Mr Blobel was born in Waltersdorf in the Prussian Province
of Lower Silesia.
In January 1945 his family fled from native Silesia from the
advancing Red Army. On their way to the West they passed through the beautiful
old city of Dresden, which left deep impressions in the
young boy. Only days after their stay Dresden was destroyed
in the catastrophic air bombing between 13 February and 15 February
1945. The family could witness this event some 30 kilometers away and the young
boy again was deeply impressed by the red night sky reflecting the firestorm in
the burning city, but the war was still not at its end and Blobel's 19-year-old
sister was killed some weeks later in an air attack on a train she was
travelling in, and buried in a mass grave.
After the war Günter Blobel grew up and
attended gymnasium in the Saxon town of Freiberg.
He graduated at the University of Tübingen in 1960 and received his Ph.D. from
the University of
Wisconsin–Madison in 1967. He was
appointed to the Howard Hughes
Medical Institute in 1986.
