Opitz

Opitz Erich (Erich Opitz, 1871-1926), a prominent German gynecologist. Initially an engineer by education, Opitz dedicated himself to the study of medicine at the age of forty and after graduating from the medical faculty specialized with Küstner and Olshausen. After professorships in Marburg, Düsseldorf, and Giessen, Opitz in 1913 received Krenig's chair in Freiburg and held it until his death from an unfortunate accident. Opitz was a very versatile scholar in all departments of gynecology and obstetrics and left behind about 200 scientific works. His main activity in the last years of his life was devoted to the study of cancer and its treatment with radiant energy. In this field, he was a worthy successor to Krenig, although he had to work under the difficult conditions of wartime and post-war years. Together with K. Menge, Opitz edited the "Handbuch der Frauenheilkunde", a manual that went through several editions in German and was twice translated into Russian (2nd Russian ed., v. I-II, L., 1928); at present this book is one of the best textbooks on gynecology. Another, broadly conceived literary enterprise of Opitz—"Deutsche Frauenkunde" (Wiesbaden, from 1913)—was not fully realized due to his death.