ESB Newsletter September 25, 2019–Dr.Günther HeimkeObituary

 2019-9-27    IUSBSE

ESB Newsletter September 25, 2019–Dr.Günther Heimke Obituary

Dear colleagues,

We received  the sad  news  ofthe passing  away  of Dr. Günther  Heimke(*07.02.1922 in  Berlin-†19.08.2019 in Kiel), one of the founders of our society. Professor Paul Ducheyne, who served on the council together with Dr. Heimke,has kindly written the followingbrief obituary:

Dr. Günther Heimke, ESB President 1981-1983 passed away

Dr. Günther Heimke, the third president of the ESB, passed away on August 19 in Kiel, Germany, at the age of 97 years.  He  succeeded Dr.  Jean Leray,  who  shortly before died  in  an avalanche  in  the Alps. Before, he had been Treasurer from about the founding of the ESB (1976) until his election as president.

Dr.Heimke was born in Berlin in 1922, survived the war,and pursued studies of physics at the Martin Luther Universität, Halle-Wittenberg. This University was located in the former Eastern-Germany, close to Leipzig. Before the wall was built, he moved to West-Germany and developed an outstanding career in the German industry that was being rebuilt in the post-war years. He worked in high tech ceramics at Friedrichsfeldand it is there that he developed his interest in biomaterials.

Dr.  Sam  Hulbert,  one of  the  Founders of  the  US based  Society  for  Biomaterials,  worked  on porous alumina in the early sixties. This work elicited the interest of three high tech ceramics companies inEurope,  one  in  France  and  two  in  Germany. It  was  at  Friedrichsfeld,  Mannheim,  that Dr.  Heimke directed  the  program to develop alumina as  an artificial  bearing  material  in  total  joint  replacements (heads  and  acetabular  components  of  total  hip  joint  prostheses  first).  In  this  capacity  he  was  a colleague  and  collaborator  of  Professor  Peter  Griss,  who  moved  from  Mannheim  to  the  Philipps Universität, Marburg, Germany, when appointed its Professor and Chairman of Orthopaedic Surgery.

Frialit, the separate division for oxide ceramics was created within Friedrichsfeld, in the seventies, and Friedrichsfeld was renamed Friatecin 1992.

It was not beforelong that Dr. Heimke also turned his attention to dental implants that incorporated alumina. Dr. Heimke was one of the pioneers involved in the development of the first dental implants systems  in  Germany  and  Europe  in  the  seventies and eighties.  He was  closely associated  with  the Special Research Center for Dental Implantology at the Dental School of the University of Tübingen (A GermanResearch Foundation supported program). As such, Dr. Heimke contributed in a major way to  the  success  of  the  Frialit  I  Tübingen  alumina  immediate  implants  for  front  teeth  replacement.  All Frialit products are part of the Dentsply catalogue nowadays.

When Dr. Heimke retired from Friedrichsfeld he joined the Bioengineering faculty at Clemson University and continued to inspire young minds. When, eventually, he really retired, he liked being in his beloved Casa  Fascino  Magnetico  in  Magadino,  on  the  Swiss  side of  Lago  Maggiore.  His  life  was  a  life  well lived.

We offer the family of our past president our sincere condolences with his passing.