HALBERSTAEDTER, LUDWIG

HALBERSTAEDTER, LUDWIG (1876–1949), Israel radiologist. Born at Beuthen (Bytom), Silesia, he was appointed head of the department of radiotherapy at the Cancer Institute at the University of Berlin in 1919, becoming professor there in 1929. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, he settled in Ereẓ Israel, where two years later he was made professor of radiology and radiotherapy at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. He was also head of the radiobiology department of the university and director of the cancer department at the Hadassah University Hospital. Halberstaedter was a radiobiologist and radiotherapist of international reputation. A pioneer in several fields, he investigated the nature of monkey malaria and together with von Prowazek discovered the Halberstaedter-Prowazek bodies widely believed to present a stage in the life history of the causal virus of trachoma. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: S.R. Kagan, Jewish Medicine (1952), 537–8.