Jean Hamburger

Jean Hamburger (1909-1992) was a distinguished French physician, surgeon and essayist. He is particularly known for his contribution to nephrology, and for having performed the first renal transplantation in France in 1952.

Hamburger is father of the well-known French singer-songwriter, Michel Berger.

Biography
Hamburger was born in Paris on (15 July 1909.

Medical career
Together with René Kuss, Hamburger defined the precise methods and rules for conducting renal transplantation surgery, and is atrributed with founding the medical discipline of nephrology.

In 1952, he performed the first successful renal transplant surgery in France, on a 16 year old carpenter, Marius Renard who damaged his only kidney when he fell off scaffolding, using a kidney donated by the subject's mother. The organ failed, but rejection was staved off for three weeks, a record at the time.

In 1955, he created the very first articifial kidney. Hamburger is credited with major breakthroughs in renal transplants: first prolonged success in 1953, first unqualified success between twins in 1959 et non-twins in 1962.

He also authored basic research on the immunological basis of kidney disease, graft immunology and auto-immune diseases.

Family
Hamburger married concert pianist Annette Haas, and had 3 children, Michel, Bernard and Françoise. In the 1950s, Hamburger contracted a lung infection which weakened him severely. This left him in an extremely depressed state. He suddenly and inexplicably decided to leave the family home one day, cutting himself off from his wife and children. In spite of the fact that his wife, Annette, did her best to create a warm, trusting relationship between herself and her young children, their children are known to have suffered a great deal because of the abandonment.

Hamburger died on 1 February 1992.

Published works

 * 1972 La Puissance et la Fragilité  (Flammarion)
 * 1975 Dictionnaire de médecine, préface et direction  (Flammarion)
 * 1976 L’Homme et les Hommes  (Flammarion)
 * 1979 Demain, les autres  (Flammarion)
 * 1981 Un jour, un homme...  (Flammarion)
 * 1982 Introduction au langage de la médecine  (Flammarion)
 * 1983 Le journal d’Harvey  (Flammarion)
 * 1984 La Raison et la Passion  (Le Seuil)
 * 1985 Le Dieu foudroyé  (Flammarion)
 * 1986 Le Miel et la Ciguë  (Le Seuil)
 * 1988 Monsieur Littré  (Flammarion)
 * 1988 La plus belle aventure du monde  (Gallimard)
 * 1988 Zouchy et quelques autres histoires   (Flammarion)
 * 1989 Dictionnaire promenade  (Le Seuil)
 * 1990 La Puissance et la Fragilité. Vingt ans après  (Flammarion)
 * 1990 Le Livre de l’aventure humaine  (Gallimard)
 * 1991 Les Belles Imprudences, Réflexion sur la condition humaine  (Odile Jacob)

Recognition & Awards
He was elected to life membership of the Académie française on 18 April 1985 (Seat 4), to succeed Pierre Emmanuel, in an official ceremony which took place on 16 January 1986 (Upon his death, Cardinal Decourtray was elected to fill his seat on 1 July, 1993).


 * Grand officier de la Légion d'honneur
 * Grand officier de l'ordre national du Mérite
 * Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres