Eberhard Sauerteig was born on September 19, 1919 in Frankenhausen, Germany, as the son of the banker Ernst Sauerteig and his wife Elisabeth née Markmann. He grew up in Berlin where he graduated Easter 1939.

After finishing the obligatory working service he began studying medicine at the Humboldt University in Berlin. One year later he was drafted into the army but was permitted to continue his studies as a soldier in 1942, interrupted by services at the front during the semester vacations. In the same year he passed the premedical examination and was transferred from Berlin to the Universities of Hamburg and Breslau. In 1945 he was assigned to a fighting Unit as a physician. On May 6, 1945 he got into Soviet captivity from which he was released to Erfurt, East Germany, on December 12, 1948.

Here he began working as an assistant to Prof. H. Güthert at the pathological Institute of the Medical Academy. During this period of time (1950) he received full accreditation as a physician at the Jena University and was conferred the degree of medical doctor 1951.

Subsequently he was transferred to West Berlin to work as a scientific assistant at the Institute for Tissue Research of the Max Planck Society, under direction of Prof. Else Knake, in order to learn the methods of tissue culture.

From 1952 until 1957 he was employed as a head physician at the pathological Institute at the Wenckebach Hospital in Berlin - Tempelhof under direction of C-J. Lüders.

In 1957 he was invited by Prof R. Jaffé, Caracas, Venezuela to take over the newly built pathological institute in Ciudad Bolivar. He accepted and started working there in October 1957. When the Universidad de Oriente was founded in 1961 he was appointed to the position as professor of pathology.

In December 1964 he left Venezuela to return to Germany due to illness of his perents. From January 1965 to June 1967 he worked as head pathologist with Prof. G. Gerstel in the Institute of Occupational Diseases in Gelsenkirchen.

After the dead of his parents he retuned to Venezuela to take over the position as chief of the pathological Institute in Barinas / State Barinas. The hospital "Luis Razetti" in which he worked became teaching hospital in 1976 of the University Los Andes, Mérida and E. Sauerteig carried out seminars and clinical - pathological demonstrations with students and physicians.

In 1973 he got the Venezuelan Nationality and acquired the medical approbation in the University Los Andes in Mérida 1976. 1979 he was sponsor of the year´s medical graduation. 1973 he founded the Anticancer Society of the state Barinas and was their president till 1986.

In 1986 when he was honourably discharged from the Ministries of Health and Justice of Venezuela, he was named associated professor by the Faculty of Medicine of the University Los Andes and delegated at the "Laboratorio of Investigación en Patología", under the direction of K. Salfelder.

E. Sauerteig has published many scientific articles in national and international medical journals and wrote several monographies about autopsy results during the period 1967 - 1978 and the problem of the Chagas Disease in the State Barinas. He worked as co-autor and collaborator in various books and atlas about tropical and parasitic disease written by K. Salfelder and attended numerous workshops in different countries about mycotic and tropical diseases.

He is married with Gertrud, née Lagies since 1943 who assisted him working as an estimated histological technician in the laboratories and trained several Venezuelan women in this profession. His daughter Christine is living now in Germany and working as official in charge of Schering A.G. in Berlin. Her two sons, living in Berlin, were born in Barinas / Venezuela.