Swiss Corner Clinical & Translational Neuroscience January–June 2017: 1–4 ª The Author(s) 2017 In Memoriam: Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/2514183X17714103 Professor Marco Mumenthaler journals.sagepub.com/home/ctn Christian W Hess and Claudio LA Bassetti From 1962 to 1990 (Figure 1), Marco area of Italian-speaking southern Mumenthaler served as a professor of Switzerland, where he lived with his neurology and head of the Neurological farming grandparents, and then from Department at the Inselspital Berne, age 9 to 18 in the German School of Switzerland. Marco Mumenthaler was Milan where he initially had to learn born on July 25, 1925, in Berne, and German language. Here he completed died on January 30, 2016, in Basel. the grammar school with the “Abitur” Marco Mumenthaler, professor (qualification for university entrance) emeritus of neurology at the Univer- in 1943. However, because of war in sity of Bern, died in his 91st year in Italy, a few weeks before his final the retirement home in Basel, where he exam, the German School of Milan lived since November 2012. He is sur- was bombed, and the final school les- vived by two divorced wives, a life sons and examination had to be dis- partner, four daughters, and four placed to the South Tyrolean grandchildren. With his death, the neu- mountains. In autumn 1943, he started rological community lost the most bril- his studies in medicine at Zu¨rich, liant clinician and inspiring academic where he worked in the experimental teacher. laboratory of the anatomist Professor As the author of 13 monographs, Figure 1. Prof. Marco Mumenthaler Gian To¨ndury and wrote a doctor of some of it in numerous editions and 1990. medicine (MD) thesis on the influence with translations in multiple languages, the positive effects of sex hormones on the cleavage of salamander eggs. He of Marco Mumenthaler’s work were felt not only in also received undergraduate training at Paris, Amsterdam, German-speaking Europe but also in the entire globe. From and finally at Basel, where he received his MD in 1950. In 1974 to 1985, he was a highly successful editor in chief of Paris at the Salpetrie`re, Professor Georges Guillain seemed the Journal of Neurology, which he transformed from the to have developed a preference for the Swiss student and German-language “Zeitschrift fu¨r Neurologie” (formerly frequently challenged him with neurological questions. “Deutsche Zeitschrift fu¨r Nervenheilkunde”) to the present Conversely, the renowned neurologist left an indelible international format. He served as the rector (principal) of impression on Mumenthaler which might have influenced the University of Berne (1989–1991) and chaired many his final specialty choice. academic boards including the Swiss Neurological Society Mumenthaler began his clinical training in the cardiol- (1969–1971) for which he was appointed as the honorary ogy department of Professor Jean Lene`gre at Hoˆpital president. He was the corresponding or honorary member of numerous European and American neurological societ- Neurology Department Inselspital, University of Bern, Inselspital, Bern, ies, senator of the Leopoldina, and affiliated to the Royal Switzerland Society of Medicine. Marco Mumenthaler’s parents Hans Mumenthaler, a Corresponding author: Claudio LA Bassetti, Department of Neurology, University of Bern, merchant, and Lydia Piccoli were expatriate Swiss living Inselspital, Bern, Switzerland. in Milan. Marco Mumenthaler was educated first in a rural E-mail: [email protected] Creative Commons CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). 2 Clinical & Translational Neuroscience 1(1) This gave him the chance to do more scientific projects and also include anatomic–pathological studies. In 1960 (Figure 2), he presented a comprehensive 400-page habili- tation thesis on the ulnar palsies, where not much can be added to even nowadays.1 Incited by his students, Mumenthaler then wrote his legendary textbook on neurol- ogy “Neurologie fu¨rA¨ rzte und Studenten,” which was since then reprinted in 13 revised and extended editions and was translated into 10 languages.2 In the same year, he went on a scientific study leave to delve into myology. For 10 months, he went as the visiting associate of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (United States) to the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness headed by Prof. George Milton Shy. He did histological studies on end plates in chicken embryos together with Dr W. King Engel who later became a famous Figure 2. Prof. Marco Mumenthaler 1960. expert in myasthenia. During this study leave, Mumentha- ler was quite unexpectedly officially informed about the sudden death of the neurological head physician Prof. Rolf Boucicaut in Paris. Eager to embark on research activities, Magun in Berne on the July 5, 1960 and asked to take over he got engaged in a study of the cardiac gallop rhythm. the lead of the division. Mumenthaler readily affirmed his Subsequently, he turned to psychiatry as his specialty interest. choice and got trained in the psychiatric hospital at Mu¨n- Back in Switzerland, he was additionally offered the singen near Berne headed by Professor Max Mu¨ller, the analogous post in Lausanne, but Mumenthaler’s choice was later full professor (ordinarius) and chair at the Psychiatric Berne, where he started on 1 April 1962 as full extraordi- University Hospital, Waldau. Working in a nonacademic nary professor (with faculty seat) and head of the neurolo- hospital, Mumenthaler’s scientific ambition resulted in the gical department at the Inselspital. Mumenthaler found a use of a vacuum chamber at the military airport where he had 12-bed neurological division with one senior physician and to do his army rank promotion service. The air force was three assistant doctors (residents). The neurological divi- interested in cognitive effects of hypoxia. Hence, sion still belongs to the University Department of Internal Mumenthaler did a study on the psychological “Rorschach Medicine headed by the influential Prof. Walter Hadorn. Test” under hypoxic conditions. In summer 1953, he went to Under Mumenthaler’s direction, the rise of the neurolo- Zu¨rich to get trained at the Neurological Outpatient Clinic gical unit was meteoric. By systematic promotion of headed by Prof. Mieczyslaw Minkowski. Here the knowl- talented young academics combined with establishing nec- edgeable and enthusiastic senior neurologist Dr Ernst Baasch essary facilities for diagnostic workup and research, he was his teacher, and Mumenthaler mastered the clinical developed an exemplary department. At a time when no diagnosis practice. His further clinical training stations international diagnostic International Classification of Dis- included the University Department of Neurosurgery in Zu¨r- orders (ICSD) code existed, he established an elaborate and ich (Prof. Hugo Krayenbu¨hl), the Department of Internal very detailed neurological diagnostic code to be used by all Medicine at Winterthur ZH (Prof. Ferdinand Wuhrmann), physicians of his department for the purpose of clinical and again the University Department of Neurology at Zu¨r- research. When his chief Walter Hadorn retired in 1966, ich, now headed by Prof. Fritz Lu¨thy. Fritz Lu¨thy was an Mumenthaler was appointed ordinarius for the newly estab- excellent neuropathologist and a nobel, rather distant aca- lished chair in neurology, and the neurological unit was demic who did not directly supervise the residents. It was the given the status of an independent university department, famous neurosurgeon Krayenbu¨hl, noticing his talent, who which continued to grow. The rising demand for neurolo- persuaded Mumenthaler to focus on neurology rather than gical service combined with abundant public funds at that psychiatry, and later advised him to pursue an academic time certainly helped. Mumenthaler soon was a key opinion career. Mumenthaler threw himself into clinical research leader in the medical faculty, in the hospital governing with admirable diligence, without a direct scientific mentor. board, and at the national level in the educational boards He met several interesting patients and conducted several of Swiss doctors, for instance, and he held numerous influ- systematic studies, particularly in peripheral neurology. ential positions. Throughout his career he was greatly Clinically his great talent got around, making him a much wanted and appreciated expert in medical insurance assess- demanded consulting neurologist already at a young age. ments. In the army he attained the rank of a sanitary major In 1957, Mumenthaler was licensed as neurologist and and remained an active officer up to the age of 63 years. He appointed head assistant of the research division of the was also engaged in the International Red Cross and parti- neurological department (University Hospital, Zurich). cipated in several missions to conflict areas. Hess and Bassetti 3 Mumenthaler’s primary scientific interest was clinical. Apart from his Italian mother tongue, he mastered German, Starting with peripheral neurology and having first focused French, and English. He cultivated