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| {{Short description|German scientist (1915–2002)}} | |||
| {{EngvarB|date=September 2014}} | {{EngvarB|date=September 2014}} | ||
| {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}} | {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}}'''Gerd Walter Christian Sommerhoff''' ] (1915-2002) was a secondary school science teacher in the UK who focused on neuroscience. | ||
| '''Gerd Walter Christian Sommerhoff''' ] (for services to education) was born on 13th February 1915, in ], Germany and died on 28th April 2002, in ], England, United Kingdom. He was a pioneer & lifelong advancer of theoretical ] and a noted ]. | |||
| A great-grandson of the German composers ] and his wife ], he was living in England at the outset of the ]. Being a foreign national, he blamelessly suffered more than two years in an ] camp in Canada<ref></ref> before decompressing back in England, where he took up a post teaching science at the ] in ].<ref>Intellectual Autobiography by ]. In Metaphysics, Soul, and Ethics in Ancient Thought: Themes from the Work of Richard Sorabji, By Ricardo Salles. ], 2005. {{ISBN|978-0-19-926130-7}}.</ref> While there, he laid the foundation for ] (for which he was honoured by our late queen) using boxes of numbered cards, containing questions, answers, tutorial material, or descriptions of experiments, on a variety of different subjects.<ref name="JPM">. Accessed 16 June 2009.</ref> He became a Research Fellow in ] at ], and presented science programmes for the ] from 1960 to 1962, before being recruited to teach technology in ] in 1963 by headmaster ].<ref>Brian Scragg, Sevenoaks School, A History (1993)</ref> In 1984, he retired from teaching and moved to ], where he was well-regarded. | |||
| Some of his students were ],<ref></ref> ], John Paul Morrison,<ref>. Accessed 7 July 2016.</ref> and ]. | |||
| ==Early life and family== | ==Early life and family== | ||
| Sommerhoff and his twin sister were born in ], to Elizabeth Ruher and Walter Georg Sommerhoff, a wealthy banker who was born in New York to German merchant Arthur Louis Carl Sommerhoff (b. 1 February 1844 in Rodenbach near Hanau; d. 16 August 1911 in Domburg) and his wife piano teacher Elise, née Schumann (1843–1928), the second child of Robert and Clara Schumann. Sommerhoff was a great-grandson of the German composers ] and his wife ]. The Sommerhoff family resided in Haarlem, Netherlands, until the loss of the family fortune in the Wall Street crash and the death of their father "in compromising circumstances".<ref>Gerd Sommerhoff, Obituary, The Times, Friday 17 May 2002</ref> The two younger children moved to Ryde on the ] in 1931 with their mother Elizabeth Sommerhoff when she married Major Bernard Francis Anne Vernon-Harcourt, while their elder brother, Walter Hans Sommerhoff, emigrated to Santiago, Chile.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}} Sommerhoff studied engineering at Zurich Polytechnic (now ]) and philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University. Sommerhoff was interned in Canada as an enemy alien until 1942.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Richard Brown Baker family papers |url=https://www.rihs.org/mssinv/mss1117.htm |access-date=2023-01-01 |website=]}}</ref>{{Primary source inline|date=January 2023}} | |||
| == Career == | |||
| Gerd then studied engineering at Zurich Polytechnic (now ]) and philosophy, politics and economics at ]. Being (an anti-Nazi) German in England, he then found himself needlessly corralled onto a ship westwards over the Atlantic Ocean, where a loud horn that sounded in the lower decks deafened him permanently in one ear to higher pitch notes. From 1939 to 1942, he was ] in Canada where, bunked up with physicist ], he patriotically tried to warn British authorities (tragically ignorant to all but reports of Fascism) about his roommate's then-overt Communist sympathies, prior to his recruitment into ] then the ] and Fuch's betrayal of its nuclear secrets to ]'s ], which enabled all the dangers of the ]. | |||
| Upon release from internment, Sommerhoff taught science at the ].<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/70296478 |title=Metaphysics, soul, and ethics in ancient thought : themes from the work of Richard Sorabji |date=2005 |publisher=Clarendon Press |others=Ricardo Salles |isbn=1-4237-8866-4 |location=Oxford |chapter=Intellectual Autobiography |oclc=70296478}}</ref> While there, he used boxes of numbered cards, containing questions, answers, tutorial material, or descriptions of experiments, on a variety of different subjects.<ref name="JPM">{{Cite web |title=J Paul Morrison :: Biography |url=https://jpaulm.github.io/index.html |access-date=2023-01-01 |website=jpaulm.github.io}}</ref>{{Self-published inline|date=January 2023}} He presented science programmes for the ] from 1960–1962 before being recruited to ] in 1963 by headmaster ].<ref name="book">{{Cite book |last=Scragg |first=Brian |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1108920922 |title=Sevenoaks School : a history |date=1993 |publisher=Ashgrove Press Limited |isbn=1-85398-063-3 |location=Bath |oclc=1108920922}}</ref> His students included ]<ref>{{Cite web |date=2001 |title=Tim Hunt - Biographical |url=http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2001/hunt-bio.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150318163437/http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2001/hunt-bio.html |archive-date=2015-03-18 |access-date=2024-01-18 |website=Nobel Prizes}}</ref> and ].<ref name="JPM" />{{Self-published inline|date=January 2023}} | |||
| ==Child sexual abuse== | |||
| Gerda, being female, was exempted from internment as an enemy alien, and became a model (for Vogue magazine), a sculptor and a photographer, then emigrated (as eldest sibling Walter had done) to ], in Chile, where she married Juan Eduardo Subercaseaux and had five children. | |||
| Alice Hemmings reported allegations of sexual abuse dating from 1976 in ''The Sevenoaks Chronicle''. The assault was reported to the Kent Police force by Stuart Neilson in 2012.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.thisiskent.co.uk/Dead-Sevenoaks-teacher-Gerd-Sommerhoff-accused/story-17263435-detail/story.html |title=Dead Sevenoaks teacher Gerd Sommerhoff accused of sexual abuse |first=Alice |last=Hemmings |date=8 November 2012 |agency=Sevenoaks Chronicle |accessdate=8 November 2012 |archive-date=10 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131110021739/http://www.thisiskent.co.uk/Dead-Sevenoaks-teacher-Gerd-Sommerhoff-accused/story-17263435-detail/story.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Sommerhoff was also alleged to have displayed pornography to pupils and to have made obscene remarks including boasts of bestiality. Sevenoaks School agreed to settle a compensation claim by another pupil alleging sexual abuse by Sommerhoff at Sevenoaks School when he was 12 years old. According to the plaintiff's lawyer, Tracey Emmett, "Sommerhoff’s abuse may have been suspected by those who worked with him."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.sevenoakschronicle.co.uk/Sevenoaks-School-settles-sex-abuse-case-court/story-20048271-detail/story.html |title=Sevenoaks School settles sex abuse case out of court |first=Sean-Paul |last=Doran |date=7 November 2013 |agency=Sevenoaks Chronicle |access-date=7 November 2013 |archive-date=8 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131108202738/http://www.sevenoakschronicle.co.uk/Sevenoaks-School-settles-sex-abuse-case-court/story-20048271-detail/story.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Several further witnesses and victims have subsequently been identified, indicating that Sommerhoff was a preferential paedophile attracted to pubescent boys.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.sevenoakschronicle.co.uk/Sommerhoff-abuse/story-20094871-detail/story.html |title=Sevenoaks School teacher had 'six more victims' of sex abuse, claims accuser |first=Sean-Paul |last=Doran |date=18 November 2013 |agency=Sevenoaks Chronicle |access-date=23 November 2013 |archive-date=3 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203022310/http://www.sevenoakschronicle.co.uk/Sommerhoff-abuse/story-20094871-detail/story.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> | |||
| ==Works== | ==Works== | ||
| * {{cite book |last1=Sommerhoff |first1=Gerd |title=Analytical Biology |date=1950 |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y1DwAAAAMAAJ |language=en}} | |||
| *1950: ''Analytical Biology'' | |||
| * {{Cite book |last=Sommerhoff |first=Gerd |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1014323 |title=Logic of the living brain |date=1974 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=0-471-81305-2 |location=London |oclc=1014323}} | |||
| *1974: ''Logic of the Living Brain'' | |||
| * {{Cite book |last=Sommerhoff |first=Gerd |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/20634326 |title=Life, brain, and consciousness : new perceptions through targeted systems analysis |date=1990 |publisher=North-Holland |isbn=0-444-88436-X |location=Amsterdam |oclc=20634326}} | |||
| *1990: ''Life, Brain and Consciousness'' | |||
| * |
* {{cite journal | doi=10.1007/BF02691012 | volume=29 | issue=2 | title=An account of consciousness in physical and functional terms: A target for research in the neurosciences | journal=Integrative Physiological and Behavioral Science | pages=151–181| year=1994 | last1=Sommerhoff | first1=Gerd | last2=MacDorman | first2=Karl | pmid=7947330 | s2cid=17193883 }} | ||
| * {{Cite book |last=Sommerhoff |first=Gerd |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/646067977 |title=Understanding consciousness : its function and brain processes |date=2000 |publisher=SAGE Publications |isbn=978-0-85702-649-1 |location=London |oclc=646067977}}<ref>Review: {{Cite journal |last=Cole |first=Jonathan |date=2003-12-31 |title=Review of Sommerhoff (2000): Understanding Consciousness: Its Function and Brain Processes |url=http://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/pc.11.2.13col |journal=Pragmatics & Cognition |language=en |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=394–404 |doi=10.1075/pc.11.2.13col |issn=0929-0907|url-access=subscription }}</ref> | |||
| *1996: ''In and Out of Consciousness. The intimate history of a search for certainties.''<ref>His autobiography will soon be uploaded here.</ref> | |||
| *2001: ''Understanding Consciousness – its function and brain processes.''<ref></ref> | |||
| ==Retirement and eventual death== | |||
| In early October 1996, Gerd visited the University ] at Kelsey Kerridge sports hall in ], where he smilingly declined recruitment to a water-pistolling game of ], which would that Michaelmas Term entertain 128 students. Instead he invited its fun-loving Umpire to dine with him in the University Centre, beginning a lifelong age-gap friendship of mutual psychic benefit. Oftentimes afterwards, they would luncheon together at the nearby Garden Moat House hotel, overlooking the ]. In the summer of 2001, he gladly let the younger man and his girlfriend drive him to the east coast, for a perfect day out on ] blue flag beach. He lived alone, but cherished his friends. In early 2002, on the morning of his 87th birthday, he reached up into a wall cupboard and tragically stumbled backwards against the corner of a table, injuring his lower back. (In hindsight, all such sharp corners should be rounded off with a sanding disk, in the ].) The young couple arrived from Shropshire thinking to celebrate his birthday with him, but hearing his lament, they quickly called for a doctor, who opined that ] was a danger. Of three different levels of ] offered to him, Gerd chose the medium, since the strongest would shorten his life. Knowing sepsis resulting from his injury would likely accelerate his death, he declined to consider ], saying he preferred to live whatever might remain of his lifespan only around those generations he already knew, despite his philosophy of ] lamenting his consciousness would be bound for ]. After a month of homecare, he had to enter a hospital run by ], into which he had long paid healthcare premiums, with little to no prior claim upon their service. They quickly transferred him to the excellent local NHS hospital, ], where over several weeks spanning Easter, he was able to talk fondly with all his friends, until death sadly came in late April. His well-attended funeral was held at Cambridge Crematorium on 7th May, and his ashes were later buried by many devotees among the roots of a sapling planted at ], in honour of its former teacher. | |||
| ==Presumption of Innocence== | |||
| The presumption of innocence is a principle, enshrined in English Law, essential to make us civilised. | |||
| Our British war hero ] was punished brutally for homosexuality and driven to suicide, despite later being voted the ] of the Twentieth Century. Like him, Gerd came to feel in young adulthood that he was gay, but lived during decades when such healthy sexuality was unjustly criminalised, and therefore had to be concealed, limiting his chance to find a life-partner. Nevertheless, with close friends of all sexuality, he opened up this part of himself, while never imposing it. Though gentlemanly, he enjoyed humour and sharing anecdotes, so there had been scope for misinterpretation of his comedy by puritans and people lacking self-confidence. | |||
| The only vocal critic of Gerd has an eponymous website which discusses his own autism. He similarly describes the unnamed claimant (possibly himself in anonymity) as living with schizoid personality & Asperger's Syndrome, and nebulously refers to six critics who have never come forward. His typo-ridden website lambasts many people. We might speculate he fell out with Gerd, and has sought to amplify his obloquy eightfold, with nobody bothering to verify any other critic exists. | |||
| ==References== | ==References== | ||
| {{Reflist}} | {{Reflist}} | ||
| == |
==Further reading== | ||
| *{{cite journal | title = Obituary - Gerd Sommerhoff (1905-2002) | journal = Kybernetes | date = 1 June 2005 | volume = 34 | issue = 5 | issn = 0368-492X | doi = 10.1108/k.2005.06734eab.007 | pmid = | url = }} | |||
| * | |||
| {{Authority control}} | {{Authority control}} | ||
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Latest revision as of 01:12, 26 October 2024
German scientist (1915–2002)Gerd Walter Christian Sommerhoff OBE (1915-2002) was a secondary school science teacher in the UK who focused on neuroscience.
Early life and family
Sommerhoff and his twin sister were born in Wiesbaden, Germany, to Elizabeth Ruher and Walter Georg Sommerhoff, a wealthy banker who was born in New York to German merchant Arthur Louis Carl Sommerhoff (b. 1 February 1844 in Rodenbach near Hanau; d. 16 August 1911 in Domburg) and his wife piano teacher Elise, née Schumann (1843–1928), the second child of Robert and Clara Schumann. Sommerhoff was a great-grandson of the German composers Robert Schumann and his wife Clara. The Sommerhoff family resided in Haarlem, Netherlands, until the loss of the family fortune in the Wall Street crash and the death of their father "in compromising circumstances". The two younger children moved to Ryde on the Isle of Wight in 1931 with their mother Elizabeth Sommerhoff when she married Major Bernard Francis Anne Vernon-Harcourt, while their elder brother, Walter Hans Sommerhoff, emigrated to Santiago, Chile. Sommerhoff studied engineering at Zurich Polytechnic (now ETH Zurich) and philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University. Sommerhoff was interned in Canada as an enemy alien until 1942.
Career
Upon release from internment, Sommerhoff taught science at the Dragon School. While there, he used boxes of numbered cards, containing questions, answers, tutorial material, or descriptions of experiments, on a variety of different subjects. He presented science programmes for the BBC from 1960–1962 before being recruited to Sevenoaks School in 1963 by headmaster Kim Taylor. His students included Tim Hunt and Alan Macfarlane.
Child sexual abuse
Alice Hemmings reported allegations of sexual abuse dating from 1976 in The Sevenoaks Chronicle. The assault was reported to the Kent Police force by Stuart Neilson in 2012. Sommerhoff was also alleged to have displayed pornography to pupils and to have made obscene remarks including boasts of bestiality. Sevenoaks School agreed to settle a compensation claim by another pupil alleging sexual abuse by Sommerhoff at Sevenoaks School when he was 12 years old. According to the plaintiff's lawyer, Tracey Emmett, "Sommerhoff’s abuse may have been suspected by those who worked with him." Several further witnesses and victims have subsequently been identified, indicating that Sommerhoff was a preferential paedophile attracted to pubescent boys.
Works
- Sommerhoff, Gerd (1950). Analytical Biology. Oxford University Press.
- Sommerhoff, Gerd (1974). Logic of the living brain. London: Wiley. ISBN 0-471-81305-2. OCLC 1014323.
- Sommerhoff, Gerd (1990). Life, brain, and consciousness : new perceptions through targeted systems analysis. Amsterdam: North-Holland. ISBN 0-444-88436-X. OCLC 20634326.
- Sommerhoff, Gerd; MacDorman, Karl (1994). "An account of consciousness in physical and functional terms: A target for research in the neurosciences". Integrative Physiological and Behavioral Science. 29 (2): 151–181. doi:10.1007/BF02691012. PMID 7947330. S2CID 17193883.
- Sommerhoff, Gerd (2000). Understanding consciousness : its function and brain processes. London: SAGE Publications. ISBN 978-0-85702-649-1. OCLC 646067977.
References
- Gerd Sommerhoff, Obituary, The Times, Friday 17 May 2002
- "Richard Brown Baker family papers". Rhode Island Historical Society. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
- "Intellectual Autobiography". Metaphysics, soul, and ethics in ancient thought : themes from the work of Richard Sorabji. Ricardo Salles. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 2005. ISBN 1-4237-8866-4. OCLC 70296478.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link) - ^ "J Paul Morrison :: Biography". jpaulm.github.io. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
- Scragg, Brian (1993). Sevenoaks School : a history. Bath: Ashgrove Press Limited. ISBN 1-85398-063-3. OCLC 1108920922.
- "Tim Hunt - Biographical". Nobel Prizes. 2001. Archived from the original on 18 March 2015. Retrieved 18 January 2024.
- Hemmings, Alice (8 November 2012). "Dead Sevenoaks teacher Gerd Sommerhoff accused of sexual abuse". Sevenoaks Chronicle. Archived from the original on 10 November 2013. Retrieved 8 November 2012.
- Doran, Sean-Paul (7 November 2013). "Sevenoaks School settles sex abuse case out of court". Sevenoaks Chronicle. Archived from the original on 8 November 2013. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
- Doran, Sean-Paul (18 November 2013). "Sevenoaks School teacher had 'six more victims' of sex abuse, claims accuser". Sevenoaks Chronicle. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 23 November 2013.
- Review: Cole, Jonathan (31 December 2003). "Review of Sommerhoff (2000): Understanding Consciousness: Its Function and Brain Processes". Pragmatics & Cognition. 11 (2): 394–404. doi:10.1075/pc.11.2.13col. ISSN 0929-0907.
Further reading
- "Obituary - Gerd Sommerhoff (1905-2002)". Kybernetes. 34 (5). 1 June 2005. doi:10.1108/k.2005.06734eab.007. ISSN 0368-492X.