Obituary for Prof. Joachim Robert Kalden (1937 - 2021)

Always open, friendly, positive and interested, always with new ideas and projects in mind - that is how we will all remember Jochen Kalden. I still have fond memories of our first meeting at the 1974 Annual Congress of Immunology in Hanover, where Jochen Kalden also presented his findings on myasthenia research. As the main organizer of this event, he was just whirling around. And yet there was still time for critical discussions about new antibodies, which at that time were still being detected using immunofluorescence.

Jochen Kalden was born in Marburg and later studied medicine in Freiburg, Marburg and Tübingen. After completing his doctorate in 1966, he spent four years as a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Therapeutics and Medical Research Council at the University of Edinburgh, interrupted by periods at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, USA. For his clinical training as a research assistant in internal medicine and clinical immunology, he chose the young Hannover Medical School. His teachers here were Prof. Helmuth Deicher and Fritz Hartmann. After his habilitation in 1974, he was senior physician in the Department of Clinical Immunology until 1977 and, within the interdisciplinary structure of the MHH, also senior physician in the Department of Rheumatology. In 1977, he was appointed Director of the then Institute and Polyclinic for Clinical Immunology at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. He developed this into the successful and world-renowned Medical Clinic III for Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology. He established two Max Planck research groups in Erlangen in 1987 and was spiritus rector of the Collaborative Research Center 263 founded in 1991 with the topic “Immunological Mechanisms in Infection, Inflammation and Autoimmunity” as well as the graduate college of the same name. In 1994 he was the initiator of the Interdisciplinary Center for Clinical Research and established a Department of Molecular Immunology in 1997. After almost 30 years of tireless work, Jochen Kalden retired in 2006. In the meantime, his clinical-immunological field of work has developed into an important scientific focus at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg.

Through his broad, interdisciplinary interest in immunology and rheumatic diseases, he combined this science with medicine and also opened up medicine to immunology. Based on the study of autoimmune reactions, he developed the concept that the immune system strongly influences the course of inflammatory diseases, infections and tumors.

He was not only interested in the latest developments in immunology, but also in the effects of the immune system on diseases. He was interested in pathogenesis, but also in the question of how diseases can be cured using this knowledge. With his enthusiasm, especially for clinical immunology, he cultivated and promoted the connection between medicine and research and was an inspiring role model for numerous young colleagues. His clinical and basic scientific research, most recently on apoptosis, left its mark on immunology. He was one of the first to use monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and later also introduced cytokine inhibitors or biologics for the treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases.

Particularly noteworthy is the foundation of the German Rheumatism Research Center (DRFZ) in Berlin (1989), which he founded with great dedication. As a member and President of the Board of Trustees, he played a decisive role in its development and made it a German model institution for cooperation between hospitals and non-university research institutions. Today, as a Leibniz Institute, it is one of the world's leading research institutions in rheumatology and inflammation research.

As the third president of our specialist society from 1983 to 1990, he had a lasting influence on the fortunes of the German Society of Immunology, both in the early years and later. He always had an open ear for young and interested junior scientists, whom he inspired not only with his lectures, but also in numerous evening discussions for our science and its implementation for the benefit of our patients. He was always unpretentious and a generous host, whether over a good glass of red wine or a decent beer after a seminar at his clinic. Generations of immunologists have had this experience in Erlangen. But it was not only us young scientists who appreciated his advice, but also numerous universities, national and international research organizations, the Federal Ministry of Research and Technology with its membership of the Federal Research Council, the Senate of Berlin, the Ministry of Science of the Free State of Saxony and, last but not least, the international biopharmaceutical industry. But he was also in demand as an advisor for the promotion of young scientists and clinicians, e.g. until recently on the International Advisory Board of the Hannover Biomedical Research School. As a result, he has had a lasting influence on immunological and rheumatological research, as well as on internal medicine, both nationally and internationally.

His outstanding scientific achievements have been recognized with honorary doctorates from Charité Berlin, the Medical Faculty of Lund and Hannover Medical School. He was also awarded the Georg Zimmermann Prize of the Hannover Medical School in 1976 and the International Prize of the Japan College for Rheumatology in 2005. He has been a full member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities since 1999 and a member and senator of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina since 2002. He was President of the German Society for Rheumatology in 1993 and 1994 and President of the European League against Rheumatism (EULAR) from 2001 to 2003. In 1996 he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon and in 1999 the Bavarian Order of Merit. He organized numerous national and international congresses, such as the very important 7th International Congress of Immunology in Berlin in 1989, shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall. The international “Advanced Targeted Therapies” conferences, at which the principles and standards for modern biologics therapy for immunological diseases were further developed, are also unforgettable.

Jochen Kalden was not only an outstanding scientist, experienced clinician and inspiring teacher, but also an excellent connoisseur and lover of modern art. Despite intensive scientific discussions, we still found time for a short detour to a great exhibition currently running at the congress venue.

His friendship, his affection and his love for us, for science and for art will remain in our memories. All too soon, illness has taken him from us. We will miss Jochen Kalden, but he will remain unforgotten in our hearts as a great shaper of German and international immunology and rheumatology.

Reinhold E. Schmidt