Maxime Hans Kuczyński

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Maxime Hans Kuczyński
A serious-looking man in circular glasses poses with a microscope.
Max Hans Kuczynski
Born(1890-02-02)2 February 1890
Berlin, German Empire
Died26 November 1967(1967-11-26) (aged 77)
Lima, Peru
EducationUniversity of Rostock
OccupationPhysician
Children2, including Pedro
RelativesAlex Kuczynski (granddaughter)
Military career
AllegianceGerman Empire
Branch
German Army
Conflicts
Balkans Campaign

Max "Maxime" Hans Kuczyński (2 February 1890 – 26 November 1967) was a German physician of Polish-Jewish origin.[1] He was the father of the former President of Peru, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

Biography

Maxime Kuczyński was born in Berlin,[2][3] as the son of Emma (née Schlesinger) and Louis Kuczyński, both of Jewish Polish origin.[4] He studied medicine and natural science at the University of Rostock. In 1913 he received his degree in philosophy, and in 1919 a degree in medicine.[5]

During World War I, he served in the German army and participated in the Balkans Campaign. In 1924, he was appointed as a professor. After the Nazis came to power he fled to Peru and joined the Institute of Social Medicine of the National University of San Marcos.[6] Between 1924 and 1926 he conducted anthropological research in Central Asia, and later, between 1938 and 1948, in the Andes, and performed and published on self-experimentation in medicine in 1937.[7][8][9] In 1936 he was one of the founders of the leprosarium in San Pablo where Che Guevara would later volunteer.[10]

Kuczyński died in Lima.

His son, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, born in Lima in 1938, was Prime Minister of Peru between 2005 and 2006. A decade later, he became President after winning the second round in June 2016. His American granddaughter, Alex Kuczynski, is a journalist and writer.

References

  1. "Social medicine, medical geography and health care for indigenous peoples: "Ethnic Pathology" (Max Kuczynski, 1925) in Germany, Russia, Latin America and beyond". Hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
  2. Walk, Joseph; Institute, Leo Baeck (21 November 2014). Kurzbiographien zur Geschichte der Juden: 1918–1945 (in German). Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. p. 208. ISBN 9783111580876.
  3. University of Rostock register
  4. "Wybory w Peru: Kuczynski prowadzi, ale część kart trzeba sprawdzić". Wiadomosci.onet.pl. 9 June 2016. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  5. Max Hans Kuczynski: Untersuchungen an Trichomonaden. In: Archiv für Protistenkunde, Fischer, Jena, Bd. 33 (1914), S. 119–204.
  6. "Peru presidential contender is son of Polish Jews who fled Nazis". Timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  7. Lawrence K. Altman: Who Goes First? The Story of Self-Experimentation in Medicine. University of California Press, Berkeley 1987, ISBN 0-520-21281-9, S. 4.
  8. Albert Erhardt: Infektionen, Bd. I (= Ergänzungswerk zum Handbuch der experimentellen Pharmakologie, begründet von Arthur Heffter, herausgegeben von Oskar Eichler, Bd. 16: Erzeugung von Krankheitszuständen durch das Experiment, Teil 9). Springer, Berlin 1964, S. 118.
  9. Marcos Cueto: Un médico alemán en los Andes: La visión médico-social de Maxime Kuczynski-Godard. In: Allpanchis, Jg. 32 (2000), Themenheft 56: Sanos, enfermos y salvos?, S. 39–74.
  10. Anderson, Jon Lee (2016-06-10). "A Surprising Coalition Brings A New Leader To Peru". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2026-06-23.