport |
Samuel Mitja Rapoport (27 November 1912 – 7 July 2004) was a Russian-born German university professor of biochemistry in East Germany. Of Jewish descent and a committed communist, he fled Austria after the annexation for the United States. In 1950, as a result of an investigation of un-American activities, he was offered a professorship in East Berlin. He was married to the renowned pediatrician Ingeborg Rapoport.
Throughout his life Samuel Mitja Rapoport saw danger and exile. Rapoport was born in Wolhynia near the Russian-Austrian border in what is now the Ukraine and his family resided there from 1912 to 1916. They later moved to Odessa, Russia on the Black Sea coast. At the conclusion of the World War I he saw the Russian Revolution and witnessed the barbaric warfare of the Russian Civil War.
His family left Odessa for Vienna, Austria in 1920. Already sympathetic to left-wing views, he joined the Communist Party out of protest against the rise of fascism. At the age of 13 years he found in his father's archives works written by Friedrich Engels. By reading them he was fascinated by socialist ideas. His own painful experiences of war, injustice, banishment, political and racial persecution brought him to a socialist world-view up to his end of life. He was active in communist organizations from his youth and became a member of the Socialist pupils in Vienna, then he participated in the illegal Austrian communist movement. But he didn't follow ideological extremes. He was directed by a deep humanity, he loved reasoning and discussing, he had a great inquiring mind and he had the ability to connect theoretical knowledge, philosophical views and practical realization.
In Vienna he studied medicine and chemistry receiving his doctorate. In 1933 he attended the Institute for Medical Chemistry and worked on the analysis of amino acids in the blood serum.
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