100th birthday - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 1968 - 3.50 Shilling

The birthday of the Nobel laureate and discoverer of the blood groups Karl Landsteiner celebrates his 100th birthday and is the reason for the publication of this special postage stamp. Landsteiner was born on June 14, 1868 in Vienna and studied medicine here. At that time, Vienna was once again a mecca for physicians from all over the world. Landsteiner thus had the best teachers and was able to specialize already during his studies on those subjects that attracted him the most - the theoretical and especially medical chemistry. In 1891 he completed his studies and began to learn the most important men in Germany and Switzerland even more. Landsteiner wrote 75 scientific papers during his ten years at the Institute of Pathological Anatomy. In his 16th publication, which appeared on November 14, 1901, he stated, "There are several types of human blood." And he called these groups A, B, C and a "typeless" blood. These terms are essentially the same as today's. At the beginning of the twenties he emigrated to America due to the unacceptable working conditions after the war. In 1930 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine, and ten years later he and his colleagues discovered the Rhesus factor. Landsteiner died of a heart attack shortly after his 75th birthday. The brand image shows a portrait of the great bacteriologist.