August Schack Steenberg Krogh, 1874-1949

Abstract

August Krogh was born on 15 November 1874, in Grenaa, a small town on the east coast of Jutland, Denmark. His father’s family had for generations been farmers in South Jutland. His father, Viggo Krogh, however, was trained as a ship builder and settled in Grenaa. His mother (born Drechmann) was the daughter of a customs officer in Holstein. Through his mother’s family, Krogh told, he had a dash of gipsy blood in his veins: he certainly had inherited an unconventional spirit and appearance and a love of travel and adventure in open spaces. At the Nobel Banquet at Stockholm on 10 December 1920, his mother’s presence with him was happily referred to in the toast of the Laureates. Krogh’s father soon gave up ship building and started a small brewery. Later he became editor of a local newspaper, but throughout Krogh’s childhood and youth his father was a brewer. It is said that Krogh was not much interested in what he was taught in the elementary school. Two popular books on natural science, The book of inventions and The forces of nature , were read and re-read many times during his childhood. Much time also was spent in exploring the life of insects in the ditches and fields surrounding the town. I remember discussing with Krogh, towards the end of his life, the value of a tentative proposal to set up a fresh-water biological station at Lake Nyasa. His immediate reply was that he would greatly welcome the opportunity of going there himself. In 1889, when fourteen to fifteen years old, Krogh temporarily left school.