Professor Werner Waldhäusl, long-time past-president of the FID/CEDA, recently passed away in Vienna, Austria, survived by his wife Marianne, their sons, his brother and their families.
Born in Leipzig, Germany, Werner moved to Austria in early childhood, where he went to school and university. After graduation as medical doctor in Vienna and an internship in a hospital in Lower Austria, he soon moved to research, first at the Department of General and Experimental Pathology and later at the 1st Medical University Clinics, again in Vienna. Upon isolation of a non-dialysable active pressor principle, which he reported together with Professor Meinrad Peterlik in Nature 1967, he continued his hypertension research between 1968 and 1970 in the famous lab of Professor Jerome W. Conn. Back in Vienna, he founded the Division of Endocrinology and Diabetology at the 1st Medical University Clinics. He also chaired this clinic from 1987 until 1992 before he became the chair and director of the Department of Medicine III and its Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the new General Hospital of Vienna. But even after his retirement, he continued working first as vice-rector of the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna and then as the head of a diabetes rehabilitation clinic.
© CEDA | Professor Werner Waldhäusl at the CEDA congress 2019 in Sofia (Bulgaria).
During his scientific life, he was interested in many aspects of diabetes research. His contributions range from the human (patho)physiology of the interplay between insulin secretion and glucose disposal, for example by reporting splanchnic C-peptide production and the relative roles of peripheral versus hepatic insulin resistance during post-prandial hyperglycemia, to clinical management, for example functional insulin treatment and the role of hypo-osmolar fluids during severe hyperglycemia.
These efforts led to prestigious awards, such as the Claude Bernard Prize from the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), the Paul Langerhans Medal from the German Diabetes Association and the Von Mering Gold Medal from the German Diabetes Center (DDZ), but also important positions in scientific associations, such as the presidency of the Austrian Diabetes Association (ÖDG), vice presidency of EASD and – as many of us will remember – the editorship of Diabetologia.
Here, we remember Werner as the longest-term president of FID/CEDA, at these times called the "Internationale Föderation der Donausymposia über Diabetes mellitus", a term he very much liked to keep. Indeed, he served as "Vorsitzender" for four times from 1985 to 1995, when he organized the 13th Symposium in Vienna – my first personal contact with CEDA. After his presidency, he remained continuously interested in the development of CEDA, not only by suggesting interesting congress venues, such as the cloisters along the river Danube to create a special atmosphere during the meetings, but also repeatedly highlighting the great potential of CEDA. This, we briefly summarized in the "History and Tasks of the Federation of International Danube Symposia on Diabetes mellitus (FID)/Central European Diabetes Association (CEDA)" some years ago. This potential is based on the common Central European history and culture, the bilingual – let‘s now say: multilingual – basis of communication and – most importantly – the enormous medical and scientific talent in Central Europe.
Werner‘s strong commitment to CEDA is best illustrated by the fact that two of his former coworkers later on became its presidents, myself and more recently Professor Thomas Stulnig, who organized the CEDA Congress 2022 in Vienna, the last meeting Werner attended. We still remember the nice evening in a Viennese "Heurigen", where most previous presidents got together with the CEDA family.
Let‘s keep Werner Waldhäusl in our memories as a great diabetologist and supporter of our association.
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Erschienen in: Diabetes, Stoffwechsel und Herz, 2025; 34 (5) Seite 290-291