Editing Hans Gerhard Creutzfeldt (section)

==Biography==
Creutzfeldt was born into a medical family, on June 2, 1885, at [[Harburg (quarter)|Harburg an der Elbe]], Germany, which was incorporated into [[Hamburg]] in 1937.{{cn|date=September 2024}} In 1903, at the age of 18, he was drafted into the [[German army]] and spent his service stationed in [[Kiel]].

Afterwards, he attended the School of Medicine of the [[University of Jena]] and the [[University of Rostock]],<ref name="rostock" /> receiving his doctorate at the latter in 1909. Part of his practical training was undertaken at ''St. Georg'' – Hospital in Hamburg. After qualification he sought adventure as a [[Naval surgeon|ship's surgeon]], voyaging the [[Pacific Ocean]], taking the opportunity to study local crafts, linguistics, and tropical plants.

After returning to [[Germany]] in 1912, Creutzfeldt worked at the Neurological Institute in [[Frankfurt am Main]], at the psychiatric-neurological clinics in [[Wrocław|Breslau]], [[Kiel]] and [[Berlin]], and at the ''[[Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Psychiatrie]]'' in [[Munich]]. 

During the [[First World War]], Creutzfeldt was deployed as a reserve medical officer and survived the sinking of the auxiliary cruiser [[SMS Greif]], on which he was embarked. After being captured on February 29, 1916, he was repatriated as a doctor in May of that year and served in the [[Imperial German Navy]] until the end of the war in 1918.

Creutzfeldt was [[habilitation|habilitated]] at Kiel in 1920, and in 1925 became ''Extraordinarius'' of [[psychiatry]] and [[neurology]]. In 1938 he was appointed professor and director of the university psychiatric and neurological division in Kiel. He helped to recognize a neurodegenerative disease, with [[Alfons Maria Jakob]], [[Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease]] in which the [[brain tissue]] develops holes and takes on a sponge-like texture. It is now known it is due to a type of infectious [[protein]] called a [[prion]]. Prions are misfolded proteins which replicate by converting their properly folded counterparts.

In [[Nazi Germany]], Creutzfeldt became a [[Förderndes Mitglied der SS|Patron Member]] of [[Heinrich Himmler]]'s [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] from 1932 to 1933.<ref name="kondziella" />