Hans-Rudolf Wiedemann

Hans-Rudolf Wiedemann (1915 to 2006) was a German pediatrician and university professor, born in Bremen and died in Kiel. He studied medicine at several universities and took his doctorate at Jena in 1941, then trained in pediatrics in Bremen, Bonn and Münster. As director of the children's hospital in Krefeld he was among the first physicians to recognise the damaging side effects of thalidomide, which caused malformations in children born to mothers who had taken it in pregnancy; the drug was withdrawn from the market in November 1961. In 1961 he took the chair of pediatrics at Kiel University, directed its children's hospital, chaired the German Society for Pediatrics in 1977 and became professor emeritus in 1980. Several genetic syndromes carry his name, among them Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome and Wiedemann-Steiner syndrome. With his wife Gisela von Sybel he also collected autographs and wrote books on the subject.