Medals
Cothenius Medal
Awarded for a lifetime of superb scientific achievement, the Cothenius Medal is made entirely of gold and bears the engraving “Praemium virtutis salutem mortalium provehentibus sancitum” (In recognition of the bearer’s great contribution to increasing the wellbeing of humankind). Christian Andreas von Cothenius (1708-1789) left “one thousand gold talers (coins)” to the Academy on the condition that every other year the interest on them be used to award a gold commemorative medal emblazoned with his image to the person who found the best solution to a prize question in the field of practical medicine. One of the first recipients of the medal was the physician and zoologist Ernst Haeckel in 1864. Since 1954 the Cothenius Medal has been awarded to eminent researchers — usually members — to honor a lifetime’s outstanding work.
Image: Markus Scholz for the Leopoldina
| Year | Laureate | City | Discipline |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Jürgen Troe (born 1940) | Göttingen | Physikal. Chemie |
| 2021 | Rudolf K. Thauer (born 1939) | Marburg | Mikrobiolgie/Immunologie |
| 2021 | Werner Kühlbrandt (born 1951) | Frankfurt (M.) | Biochemie/Strukturbiologie |
| 2019 | Klaus Müllen (born 1947) | Mainz | Chemie |
| 2019 | Walter Neupert (1939 - 2019) | Martinsried | Biochemie und Zellbiologie |
| 2017 | Fritz Melchers (born 1936) | Berlin | Zellbiologie |
| 2017 | Joachim Trümper (born 1933) | Garching | Röntgenastronomie |
| 2015 | Herbert Gleiter (born 1938) | Karlsruhe | Physik |
| 2015 | Otto Ludwig Lange (1927 - 2017) | Würzburg | Biologie |
| 2013 | Gunter S. Fischer (born 1943) | Halle | Chemie |
| 2013 | Wolf Singer (born 1943) | Frankfurt (M.) | Neurowissenschaften |
| 2011 | Bert Hölldobler (born 1936) | Würzburg | Zoologie |
| 2011 | Anna M. Wobus (born 1945) | Gatersleben | Humangenetik und Molekulare Medizin |
| 2011 | Ulrich Wobus (born 1942) | Gatersleben | Genetik/Molekularbiologie |
| 2009 | Karl Decker (born 1925) | Biochemie | |
| 2009 | Eduard Seidler (born 1929) | Medizingeschichte | |
| 2007 | Klaus Wolff (born 1935) | Vienna | Dermatologie |
| 2007 | Sigrid Doris Peyerimhoff (born 1937) | Bonn | physikal. Chemie |
| 2005 | Hans Günter Schlegel (1924 - 2013) | Göttingen | Mikrobiologie |
| 2005 | Alfred Gierer (born 1929) | Tübingen | Organismische Biologie |
| 2003 | Ernst J. M. Helmreich (1922 - 2017) | Würzburg | Biochemie |
| 2003 | Benno Parthier (born 1932) | Zellbiologie | |
| 2003 | Andreas Oksche (1926 - 2017) | Giessen | Anatomie |
| 2001 | Leopold Horner (1911 - 2005) | Mainz | Chemie |
| 2001 | Heinz Jagodzinski (1916 - 2012) | München | Physik |
| 2000 | Hans Mohr (1930 - 2016) | Freiburg (Br.) | Organismische Biologie |
| 1999 | Rudolf Rott (1926 - 2003) | Giessen | Veterinärmedizin |
| 1999 | Dorothea Kuhn (1923 - 2015) | Marbach | Wissenschafts- und Medizingeschichte |
| 1997 | Otto Braun-Falco (1922 - 2018) | München | Dermatologie |
| 1997 | Friedrich Hirzebruch (1927 - 2012) | Bonn | Mathematik |
| 1995 | Wilhelm Doerr (1914 - 1996) | Heidelberg | Pathologie |
| 1995 | Gottfried Möllenstedt (1912 - 1997) | Tübingen | Physik |
| 1995 | Dietrich Schneider (1919 - 2008) | Starnberg | Zoologie |
| 1993 | Wolfgang Gerok (born 1926) | Freiburg (Br.) | Innere Medizin |
| 1993 | Bernhard Hassenstein (1922 - 2016) | Freiburg (Br.) | Zoologie |
| 1991 | Heinz Röhrer (1905 - 1992) | Rathenow | Veterinärmedizin |
| 1991 | Albert Eschenmoser (born 1925) | Küsnacht | Chemie |
| 1989 | Sir Bernhard Katz (1911 - 2003) | London | Physiologie |
| 1989 | Jürgen Tonndorf (1914 - 1989) | New York | Oto-Rhino-Laryngologie |
| 1989 | Heinz Bethge (1919 - 2001) | Physik | |
| 1987 | Rostislaw Kaischew (1908 - 1990) | Sofia | Physikal. Chemie |
| 1987 | Adolf Watznauer (1907 - 1995) | Karl-Marx-Stadt | Geologie |
| 1985 | Konrad Zuse (1910 - 1995) | Hünfeld | Computertechnik |
| 1985 | Hermann Flohn (1912 - 1997) | Bonn | Klimatologie |
| 1983 | Wolf Frhr. von Engelhardt (1910 - 2008) | Tübingen | Mineralogie |
| 1983 | Erna Lesky (1911 - 1986) | Innsbruck | Gesch. d. Medizin |
| 1980 | Wilhelm Jost (1903 - 1988) | Göttingen | Physikal. Chemie |
| 1980 | Friedrich Peter Matzen (1909 - 1986) | Leipzig | Orthopädie |
| 1977 | Wolfgang Gentner (1906 - 1980) | Heidelberg | Physik |
| 1977 | Arnold Graffi (1910 - 2006) | Berlin | Allg. Biologie |
| 1975 | Ilja Prigogine (1917 - 1988) | Brüssel/Austin | Physikal. Chemie |
| 1975 | Ernst Ruska (1906 - 1996) | Berlin | Physik |
| 1974 | Viktor A. Ambarcumjan (1908 - 1996) | Erevan | Astronomie |
| 1973 | Albrecht Unsöld (1905 - 1995) | Kiel | Astronomie |
| 1972 | Erwin Reichenbach (1897 - 1973) | Stomatologie | |
| 1971 | Otto Kratky (1902 - 1995) | Graz | Physikal. Chemie |
| 1971 | Friedrich Hund (1896 - 1997) | Göttingen | Physik |
| 1969 | Pavel S. Aleksandrov (1896 - 1982) | Moskau | Mathematik |
| 1969 | Helmut Hasse (1898 - 1979) | Hamburg | Mathematik |
| 1969 | Bartel L. van der Waerden (1903 - 1996) | Zurich | Mathematik |
| 1967 | Vladimir A. Engelhardt (1894 - 1984) | Moskau | Physiologische Chemie |
| 1967 | Karl Lohmann (1898 - 1978) | Berlin | Physiologische Chemie |
| 1966 | Archibald Vivian Hill (1886 - 1977) | Cambridge (GB) | Physiologie |
| 1965 | Hans Hermann Bennhold (1893 - 1976) | Tübingen | Innere Medizin |
| 1965 | Ernst Derra (1901 - 1979) | Düsseldorf | Chirurgie |
| 1964 | Wolfgang Frhr. von Buddenbrock-Hettersdorff (1884 - 1964) | Mainz | Zoologie |
| 1961 | Max Bürger (1885 - 1966) | Leipzig | Innere Medizin |
| 1960 | Kurt Mothes (1900 - 1983) | Halle | Botanik |
| 1960 | Sir John C. Eccles (1903 - 1997) | Canberra | Physiologie |
| 1959 | Georg von Hevesy (1885 - 1966) | Stockholm | Physikalische Chemie |
| 1959 | Petr L. Kapica (1894 - 1984) | Moskau | Physik |
