Preface
 
Rolf Neth, Michael Weidemann    Hämatol. Bluttransf. Vol. 35


Den völligen Gegensatz zum Antlitz bildet das Wort Maske.

Pavel Florenski 1882-1937 in: "Die Ikonostase"


Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Friends
In 1988, after the last Wilsede meeting, Elena Frolova and her friends had the marvelous idea of organizing a Volga Wilsede meeting. Today, I am very pleased that this idea became true. Every day, we dream of freedom and peace. A small part of this dream has today come into our hands. Everybody here has done his best to come together for good science and in friendship. I am sure that this Volga Wilsede meeting and the Neva Wilsede Meeting will become part of the international tradition of good science in a peaceful human atmosphere. For us this door is open: let us go through.



Moscow, 13 June 1990




Dr. Rolf Neth asked me to say a few words about my last work, which I called "Alexander Maximov's world". I could think that many of you had to learn or to study his experiments and results, when they were students. Well, I am not competent enough to give a valuation of his work or meaning in histology. But the few things I read about his work and life gave me a great deal of respect and admiration. Specially how he drew and painted the results of his experiments in such a filligran and precise way. Amongst scientists, often the work of a colleague is not always considered with great admiration rather more with a feeling of respect or competition. So, when I put up some kind of a monument for Alexander Maximov, it is the paintcrs admiration for a scientist, who probably drew much better than I ever would do in histology. Now to my work: There is the real and spiritual world of Alexander Maximov. The polarisa tion of the idea is seen on the right side which shows the three stations in his life. First : St. Petersburg, where he worked at the Military Medical Academy for some years. Second: In Berlin, the Charite Hospital, where he worked like his famous colleagues Arinkin and Botkin before. Third: And last station of his life was the University of Chicago where he had to emigrate with heavy heart after october revolution. On the left side you see two blood pictures which have been drawn by Alexander Maximov.


The upper picture which looks like a Super Nova is a cell of a mouse fibroplast which Alexander Maximov in his time could not see like this, as the electronic microscope was'nt invented then. This is the contemporary level of this work together with the circled Wilsede motif over the tower . If you look closer and I could help everybody with my magnifying glass, you discover that Maximov's two blood pictures are drawn in the silhouette of the Emhof (up side down) and the Granary. The Center shows the portrait of Alexander Maximov about the time as a young man in St. Petersburg and it shows close to his heart the entrance to his laboratory in the Military Academy. To end now, I sum up the key idea may be called 5 seconds of inspiration and five weeks of rather hard work. Alexander Maximov as a tower surrounded by the real buildings St. Petersburg, Berlin and Chicago and on the other hand surrounded by his spiritual buildings, the blood pictures in the silhouette of Wilsedes granary and the Emhof. So I thank you for accompanying my explanations of Alexander Maximov from St. Petersburg to us here in Wilsede.

Michel Weidemann
Maximov's world Etching 40 x 60 by Michel Weidemann

Scientific and private discussions on the Volga and around Uglich


Scientific and private discussions in and around " The Emhoff "