Naming and discovery of actinium and protactinium. Two stepchildren of radioecology

In literature one will find only and exclusively Debierne as discoverer of Actinium and mostly Hahn and Meitner, often as well Fajans and Goehring for Protactinium. This article demonstrates that Giesel discovered Ac in 1902 and not Debierne in 1899. The name given by Debierne to the radioactive body similar to thorium found in the pitchblende was taken for the element Emanium named by Giesel. Pa was discovered in 1913 as short-living isotope 234mPa by Fajans and Goehring and called Brevium. The name Protactinium was given by Hahn and Meitner to the element; while they discovered the long-living 231Pa in 1918 as parent nuclide of 227Ac. Regardless of their high radio-toxicity the biogeochemical behaviour of both elements has been very rarely examined. (orig.)