Hans Knöll

Hans Knöll (January 7, 1913 – June 26, 1978) was a German physician and microbiologist. He was the director of the Central Institute of Microbiology and Experimental Therapy in Jena from 1953 to 1976, a member of the Academy of Sciences of the German Democratic Republic (i.e. of East Germany), and professor of bacteriology at the University of Jena. He was awarded the National Prize of the GDR in 1949 and 1952. Little else is known about his political involvement during this period because his name does not appear in the 200,000-page records recovered from the Nazi Party Chancellery. He gained the Dr. med. degree in 1938. During his studies he was also an assistant at the Institute of Colloid Research at Frankfurt under Raphael Eduard Liesegang. In 1944 he participated in the isolation of nucleosides in living bacteria using phase contrast microscopy.

Collegium Jenense was a thirteenth-century Dominican cloister that was the principal site of the University of Jena from its founding until the mid-nineteenth century. Both Goethe and Alexander von Humboldt had lectured within its walls. The Collegium was not located exactly on the building site of the Zeiss skyscraper, but it was meant to be demolished to make room for an adjacent recreational center that was intended to be connected to the tower. In 1969 Knöll dedicated himself to saving this site.