Distinguished visit: Nobel Prize winner Erwin Neher in Franneuharting

Created: 07/18/2022, 18:00

By: Josef Ametsbichler

Erwin Neher has investigated how messages between muscles and brain pass through cell walls in the human body.

In 1991, together with a colleague, he received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his research on ion channels.

The photo shows him on the village square in Frauenneuharting.

Neher's grandmother comes from the village.

© Stefan Rossmann

He once won the Nobel Prize for his discovery in biophysics.

Now the doctor was looking for traces of his relatives in the district.

Frauenneuharting/Grafing – The 1,500-inhabitant municipality of Frauenneuharting does not have a real golden book.

But she affords a volume with a burgundy cover and pages made of handmade paper, most of which are still blank.

Already there: bishops, CSU state politicians, a martial artist well-known in professional circles - the celebrities in the southern district are not exactly hand in hand.

The most recent entry comes from a real top-class figure: Erwin Neher, now 78, made headlines around the world in 1991: together with his research colleague Bert Sakmann, the biophysicist received the Nobel Prize for Medicine: They had succeeded in detecting individual ion channels in cell membranes.

Data transmission in body cells: "Open barrier - close barrier".

With a sketch of his discovery: Erwin Neher's entry in Frauenneuharting's guest book.

© Stefan Rossmann

Mayor Eduard Koch, for example, was correspondingly proud of the prominent guest – and in conscientious detail work he copied a sketch with a glass pipette, cell membrane and ion channel into the guest book.

"Hardly understandable for laypeople," Koch speculated about the data transmission into the body's cells.

Neher countered in the council room: “The principle is actually very simple: Open the barrier – close the barrier.

So that the currents flow in the body.” Then the Nobel Prize winner pointed to his forehead: “But how that fits together up there is still a mystery to me.”

Of course, Neher, who was born in Landsberg, didn't come to Frauenneuharting last Sunday to chat with the mayor about the latest secrets of neuroscience.

Rather, his maternal roots lie in the community: the grandmother of the long-standing director at the Max Planck Institute for Geophysical Chemistry in Göttingen grew up on the Lenzschmidhof of the Neumayr family in the middle of town.

Over 20 for reception and coffee

The women from Neuharting gave the Nobel Prize winner a warm welcome (centre).

In the picture (from left) Neher's nephew and Grafinger FDP city councilor Claus Eimer, Frauenneuharting's mayor Eduard Koch, Erwin Neher, today's farm owner Franz Neumayr, Neher's sister Marlis Eimer and relative Max Aman.

© Stefan Rossmann

Until a certain Anton Pfeiffer came along, auditor at the savings and loan office, and fell in love with the young woman.

Their daughter, in turn, a teacher, married the future Nobel Prize winner father, Franz Xaver Neher, who was once an employee at a dairy company.

"It's nice that you're interested in your roots despite your fame," praised Mayor Koch.

The guest gave the impression that all the fuss about his person wasn't necessary.

"You get used to it, but over the years it also decreases," he said laconically.

But the family around the current farm owner Franz Neumayr was very happy: more than two dozen relatives gathered around the prominent guest for a coffee on the farm.

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Grafing's FDP city councilor Claus Eimer with his mother Marlis was also there.

Their birth name, Neher, reveals that there is another connection between the tenfold honorary doctor and the district of Ebersberg: Eimer's mother is Neher's sister.

The emeritus professor, who is still researching at the University of Göttingen as the head of the “Neher Emeritus Group”, drops by in Grafing from time to time.

Maybe also in Frauenneuharting.

A relative of Neher who didn't make it to the meeting is Lisa Neumayr from the neighboring town, in her late 20s, a pediatrician, and winner of the nationally renowned Dieter Janz Prize for Epileptology (we reported).

There's still a bit missing for the Nobel Prize, but maybe your second-degree great-uncle has a tip or two.

By the way: Everything from the region is now also available in our regular Ebersberg newsletter.