Rudolf Kobert

Life & Legacy

Rudolf Kobert (3 January 1854 – 27 December 1918) was a German pharmacologist and toxicologist born in Bitterfeld.
In 1877 he graduated from the University of Halle, afterwards working as an assistant to physiologist Friedrich Goltz (1834-1902) and pharmacologist Oswald Schmiedeberg (1838–1920) at the University of Strasbourg. In 1887 he was appointed professor of pharmacology, dietetics and history of medicine at the Imperial University of Dorpat. One of his students was Peter Hermann Stillmark who was the founder of lectinology with the publication of his thesis about ricin.
Due to "Russification" of the university, Kobert left Dorpat in 1896, subsequently becoming director of the Brehmerschen Heilanstalten (a sanatorium founded decades earlier by Hermann Brehmer) in Gorbersdorf. In 1899 he was appointed to the chair of pharmacology, pharmacognosy, chemistry and physiological history of medicine at the University of Rostock, a position he kept until his death.
Kobert's work largely involved investigations of ergot alkaloids, scopolamine, saponins and various plant and animal poisons. He was the author of popular textbooks, and was especially known for his release of Historischen Studien aus dem Pharmakologischen Institut der Universität Dorpat (Historical studies in the Institute of Pharmacology at the University of Dorpat; 5 volumes 1889–96).