Piero Martinello
Piero Martinello

THE WEIGHT OF THE WORD, chapter two of eight: Max Clara, Clara Cells

Max Clara was born in 1899 in Fiè allo Sciliar, South Tyrol, then part of Austria-Hungary. A physician and academic, he studied medicine in Innsbruck and Leipzig before returning to Austria. Following World War I and the Italian annexation of South Tyrol, Clara attempted to ease the effects of forced Italianization by advocating for bilingual medical practice.

His academic career advanced rapidly: by 1935 he had become a professor of anatomy at the University of Leipzig, where he joined the Nazi Party and took an active role in National Socialist academic institutions. His lectures publicly praised Hitler, and he positioned himself politically within the academic community by denouncing colleagues who worked with Jewish scientists.

Piero Martinello –
Piero Martinello –

Clara is best known for identifying a type of cell in the bronchiolar epithelium—later named “Clara cells”—using bodies of executed prisoners as research material. Under Nazi law, his institute had access to a steady stream of corpses from political executions, especially from the Dresden area.

Piero Martinello –
Piero Martinello –

Clara personally advocated for using these bodies without family consent and conducted experiments, including administering vitamin C to prisoners awaiting execution. After the war, his Nazi affiliations barred him from resuming a career in Germany or Austria.

Piero Martinello –
Piero Martinello –

He instead taught in Turkey until 1961 and died in Munich in 1966. In 2012, due to his ethical violations under the Nazi regime, the eponym “Clara cells” was officially replaced by the more neutral term “club cells.”

Piero Martinello –
Piero Martinello –
Piero Martinello –
Piero Martinello –