Schaudinn, Fritz Richard (1871-1906)

German zoologist and microbiologist who, together with Paul Hoffmann (1868-1959), discovered that Spirochaeta pallida causes syphilis. He also determined the life cycle of the Coccidiae (scale insects).

Schaudinn was born in Roseningken in East Prussia and initially studied Germanic philosophy at Berlin University, but developed an interest in zoology and graduated in this 1894. After working as an assistant in the Berlin Institute of Zoology, he became a zoology lecturer at Berlin University 1898 and was then put in charge of the laboratory of protozoology in the Kaiserliche Gesundheitsamt, Berlin, and was made a professor in the Institute for Tropical Diseases in Hamburg.