DR. MARLENE HEINZ
17.12.1938 – 09.03.2022

Marlene Heinz was one of the greats of pediatric and adolescent gynecology – dedicated, courageous, eager for discussion and always with a mischievous smile on her lips.

Born in 1938, she studied medicine at the Humboldt University in Berlin and was licensed to practice in 1962. From 1968 to 1973 she worked as an assistant physician at the Oskar-Ziethen Hospital in Berlin-Lichtenberg, and from 1973 to 2001 she was a senior physician there, where she established consultations for pediatric and adolescent gynecology. From 2007, she directed the interdisciplinary center for pediatric and adolescent gynecology at the Charité.

In 1972, she was a founding member and member of the board of the GDR Working Group for Child and Adolescent Gynecology. After the unification of the East and West German Working Groups for Child and Adolescent Gynecology, Dr. Heinz remained on the board from 1994 and led the Working Group from 1998 to 2013. In this capacity, she organized numerous Berlin symposia and gathered renowned colleagues from Germany and abroad to exchange ideas there. She was a passionate as well as humorous debater and knew both how to defend her point of view with commitment and how to reach workable, good compromises. 

Through her intensive courses in pediatric and adolescent gynecology, she gave countless colleagues from Germany and other German-speaking countries the opportunity to learn this small, interdisciplinary subject and to make contact and exchange ideas with colleagues from a wide variety of specialties. 

She was author and editor of numerous textbooks in pediatric and adolescent gynecology.

From 1998 to 2004 and from 2007-2010 she was a member of the Board of FIGIJ (Federation Internationale de Gynecologie Infantile et Juvenile) and in 2008 she was a founding member of the European Working Group of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology in Prague. With her husband Dieter, she was instrumental in creating the statutes of this organization and was a member of the Board of Directors from its inception in 2008 until 2011.

After 2013, Dr. Heinz handed over the sceptre of the German Working Group to Professor Oppelt, but continued to be available as a speaker at the intensive courses and symposia.

She was an outstanding, characterful and fun-loving woman, her death leaves a big gap and she will be greatly missed as a colleague, friend and advisor!