Gustav Giemsa

Giemsa was born in Blechhammer (now Blachownia Śląska, a district within the city of Kędzierzyn-Koźle) to Gustav, a mining official and Franziska.

[1] He studied pharmacy and mineralogy at the University of Leipzig (1892-94), and then worked between 1895 and 1898 as a pharmacist at the government hospital in Dar-es-Salaam, German East Africa.

[2] In 1904 Giemsa published an essay on the staining procedure for flagellates, blood cells, and bacteria.

Giemsa improved the Romanowsky stain (Eosin Y and Methylene Blue) by stabilizing this dye solution with glycerol.

[4][5] In 1933 Giemsa signed the Vow of allegiance of the Professors of the German Universities and High-Schools to Adolf Hitler and the National Socialistic State.