Jewish Invention Myths: Biochemistry
Jews often claim that they originated whole concepts in the fields of science and the arts; I’ve already recently covered and debunked the jewish claim to have invented the form of light opera known as ‘Operetta’, but another field of study they claim to have invented is biochemistry.
‘MNews’, for example, claims that:
‘Otto Fritz Meyerhof – Biochemistry
Otto Meyerhof confirmed the concept of the biochemical unity of life and laid the foundations for modern biochemistry.’ (1)
As with so many ‘jewish invention’ myths there is a grain of truth inside this lie in that Otto Meyerhof along with Sir Hans Krebs and Otto Warburg – all of whom were jews working on the cutting edge of biochemistry primarily in Germany in the 1920s – (2) but they certainly didn’t originate modern biochemistry and also Warburg - for example - served as a leading chemist and specialist studying cancer in the Third Reich despite being half-jewish via his father. (3)
The truth is that the founder of modern biochemistry was the German chemist Felix Hoppe-Seyler in 1877 as pointed out by Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins - (4) both a British predecessor and contemporary of Meyerhof, Krebs and Warburg – and someone often argued to be one of the funders of modern biochemistry (5) along with German chemists Emil Fischer – whose scientific work focused on proteins – (6) and Eduard Buchner; who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1907 for his biochemical work on enzymes. (7)
However, a counterargument for the founder of modern biochemistry can be made for Austrian chemist Vinzenz Kletzinsky who first used the term ‘Biochemie’ in his ‘Compendium der Biochemie’ that was published in Vienna in 1858. (8)
Despite this some modern authors try to falsely credit jewish chemist Carl Neuberg with coining the term ‘Biochemie’ in 1903 (9) as well as the non-jewish German chemistry Franz Hofmeister. (10)
This however simply isn’t true and we should either credit Hoppe-Seyler or Kletzinsky depending on your view and nor did Meyerhof, Krebs and Warburg ‘reinvent’ biochemistry but they did substantially advance it much as Hopkins, Buchner and Fischer did.
Yet ‘jewish invention’ myths don’t ever mention the non-jews: do they?
References
(1) https://mnews.world/en/news/the-great-jews-and-their-inventions
(2) See Hans A. Krebs and Fritz Lippmann, 1988, ‘Dahlem in the Late Nineteen Twenties’, pp. 116-118 in Hans von Döhren, Lothar Jaenicke, Horst Kleinkauf (Eds.), 1988, ‘The Roots of Modern Biochemistry: Fritz Lippmann's Squiggle and its Consequences’, 1st Edition, Walter de Gruyter: Berlin
(3) Jean Medawar, David Pyke, 2012, ‘Hitler's Gift: The True Story of the Scientists Expelled by the Nazi Regime’, 1st Edition, Arcade: New York, p. 184
(4) Krebs, Lippmann, p. 116
(5) Geoffrey Rayner-Canham, Marlene Rayner-Canham, 2005, ‘Women in Chemistry: Their Changing Roles from Alchemical Times to the Mid-Twentieth Century’, 1st Edition, Chemical Heritage Foundation: Philadelphia, p. 136
(6) https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015035423261&view=1up&seq=106
(7) https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1907/buchner/biographical/
(8) https://chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/cber.188201502320
(9) Ari Ben-Menahem, 2009, ‘Historical Encyclopaedia of Natural and Mathematical Sciences’, 1st Edition, Springer: New York, p. 2982
(10) Koscak Maruyama, 1988, ‘Lipmann’s Remarkably Fulfilled Life as a Researcher’, p. 43 in von Döhren, Jaenicke, Kleinkauf, Op. Cit.