Fritz Lipmann
Carl F. Cori was born in Prague. When he was two years old, the family moved to Trieste. There his father was the Director of the Marine Biological Station, and soon the young Cori became interested in a great variety of sea animals by observing them in the well-stocked aquarium. He also participated in longer trips with a spacious and well-equipped boat, the Adriu, where his father lectured to the students not only about the animals but also about the culture of Trieste, going back to the Romans and early Christians.'
Trieste was a beautiful and interesting city in those days, belonging still to Austria, inhabited by amixed population of Italians and many other nationalities. Cori attended a typical European Gymnasium with the emphasis on Latin, Greek, and history, but with little on science, except for some mathematics. The summers brought him to the Tyrol and his mother's family; the patriarch of this family was Professor of Physics of the University of Prague. Thus Cori was the progeny of a family of academics.
When he had just finished the Gymnasium, at the age of 17, the 1914 war started, and he decided to study medicine in Prague. Three years later he was drafted into the Austrian army and eventually ended up in the Sanitary Corps. He notes at this time that he was befriended at the University by a woman 'who had charm, vitality, intelligence and a sense of humor'. Escaping safely from some critical situations during the retreat of the Austrian army in 1918, he returned to Prague to finish medicine, and there met again the woman he had apparently much thought about, Gerty Theresa Radnitz. In that same year they were married.
Con soon became quite interested in laboratory work. He had met in Prague some outstanding biochemists, among