Horst Klinkmann

Horst Klinkmann (born 7 May 1935) is a German professor for Internal medicine and Nephrology (kidney related medicine). A principal focus of his research is in the area of major medical implants. Between 1990 and 1992 he served, in succession to Werner Scheler, as the final president of the (East) German Academy of Sciences.

In 1992 he was relieved of his professorship at Rostock University "on account of personality defects" ("wegen mangelnder persönl. Eignung").

Early life Horst Klinkmann was born and grew up in Teterow, a small town near Rostock in northern Germany. His father was killed in the war which broke out when he was 4, and his mother died when he was 10. After this he was taken in by a local orphanage.

Between 1960 and 1966, he continued with higher level medical studies at Rostock's Physiology Institute, also undertaking studies at the Semmelweis University in Budapest, where his interest in kidney function was encouraged by a Professor Bálint, and at the Kidney Clinic in Lund, Sweden.

Career in East Germany Research project "Künstliches Herz" ("Artificial heart") produced by a research team headed up by Prof. Dr. Horst Klinkmann Between 1969 and 1971 Klinkmann was a visiting research professor at the University of Utah. Research into the archives indicated that from 1968 he had been identified in Stasi files under the code name "Informal Collaborator Ludwig" ("IM Ludwig"). However, the Stasi files also disclose that by the 1980s he was regarded as unreliable by his handlers because he had failed to provide adequate disclosure of private contacts made during his trips abroad, and after 1987 his career as an informant was officially deemed to be over. He also served from 1990 till 2002 as a permanent guest professor for Bio-engineering at Glasgow's Strathclyde University where he had been named an honorary graduate in 1988.

Personal Horst Klinkmann met his future wife, Hannelore Kruse, when they were both medical students at Rostock.

Awards and honours Klinkmann's own curriculum vitae refers to more than fifty awards and seventeen honorary memberships of medical organisations around the world, listing a few of them. Reference is also made to his membership of the editorial boards of ten national and international scientific journals.

He won the National Prize of East Germany twice, in 1977 and in 1985.