suddenly died of diabetes, Traube's father ordered him home to Ratibor to help manage the business. After agonizing for several weeks, Traube complied. But he could not abandon science. In a poorly-heated attic of his house, lacking time and money, isolated from scientific communication, he developed his extensive chemical-physiological projects. He completed numerous well-planned, accurately executed experiments, the correctness of which his contemporaries were forced to acknowledge. Traube was also successful as a wine merchant. Together with his brother Ludwig he donated 500 Taler to the Ratibor Gymnasium for students' prizes. He married Bertha Moll of Lissa in 1855. The marriage produced 3 daughters and 2 sons. The period in Breslau (1866–1891) To facilitate his research Traube moved to Breslau. He worked for a time in the laboratory of his friend Theodor Poleck and in the Physiological Institute of Rudolf Heidenhain. Later he erected his own, well equipped laboratory and employed assistants. Every year he travelled to Hungary to survey and purchase wine himself. One of his customers was Otto von Bismarck. In 1886 Traube resigned from business. From 1866 to 1890 he was a member of the "Schlesische Gesellschaft für vaterländische Kultur“. He was elected to the board of this society in 1884. The period in Berlin (1891–1894) When Traube came to Berlin, he was already ill, probably from diabetes and coronary ischaemia. Here his two sons were employed at the university. He worked tirelessly even in the last year of his life. His death attracted great attention. He was laid to rest in the cemetery in Gudrunstrasse, Berlin-Lichtenberg. On the grave, no longer preserved, stood a bronze bust by the sculptor Fritz Schaper. The gypsum model survives in the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin. Scientific achievements Medicine and clinical chemistry Traube showed that sugar excretion in the urine of a diabetic patient rose after starch intake but fell after protein consumption. Additionally he demonstrated the unrestricted intestinal absorption of fats in diabetics. He thus contributed to the scientific basis for a diabetic diet. For diagnosis he proposed to measure sugar levels at specific, regular intervals: in the morning before breakfast and after meals. He thus anticipated modern principles of blood sugar measurements. Elsewhere he investigated the laxative qualities of lactose. Theory of fermentation Traube's main work, the Theorie der Fermentwirkungen (1858) is the first comprehensive theory of fermentation to be based on experiments and elaborated consequently from the chemical