Peter Oehme

Peter Oehme (born 5 June 1937) is a German physician and pharmacologist. In 1977 he founded the East German Drugs Research Institute, serving as its director from January 1977 till December 1991 when the institute was reconfigured in the context of German reunification.

Life Peter Oehme was born in Leipzig. During the war years Leipzig was subject to heavy air-raids and he was evacuated, with his mother, to a village in Saxony. US troops invaded and then withdrew from the area in the summer of 1945, reflecting an agreement already concluded between the leaders of the victorious powers, which left the entire region administered as the Soviet occupation zone (relaunched in October 1949 as the Soviet sponsored German Democratic Republic). After the war ended the family were reunited in Leipzig, but while he was still at school they relocated to what came to be known as East Berlin. His memoires recall that his parents were enthusiastic supporters of the new political structure in East Germany, although Oehme himself displayed outbursts of low-level rebelliousness, notably in the aftermath of the Hungarian uprising, when he was one of a group of medical student representatives demanding the abolition of compulsory lessons in the Russian language and Marxist-Leninist basic studies. It was here that he received his doctorate in 1962. He also took on teaching contracts at the University of Potsdam and at the Humboldt.

Work One focus of Peter Oehme's research work has involved the origins of stress reactions, and their relationships with stress and drug dependency. In particular, he has engaged with the operation of the neuropeptide Substance P in the stress response and the body's adaptation.

Recognition and honours 1985 Corresponding member of the (East) German Academy of Sciences 1988 External member of the Soviet Academy of Medical Sciences (since 1992 the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences) 1988 Awarded National Prize of the German Democratic Republic Class II (Sciences and technology) 1990 Full member of the (East) German Academy of Sciences 2014 External member of the Russian Academy of Sciences