*June 10, 1933 Lübtheen – †March 18, 2026 Osnabrück
On March 18, 2026, Prof. Dr. med. Hans Joachim Bremer passed away at the age of 93.
Vita
Born in 1933 in Lübtheen in present-day Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Hans Joachim Bremer attended elementary school there and passed his Abitur in 1953 at the Goethe Oberschule in Schwerin.
The originally intended goal of becoming a professional musician—Mr. Bremer played violin, piano, and organ—was abandoned in favor of medicine; however, his love of music remained until his last day.
From 1953 to 1958, he studied medicine, biochemistry, and chemistry at Humboldt University in Berlin. He declined the offer from Professor Samuel Rapoport, Director of the Institute of Physiological and Biological Chemistry, to accept a scientific assistant position after the state examination, as this was conditional upon joining the SED. After the SED party leadership at the Charité demanded the termination of family contacts to West Germany as a prerequisite for admission to the state examination and otherwise threatened expulsion from the university, Mr. Bremer transferred to the University of Hamburg in 1958 due to political pressure, where he additionally studied tropical medicine and completed his state examination.
His dissertation, prepared at the Institute of Physiological and Biological Chemistry at Humboldt University in Berlin under Professor Samuel Rapoport, with the topic “Comparative Studies on the Role of Alpha-Amino Nitrogen in the Endogenous Metabolism of Immature Red Blood Cells,” was recognized at the Institute of Physiological Chemistry at the University of Hamburg and led to his doctorate.
Between 1958 and 1962, Mr. Bremer was an assistant at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Biology in Wilhelmshaven, where he conducted research and published on biochemical mechanisms of information transfer between the cell nucleus and cytoplasm, as well as on free nucleotides and amino acids in unicellular green algae (Acetabularia acetabulum).
From 1963 to 1967, he completed his training as a pediatrician at the University Children’s Hospital Tübingen and was appointed Academic Councilor. In 1967, he transferred to the University Children’s Hospital Munich as senior physician, where he also established the biochemical research laboratory and was appointed Senior Conservator in 1968.
In 1969, Mr. Bremer transferred to the newly founded University of Ulm. There, he participated in the conversion of the municipal hospitals into a university hospital and also established a biochemical and nutritional science laboratory. In Ulm, he also completed his habilitation in pediatrics in 1970 with the work “Aliphatic Di- and Polyamines in Urine—Determination Methods and Detection.” In 1972, he was appointed Head of the Department of Metabolic Diseases and Nutritional Sciences.
In 1974, he was appointed full professor of pediatrics at the University of Düsseldorf and Director of the University Children’s Hospital with the areas of outpatient care, infant and toddler wards, metabolic diseases, endocrinology, and nephrology, where one of the largest pediatric metabolic centers in Germany was established under his leadership. At the same time, a children’s department was established at Gezira University in Wad Madani, Sudan, with his participation, and joint research activities were initiated.
In 1988, Mr. Bremer accepted an appointment to Ruprecht Karl University Heidelberg, where he served as Managing Director of the University Children’s Hospital and Head of the Department of General Pediatrics and Polyclinic until his retirement in 1999.
There are 160 Medline-listed publications in German and international journals, including “Nature” and “New England Journal of Medicine,” on the diagnosis, treatment, and course of congenital disorders of carbohydrate, protein, and fat metabolism, on the importance of the trace elements zinc and selenium, on celiac disease and mitochondriopathies, on nutritional medicine studies in Sudan, Ghana, Congo, and Nigeria, as well as tropical medicine questions on protein malnutrition, malaria prophylaxis, tuberculosis, and familial Mediterranean fever. Particular mention should be made of the handbook Bremer HJ, Duran M, Kamerling JP, Przyrembel H, Wadman SK. “Disturbances of Amino Acid Metabolism: Clinical Chemistry and Diagnosis” Urban Schwarzenberg, Munich, from 1981, a standard work of metabolic medicine at its time. The book was remarkable in that it combined information on the chemistry of amino acids and their metabolites, brief descriptions of already known amino acid metabolism disorders, available detection methods, and tables of “normal values” of amino acids.
In addition to his numerous and high-ranking scientific publications and lectures, Mr. Bremer made significant contributions to the understanding and improved diagnostic and treatment options for congenital metabolic diseases and acquired invaluable merits for pediatrics in this field. In particular, his work enabled the development and improvement of treatment concepts for amino acid metabolism disorders to avoid deficits in the supply of amino acids and trace elements. Furthermore, he was distinguished by his tireless commitment to the scientific advancement of pediatric and adolescent medicine and his constant efforts to promote young scientists.
As a scientist, Hans Joachim Bremer was always aware of the limitations of even good evidence. As a teacher, he delivered excellent lectures; however, he did not enjoy giving speeches. As clinic director, he was always aware of the challenges and responsibilities associated with this task and at the same time granted employees the greatest possible freedom in choosing and conducting their scientific interests. He possessed extraordinarily broad and profound clinical experience and was a caring and patient physician to his patients. His commitment extended far beyond his professional activities. During his time in Düsseldorf, after a stay with “Doctors Without Borders” in Somalia, he organized the inpatient treatment of a seriously ill Somali girl who lived with the Bremer family until her recovery. Following the severe earthquake in Haiti in 2010, he was involved in organizing urgently needed relief measures through “Doctors Without Borders.”
In 2001, Mr. Bremer was appointed honorary member of the Working Group for Pediatric Metabolic Disorders (APS) (now Society for Inborn Errors of Metabolism—GfAS) in recognition of his merits in pediatric metabolic medicine. In 2002, he was awarded honorary membership of the German Association for Tropical Paediatrics, and in 2013, he was honored with honorary membership of the German Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine (DGKJ) as an internationally renowned, frequently cited, and highly respected expert in pediatric and adolescent medicine.
Beyond medicine, his scientific interest was in entomology. He was a collaborator in the Coleoptera (beetles) section of the Zoological Collection Munich; his research field was the family Tenebrionidae. In this field as well, he has 160 publications, described a total of 68 taxa, and has an eponym: as the discoverer of a new beetle species, the species Boschalis bremeri from the family Coccinellidae was dedicated to him.
Despite persistent pain caused by polyneuropathy that increasingly impaired him physically during the last decade of his life, Hans Joachim Bremer continued to work with undiminished mental strength for many years after his retirement, even on the day of his death, on a final publication.
On March 18, 2026, the life of a great, intelligent, and universally respected researcher, physician, and colleague came to a peaceful end.
For the Society for Inborn Errors of Metabolism (GfAS)
Hildegard Przyrembel (Berlin)
Udo Wendel (Düsseldorf)
Ertan Mayatepek (Düsseldorf)
Peter Burgard (Heidelberg)
Georg F. Hoffmann (Heidelberg)
