2013, Approx. 1250 p., 2107 illustrations in color

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C. Löser, Klinikum Ludwigshafen, Germany; G. Plewig, Ludwig-Maximilians-UniversitätMünchen, Germany; W.H.C. Burgdorf, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München,Germany

Pantheon of DermatologyOutstanding Historical Figures

▶ 209 outstanding personages covering a span of six centuries▶ biographical sketch and an assessment of the individual’s impact on

dermatology▶ 2107 illustrations, including rare documents and portraits

Auspitz sign, Kaposi sarcoma or Herxheimer reaction:  Who were the individuals who gavetheir names to these terms? What was the impact on medicine during their lifetime? Whatis the significance of their work today?The authors introduce all who are interested in medical history and especially in thedevelopment of dermatology as a specialty to 209 outstanding personages coveringa span of six centuries. Text and illustrations are combined to provide both a biographicalsketch and an assessment of the individual’s impact on dermatology. There are 2107 illustrations both from private collections and international libraries, including raredocuments, portraits and other impressive mementoes of past medical epochs.Pantheon of Dermatology provides an exciting introduction to the history of dermatologythrough the life stories of its most important protagonists. As Thomas Carlyle said:History is the essence of innumerable biographies.

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Löser and Plewig‘s Pantheon now in English. . .

— Morethanatranslation-abrandnewbook

— 8additionalbiographies

— hundredsofnewillustrations

— morethan100additionalpages

— anewco-editor:W.H.C.Burgdorf

Die klinische Beobachtung, die Beherrschung des klinischen Materials ist das erste an unserer Schule anzustrebende Ziel Clinical observation, the mastery of the clinical material is the ἀrst major goal of our school

Fame is often bound with legend, but there are few dermatologists associ-ated with so many false stories as Moriz Kaposi. For example, he was alleged to have received his Habilita-tion in Erlangen. In fact he was never there although Erlangen under the leadership of Hugo Wilhelm von Ziemssen (1829-1902) was a center for syphilidology. Instead, Erlangen was the city where his Habilitation thesis was published. Similarly one can find a number of dates when he is supposed to have received his Promotion, probably explained by a lack of uni-formity in the university semesters in his time. Similarly the unflattering comments on his conversion to Catholicism and changing of name are contradicted by his own writings. Kaposi was not an opportunist; he was already well-estab-lished in his career when he made these decisions.

Kaposi was a major factor in the development of our specialty. He not only was the first to describe the sarcoma named after him, but employed his skills of observation and description to first report or best delineate many other entities such as xeroderma pigmentosum, diabetic and leukemic skin changes, syringoma, gangrenous zoster and with Juliusberg pustulosis varioliformis acuta, which later became known as Kaposi varicelliform eruption or eczema herpeticatum. He was very proud of the diseases he had been first to describe: Frankl reported that he generally attached the word mihi (by me) to the name of the disease.

Moriz Kohn was born on 23 October 1837 (24 T ishri 5598 in the Jewish calendar) in Kaposvár. His first name is written Moritz in the records of the Jewish community but he almost always used Moriz. In some of his Hungarian publications he used Moricz and Mór. The many versions of his first name simply reflected the multiple languages spoken by the educated classes in the Habsburg monarchy. His parents Salamon Kohn and Rosa, née Krauss, were poor. They put all their hopes in the education and advance-ment of their children. Moriz attended the Jewish grade school and then the Gymnasium in Kaposvár for four years. In 1856 he moved to Pressburg (today Bratislava, Slovakia) where he got his Matura in 1856 and started medical school in Vienna.

In 1861 he finished the essential part of his medical school training; in those days in V ienna separate examinations were required for surgery and obstetrics, which he finished in 1862 a nd 1866 r espec-tively. He then started his training the in the syphilis clinic under Carl Ludwig Sigmund (1810-1883), who came from Schässburg in S ieben-bürgen (today Sighişoara, Romania) and was trained in Budapest. People came from all corners of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to work in Vienna, as did t he pathologist Salomon Stricker from Waag-Neu-stadtl (also then known as Vág-Ujhely in H ungarian, today Nové Mesto nad Váhom, Slovakia). He introduced Kohn to histology which played a m ajor role in his career.

Kohn got his Habilitation in Vienna in 1866 with a thesis on Die Syphilis der Schleimhaut der Mund-, Rachen-, Nasen-

Moriz Kaposi (1837–1902)Max Hundeiker

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Key Dates1837 Born on 23 October as Moriz Kohn in

Kaposvár, Hungary1856 Matura in Pressburg (today Bratislava,

Slovakia) Start of medical studies in Vienna1861 Graduated in medicine; separate

examinations in sugary in 1862 and obstetrics in 1866

1866 Habilitation, named Privatdozent, started working in the clinic of Hebra

1869 Converted to Catholicism and married Martha Hebra

1871 Changed name to Kaposi based on his birthplace

1875 Named Außerordentlicher Professor 1880 Acting Director of the clinic after the

death of von Hebra1881 Professor and successor to von Hebra1892 President of the 2nd International

Congress of Dermatology in Vienna1900 Festschrift of Archiv für Dermatologie

und Syphilis to celebrate his 25th year as Professor

1900 Honorary President of the 4th International Congress of Dermatology in Paris

1902 Died on 6 March in Vienna

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und Kehlkopfhöhle (Syphilis of the mouth, throat, nose and larynx) which was published by Verlag Ferdinand Enke in Erlangen.

On 30 July 1866 Kohn was named Privatdozent. Hebra knew how good he was and gave him a position in his clinic. Kohn later praised Hebra for his crucial role in the scientific development of dermatology just as medicine was started to be based on solid pathological principles, for his contributions to the classification of diseases and for excel-lence as a clinical teacher. The two understood each other well and Kohn soon became Hebra’s closest associate. He devoted much energy to the time-consuming preparation of the many volumes of Hebra’s books and wrote large sec-tions himself. Primarily on the urging of Martha, Hebra’s daughter, Kohn joined the Catholic church. The couple married on 6 February 1869 and had five children who were raised with loving care. The three sons all obtained univer-sity degrees. The oldest Richard was a min eralogist; the second Hermann, a surgeon. The youngest Walther, died as a cavalry officer in World War II. Martha Kaposi survived her husband by 44 years and died well along in years in Vienna in 1946.

In 1871 K ohn applied to have his name changed to Kaposi in honor of his home town of Kaposvár which in

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turn was named after the Kapos River. In his application, he explained that many physicians in Vienna were named Kohn and he wanted to avoid confusion. In addition, he published several important papers under his new name. His application was approved on 8 November 1871. He never tried to deny or hide his original name. Surprisingly, in 1876 a contribution of his appeared in Hebra’s book still under the name Kohn. The interpretation of Ingber that Kaposi changed his name to hide his Jewish identity and advance his career is not plausible. Kaposi was already a success and did not have to resort to such actions.

He had already published a great deal as Kohn. None-theless a s eries of even more important papers appeared after 1872, including his first description of the sarcoma now named after him. Through this paper and through his

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great contributions to Hebra’s books, he became the Crown Prince of the Hebra school and thus of Viennese dermatol-ogy. He overtook his brother-in-law Hans von Hebra, who became a professor years later. In 1876 Kaposi was named Außerordentlicher Professor in dermatology.

In 1877 Hebra was knighted for his contributions to the Empire and became Ferdinand Ritter von Hebra, a far cry from his humble beginnings as the son of an officer. Kaposi assumed more and more of the daily work in the clinic. In 1880 his book Pathologie und Therapie der Hautkrankheiten appeared; it was translated into many languages.

Von Hebra died on 5 A ugust 1880. K aposi became Acting Director of the clinic. In the competition to succeed von Hebra he came out clearly on top competing with other outstanding von Hebra Schüler such as Hans von Hebra (1847-1902), Heinrich Auspitz (1835-1886), a nd Filipp Josef Pick (1834-1910), the founder in 1869 of the Archiv für Dermatologie und Syphilis. Instead of preparing a list with the names of three outstanding candidates, as was the usual procedure, the search committee named only Kaposi – primo et unico loco (first and only). On 8 February 1991, Kaiser Franz Joseph signed his certificate of appointment.

Just before his 44th birthday, on 19 O ctober1881, he started the winter semester with a le cture honoring von Hebra. His appreciation and affection for his teacher was apparent. After that day, he was the unquestioned chief of the Wiener Schule. Many new diseases were described from his clinic including in 1882 xeroderma pigmentosum. His textbooks were translated into many languages. At every meeting, he was a sought-after and critical discussant. His remarkable skill with languages stood him in g ood stead; he was fluent in Hungarian, German, French, all of which he had spoken since his youth with literary pretensions. In addition, he was versed in English and of course Latin, the official language of the Empire.

An important factor in the rapidly increasing fame of the Wiener Schule was the clear systemic approach to termi-nology, diagnosis and therapy. Kaposi wanted to see theo-ries proven, not speculated upon. Some of his assessments turned out to be wrong. For example, he was never con-vinced of the differences between syphilis and chancroid, and was sure lupus vulgaris was unrelated to tuberculosis. In his defense, at this time the dramatic advances bacteriol-ogy had not yet appeared. Kaposi was however a modern

K579Moriz Kaposi

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Kaposi sarcomaMoriz Kaposi described his sarcoma in 1870 und 1872 as idiopathisches multiples Pigmentsarcom (idiopathic multiple pigmented sarcoma). After detailed histo-logic studies on the pigment and the underlying hemorrhage, in 1894 in a discussion at the 11th Inter-national Medical Congress in R ome he suggested replacing pigmentosum with haemorrhagicum to dis-tinguish his sarcoma from a m elanosarcoma, the current name for malignant melanoma. In this way the diagnosis of sarcoma idiopathicum multiplex haemor-rhagicum Kaposi became established, but shifted over time to Kaposi sarcoma.

In his first description, Kaposi had suggested the relationship of the skin changes to an associated systemic disease. After over a century, the etiology of Kaposi sarcoma is quite well understood. The association of Kaposi sarcoma with HIV/AIDS in the 1980s p rovided an impetus for extensive re-search,  showing that all forms of Kaposi sarcoma require the presence of human herpesvirus 8 and that many are facilitated by immunosuppression. Thus the term idiopathicum as used by Kaposi is finally obsolete, but the rest of his description still completely relevant.

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man, not at all afraid to re-assess concepts as newer meth-ods of investigation, primarily histology, enhanced mor-phologic interpretations.

At the 1st International Congress of Dermatology in Paris in 1889 h e served as Vice-President and gave the opening lecture. At the next meeting in Vienna in 1892 he was President. At the following meeting in London, he was one of the foreign secretaries, and finally at the 4th Interna-tional Congress of Dermatology in Paris in 1900, he was the Honorary Chairman. He was overwhelmed with honors, medals and titles and was an honorary member of virtually every foreign dermatological society.

In October 1900 Kaposi celebrated his 25 year jubilee as Professor. Best wishes and telegrams flooded in from around the world. A Festschrift dedicated to him appeared as a supplement to Archiv für Dermatologie und Syphilis containing contributions from his Schüler and friends. This was the last great highlight of his career. A few days later he had a stroke from which he recovered after weeks of hospi-talization. He returned to work but in O ctober 1901, he suffered another stroke from which he only partially recov-ered. He tried again to present his lectures, but found him-self quite short of breath. Kaposi died peacefully in his sleep on 6 March 1902 in Vienna, only 65 years of age.

Figure Legends

Fig. 1. Portrait. Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek Wien, Bildarchiv with kind permissionFig. 2–4. Series of undated portraits. Bildarchiv . Oster-reichische Nationalbibliothek,, Vienna, with kind permissionFig. 5. Hungarian commemorative stamp honoring Kaposi, issued on the occasion of the 14th International Cancer Congress, Budapest 1986. Private collection

Fig. 6. Zur Nomenclatur des idiopathischen Pigmentsarcoms Kaposi. From Kaposi 1894Fig. 7–11. Plates. From Kaposi et al 1881 Fig. 12. Lichen ruber monileformis. Taf. XVIII. Vorderansicht des Körpers. Chromolithographie nach einer Abbildung von Dr. Henning. From Kaposi 1886Fig. 13. Lichen ruber acuminatus u. planus Tafel I. Most today would diagnose the patients in Fig. 12 and Fig. 13 as keratosis lichenoides chronica or Nékám disease. The following text shows just how aggressively a successful professor (an alpha animal in wolf terms) can present his views: The reason why I once again address the theme of lichen ruber acuminatus and lichen ruber planus in front of a knowledgeable group of special-ists, something that I have addressed in some many instances both in lectures and in writing, is the last report of our respected colleague Prof. Neisser in his lecture at the 11th International Medical Congress in Rome in 1894 on Ueber den gegenwärtigen Stand der Lichenfrage (The current status of the lichen question) (Archiv für Dermatologie und Syph. 1894. XXVIII. B. pag. 75–77). As everyone knows, I said at the Congress in Paris in 1889 (1st International Congress of Dermatology ) that I considered what besnier had describe din 1889 as pityriasis rubra pilaris to be identical with lichen ruber Hebra or lichen ruber acuminatus, the term which I proposed in 1876 for lichen ruber Hebra in instead of lichen ruber planus. Then Unna, instead of clearly defining the differences between pityriasis rubra pilaris and lichen ruber, made the more funny than logical but nonetheless catchy statement that “since I consider pityriasis rubra pilaris and lichen ruber acuminatus identical, then the latter cannot be lichen ruber Hebra” and furthermore Unna claimed to be the only real disciple of Hebra’s teaching on lichen. Thus it seems opportune since we have reopened the issue to clarify that point, not only since my authorship has been questioned but much more in order to clarify the issue… Ignoring the last point, to which we will return, Neisser suggests that I have given a new definition of the disease I named lichen ruber acuminatus and that this disease, as I have defined it, is clearly different from lichen ruber, as described by Hebra. From Kaposi 1895Fig. 14. Lichen ruber acuminatus u. planus Tafel II. From Kaposi 1895Fig. 15, 16. Lichen ruber acuminatus u. planus Tafel III, IV. From Kaposi 1895Fig. 17. Title page of the Festschrift: Zum fünfundzwanzigjäh-rigen Professorenjubiläum. From Festschrift 1900Fig. 18. Autograph Dr. Moriz KaposiFig. 19. Prescription Dr. KaposiFig. 20. Tombstone of Moriz Kaposi in the Döblinger Friedhof in Vienna. Professor Dr. Karl Holubar, Vienna, with kind permission

Publications

Hebra F, Kaposi M (1870) Ueber ein eigenthuemliches Neu gebilde an der Nase – Rhinosclerom. Von Prof. Hebra nebst histolo-gischem Befunde vom Dozenten Dr. Moriz Kohn. Wien Med Wochenschr 20: Spalte 1–5

Kohn M (1871) Das Keloid. Wien Med Wochenschr 24: 577–581Kaposi (Moriz Kohn) M (1872) Neue Beitrage zur Kenntnis des

Lupus erythematosus. (Hierzu Tafel I.) Gez. u. lith. V. Dr. Jul. U. C. H eitzmann Fig. 1–5. A rch Dermatol Syph (Prag) 4: 36–78

Kaposi M (1872) D er Tätowirte von Birma: eine Mittheilung. Wien Med Wochenschr 2: 39–43

Kaposi M (1872) I diopathisches multiples Pigmentsarkom der Haut. Arch Dermatol Syph (Prag) 4: 265–273

K581

Hebra F, Kaposi M (1872) Lehrbuch der Hautkrankheiten. 2. Auf-lage. Enke, Stuttgart

Kaposi M (1876) Sarcoma cutis. Sarcom der Haut. In: Handbuch der speciellen Pathologie und Therapie, redig. v. Rud. Virchow, Bd. 3/2. Enke, Stuttgart, pp 468–475

Hebra F, Kaposi M (1860, 1876) Lehrbuch der Hautkrankheiten. 1. Acute Exantheme und Hautkrankheiten (Hebra 1860) 2. (Hebra und Kaposi 1876). Enke, Stuttgart

Hebra F, Kaposi M, Fagge CH (Übersetzer), Tay W (Übersetzer) (1876) On the Diseases of the Skin: including the Exanthemata. The New Sydenham Society, London

Kaposi M (1880) Pathologie und Therapie der Hautkrankheiten. In: Vorlesungen für Praktische Ärzte und Studirende. Erstauf-lage. Urban & Schwarzenberg, Wien

Kaposi M (1880) Ferdinand Hebra, der Schöpfer der Wiener der-matologischen Schule. Einschlieslich ein Bericht über Hebras

Beerdigung. Wien Med Wochenschr 30: Spalte 927–931Kaposi M, Besnier E, Doyon A (1881) Lecons sur les maladies de

la peau / Moritz (sic) Kaposi. Trad. et annot. par Ernest Besnier, Adrien Doyon. Vol 1 und 2. Masson, Paris

Kaposi M (1881) R ede zum G edächtniss an Prof. Ferdinand v. Hebra, gehalten anlässlich der Eröffnung seiner diesjährigen Vorlesungen. Wien Med Wochenschr 41: 1207–1215

Kaposi M (1882) Ueber Xeroderma pigmentosum. Medizinische Jahrbücher (Wien) 1882: 619–633

Kaposi M, Heitzmann C (1882) Die S yphilis der Haut und der angrenzenden Schleimhaute. Von M. Kaposi. Mit 142 Figuren in 76 chromlithographirten Tafeln und 13 Holzschnitten von Carl Heitzmann. Braumüller, Wien

Kaposi M (1883) Pathologie und Therapie der Hautkrankheiten. In: Vorlesungen für Praktische Ärzte und Studirende. Zweite verbesserte und vermehrte Auflage. Urban & Schwarzenberg, Wien

Kaposi M (1885) Xeroderma pigmentosum – Idiopathisches mul-tiples Pigmentsarkom der Haut. Vortrag gehalten in der Sitzung der k.k. Gesellschaft der Aerzte in Wien am 23. Oktober 1885. Wien Med Wochenschr 35: Spalte 1333–1338

Kaposi M (1886) P rof. Heinrich Auspitz (Nachruf). Wien Med Wochenschr 36: 797–798

Kaposi M (1886) L ichen ruber monileformis – Korallenschnur-artiger Lichen ruber. (Hierzu Tafel XVIII, XIX, XX und XXI). Vierteljahresschr Dermatol Syph (Der Reihenfolge XVIII. Jahr-gang) Neue Folge des Archives fur Dermatologie und Syphilis 13: 571–582

Kaposi M (1891) P athologie und Therapie der Syphilis. Enke, Stuttgart

Kaposi M (1894) Ueber die modernen Systematisierungsversuche in der Dermatologie. Arch Dermatol Syph (Wien–Leipzig) 29: 73–91

Kaposi M (1894) Zur Nomenclatur des idiopathischen Pigment-sarcoms Kaposi. Arch Dermatol Syph (Wien–Leipzig) 29: 164

Kaposi M (1894) Zur Nomenclatur des primären idiopathischen Pigmentsarcoms Kaposi. Wien Med Wochenschr 44: Spalte 977–982, 1027–1029

Kaposi M (1895) N och einmal: Lichen ruber acuminatus und Lichen ruber planus. (Hierzu Taf. I–IV) Arch Dermatol Syph (Wien–Leipzig) 31: 1–32

Kaposi M (1898–1900) H andatlas der H autkrankheiten: fur Studirende und Ärzte. 1. A–H (Acne–Hypertrichosis) 1898. 2. I–M (Ichthyosis–Myomata cutis) 1899. 3. N–Z (N aevus– Xeroderma pigmentosum) 1900. Braumuller, Wien

von Leyden E, Klemperer F (Hrsg) Unna PG, Kaposi M, Neisser ALS (Mitarbeiter) (1903-1913) Die deu tsche Klinik am Ein-gange des Zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts: in a kademischen Vor-lesungen. Urban & Schwarzenberg, Berlin

References

Festschrift (1900) gewidmet Moriz Kaposi zum f ünfundzwan-zigjährigen Professorenjubiläum: in Verehrung und Dank-barkeit von Collegen und Schülern. Ergänzungsband zum „Archiv für Dermatologie und Syphilis“. Mit dreissig Tafeln. Braumüller, Wien

Frankl J (1971) Geschichte der Dermatologie. Professor Moriz Kaposi. Hautarzt 22: 448–449

Holubar K, Frankl J (1981) Moriz (Kohn) Kaposi. Am J Dermato-pathol 3: 349–354

Hornstein OP (1993) Chronik der Dermatologischen Universitats-klinik Erlangen (im Verlag der Klinik)

Ingber A (1983) Why Kaposi and not Kohn? Am J Dermatopathol 5: 103

King F (1983) Kaposi: Let’s pronounce it correctly. Am J Dermato-pathol 5: 103–104

Marschalkó M, Kárpáti S (2004) Keratosis lichenoides chronica: mimics, history, nomenclature. J Am Acad Dermatol 51: 1034–1035

Rácz I (1987) Geschichte der Dermatologie. Moriz Kaposi: wieder aktuell. Hautarzt 38: 168–169

Richter P (1928) G eschichte der Dermatologie. In: Jadassohn J (ed): Handbuch der H aut- und Geschlechtskrankheiten, Bd. 14/2. Springer, Berlin pp 1–252

Scholz A, Holubar K, Burg G (eds) (2009) Geschichte der deutsch-sprachigen Dermatologie. History of German Language Der-matology. Wiley- Blackwell, Weinheim pp 236-243, 654

Schönfeld W (1961) Zur Geschichte der Dermatologie, der Vene-rologie, der G ewerbedermatosen, der der matologischen Kosme tik und der Andrologie im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. In Gottron HA, Schönfeld W (ed): Dermatologie und Venerolo-gie, Bd 1/1. Thieme, Stuttgart pp 1–41

Shelley WB, Shelley ED (1992) A Century of International Con-gresses. An Illustrated History. Parthenon, Carnforth pp 15–18

Weidenfeld D (1981) Moriz Kaposi: In memoriam (Aus Wiener Medizinische Presse 1902; 519–523; translated into English by Rabson SM). Am J Dermatopathol 3: 355–358

Acknowledgment

Zita Battyani, head of the D ermatology Clinic a t the County Hospital in Kaposvár provided assistance. The clinic she heads was founded in 1899 by Anton Ullmann (1862-1938), a nephew and Schüler of Kaposi

Moriz Kaposi

ἀ e single most crucial of all the themes that permeate my philoso-phy of practice of surgical pathology is capability for analytical, logical, and incisive thinking – i.e. critical thinking

A. Bernard Ackerman (Bernie) was born on 22 November 1936 in Eliza-beth, New Jersey, near New York. After a brilliant academic career at Phillips Academy, Andover, and Princeton University (where he ma-jored in r eligion and literature), he attended medical school at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, where he graduated in 1962. Bernie did his training in dermatology at Columbia University in New York, University of Pennsylvania in Phil-adelphia and Harvard University in Boston. He then spent one year in 1968 working with Wallace H. Clark in Boston, before becoming Director of Dermatopathology in the Department of Dermatology of the University of Miami. In 1973 he left Miami and continued his career in New York at the Department of Dermatology, New York University, where he spent 20 productive years.

Early in this period in 1979 he founded the Interna-tional Society of Dermatopathology. From 1974 to 1984 he organized the famous Annual Symposia on dermatopathol-ogy at New York University; they were without question the most instructive dermatopathology meetings of the decade. He also had students from all corners of the globe, establish-ing an international network of Ackerman Schüler.

After disagreements with Irwin M. Freedberg (1931-2005), who succeeded Rudi Baer (1910-1997) as Chairman at New York University, Bernie moved in 1993 to Philadel-phia and headed dermatopathology at Jefferson Medical College. In 1999 he returned to New York and opened, in cooperation with AmeriPath, a private institute, the Acker-man Academy of Dermatopathology. His retirement in 2004 was not a dramatic break, as he continued to work with youthful enthusiasm.

Bernie published over 60 books and 700 scientific pa-pers. He was certainly one of the most successful dermato-logic scholars and no words can ever do justice to this im-pressive performance. His masterpiece Histologic Diagnosis of Inflammatory Skin Diseases was published in 1978. With that book he established algorithms for accurate histologic diagnosis by identifying nine basic patterns of inflamma-tory skin diseases at scanning magnification. Bernie left his mark on almost every major aspect of dermatopathology ranging from Differential Diagnosis in Dermatopathology, The Lives of Lesions, Pitfalls in Histopathologic Diagnosis of

Malignant Melanoma, and Clues to Diagnosis (Sherlockian dermatopa-thology), to a series of books about adnexal tumors as well as many other topics. His essays in A Philosophy of Practice of Surgical Pathology add a new dimension to the study and na-ture of dermatopathology.

Other great accomplishments were his publications on the early diagnosis of melanoma in si tu and mycosis fungoides. Serendipitously, his work establishing criteria for diagnosing the early stages of Kaposi sarcoma became critically important

during the early days of the AIDS p andemic before the causative HIV could be identified.

A. Bernard Ackerman(1936–2008)

Helmut Kerl and Lorenzo Cerroni

Key Dates1936 Born 26 November in Elisabeth,

New Jersey 1958 Premedical Education, Princeton University, A.B. (cum laude: Religion and Literature)1962 Medical Education, Columbia University

of Physicians and Surgeons, MD1963-1968 Residencies: Departments of Derma-

tology at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, Hospital of the University of Penn-sylvania and Harvard - Massachusetts General Hospital

1964-1966 Military Service, Allergy and Derma-tology Clinics, USAF Hospital, Andrews Air Force Base, Washington DC

1968-1969 Fellowship in Dermatopathology, Harvard, Massachusetts General Hospital with Wallace H. Clark

1969-1973 Assistant and Associate Professor, Departments of Dermatology and Pathol-ogy, University of Miami, School of Medi-cine, Miami, Florida

1973-1993 Director of Dermatopathology, Professor of Dermatology and Pathology, New York University School of Medicine, New York

1993-1999 Director, Institute for Dermato-pathology, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia

1999-2004 Director, Ackerman Academy of Dermatopathology, New York

2008 Died 5 December in New York

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training. He should be remembered as a superb teacher, who cared about his students.

He succeeded in twice in New York and once in Phila-delphia in creating the leading dermatopathology centers, where legions of students from all around the globe received the best training in the world. Bernie transmitted not only his endless energy, his incredible knowledge, and the prin-ciples of dermatopathology, but also much, much more – his sparkling passion, his intellectual and moral maturity, his enthusiasm and above all his love and respect for our specialty of dermatology.

We would not truly do justice to Bernie if we did not discuss other aspects of his personality. If anything was for-eign to him, it was fear. He had no fear of loss of face, dis-agreements or even frank arguments. He had the strength and intellectual skill to challenge dogmas which enjoyed worldwide approval. Examples include his writings and lec-tures about sentinel lymph node biopsy and UV-irradiation as the main cause of melanoma, as well as his long-standing disagreement with his teacher Wallace H. Clark about the concept of dysplastic nevi. Bernie was such a skilled speak-er that he could easily insult or hurt those who tried to argue with him. His razor-like criticism and confrontational rhet-

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A key part of Bernie’s intellectual approach was an un-relenting appeal for precision in writing and speaking. He wrote with emotion, artistry and love, care and intellectual brilliance, searching for new ideas, always producing new concepts and setting standards of incomparable quality.

A different mirror of his talent is found in his playful and creative book for early school-age children, Your Skin is Showing. Another academic endeavor in his professional life was founding his own publishing house Ardor Scribendi in 1997 with the goal of changing the publication culture in medicine. His ideas reverberated beyond dermatology, ex-tending to the history of medicine, academic freedom and moral values in medicine.

He also established two dermatopathologic journals – The American Journal of Dermatopathology in 1979 a nd later in 2000, Dermatopathology: Practical & Conceptual – both of which revealed him as a visionary force in medical publishing. He was a s uperb Editor-in-Chief who had a nose for the essence of a paper and was always eager to pres-ent new or unconventional ideas.

If one asks what Bernie’s most important contribution was – what was really the heart of his academic life, our answer would be his total commitment to teaching and

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oric caused many colleagues to feel hurt. Bernie was almost always a m aster is separating professional and personal criticism, although on some occasions his scientific rhetoric unfortunately led to personal vendettas.

In special moments, Bernie undoubtedly identified himself with Henry David Thoreau’s thinking:

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears …. Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

His favorite physician role models were Sir William B. Osler and Carl T. Nelson (1908-1978), Chairman of the Depart-ment of Dermatology at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York. He practiced medicine in their spirit realizing that intellectual honesty and human caring, and not just the cutting edge of research lies in the heart of our profession.

Bernie had sensationally fast eyes, comparable to per-fect pitch in musicians. When he looked at glass microscope slides, no one could come close his amazing diagnostic skills and his rational morphologic interpretation of images. His lectures were among the best ever given and made him an icon of dermatopathology. Bernie transmitted not only incredible knowledge but also his enthusiasm and love of our specialty.

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The ethics of our profession were especially important to him. He was distressed by what he perceived as uncon-scionable behavior and fraudulent expert witness state-ments in medical-legal proceedings over mistakes in der-matopathologic diagnoses. Here he set a warning signal, as one can read in A Trial in Philadelphia.

Another monumental effort of Bernie’s showing the depth of his convictions was the creation of the internet portal derm101.com a teaching resource which illuminates various aspects of dermatology and matters that transcend them. In 2007 he founded the A. Bernard Ackerman Endow-ment for the Culture of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. This donation supports a professorship in the humanistic, ethical, artistic and literary aspects of medicine, as well as a reading room at Massachusetts General Hospital which harbors his extensive collection of microscopes.

In Central Park in New York, where he often walked alone, he donated a bench near the statue of Alice in Won-derland. Perhaps his spirit continues to visit this site that he so loved.

The once-in-a-lifetime DermatopathologistIf a single term could capture the essence of the career of A. Bernard Ackerman, it is originality. His distinc-tive form of pedagogy has revolutionized thinking not only in dermatopathology, but also clinical dermatol-ogy and general pathology.

The TeacherHis unique mode of teaching has been delivered through lectures and books, and at a multi-headed mi-croscope to which thousands of eager students from all over the world have flocked.

The AuthorIn his writings Ackerman challenged the conventional and generally accepted, thereby enabling present and future generations of students to critically engage and build on his work.

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When the final history of dermatology is written, one likely sentence might be:

Ackerman’s charismatic personality, his creative and ground-breaking publications and above all his mastery of the art and science of lecturing made him the leading and most creative dermatopathologist of the 20th century – one who transformed the world of dermatopathology.

Figure Legends

Fig. 1. Portrait. Undated photograph. Private collectionFig. 2. Home of the Ackerman family, undated. 963 Park Avenue, Elizabeth, New Jersey. Pirvate collectionFig. 3. Graduation photo, Princeton University, 1958. Private collectionFig. 4. With residents in dermatology at the University of Miami (seated on left Paul Bergstresser and seated all the way on the right Paul Kechijian, middle back is Richard Feinstein). Standing from left: Jim Cosmides, Bill Dobes, Joel Bamford, Richard Kornberg, Dick Stone, Richard Feinstein, Jim Plem-mons, Richard Childers, Jay Walther, Al Marsico. Sitting, From left: Paul Bergstresser, Alam Fahrzad Berke, Bernie Ackerman, Tom Breeza, and Paul Kejechian. Private collectionFig. 5. Bernie and his father (a dentist and car-freak), 1976 in 238 Oceana, Loveladies Habour, Long Beach Island, New Jer-sey. Private collection

Fig. 6. Albert M. Kligman, Bernie Ackerman and Helga Linke-Plewig (called Little Linke by Bernie), admiring the engine of the fancy British car of Bernies father. 1976 in 238 Oceana, Love-ladies Habour, Long Beach Island, New Jersey. Private collectionFig. 7-9. Bernie in Munich 1976. Preparation for the First International Dermatopathology Symposium.Bernie in front of the city hall Munich, Marienplatz. Bernie joking with Helmut H. Wolff in a traditional beer-garden before and after. Private collectionFig. 10-13. First International Dermatopathology Symposium in Munich, 16-18 June 1978. Arrival at theAirport Munich Riem with Ed Gomez, Willi Meigel, Anna Ragaz, Bernie Ackerman, his secretary Joyce, Helmut Wolff, Arthur Rywlin. Inter national speakers at the Sheraton Hotel Munich: Helmut H. Wolff, Otto Braun-Falco, Bernie Ackerman, Richard K.Winkelmann and Edgar Wilson Jones. Certificate of Attendance with caricature of a microscope incorporating the landmark-steeples of the Munich Liebfrauen-Dom. By Mark Podwal. Private collectionFig. 14, 15. Cover and text with three illustrations of the nine basic patterns of inflammatory skin diseases by silhouette. Histologic Diagnosis of Inflammatory Skin Diseases 1978. Private collectionFig. 16. Bernie at the multiheaded microscope to teach dermatopathology to students from all over the world. Private collectionFig. 17. Bernie on top of the Hohenpeißenberg, Bavaria, 1976. Private collectionFig. 18. Bernie Ackerman established two dermatopatholog-ic journals The American Journal of Dermatopathology (1979) and Dermatopathology: Practical & Conceptional (2000). Pri-vate collection

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Fig. 19. Ackerman in his study, by his own words Joyfully playing alone at age 63. Private collectionFig. 20. With trainees in dermatopathology at New York Uni-versity. In the year 2000 Bernie founded the Ackerman Acade-my of Dermatopathology, New York with the unique 27-head-ed microscope to teach dermatopathology. Private collectionFig. 21. An article on Kaposi’s varicelliform eruption reviewed by Ackerman. These corrections reveal his incisive precision in language and writing. Private collectionFig. 22. Reading room at Massachusetts General Hospital which was donated by Ackerman and harbors his collection of antique microscopes. Private collection

Publications

Ackerman AB (1978) Histologic Diagnosis of Inflammatory Skin Diseases. Lea & Febiger, Philadelphia

Sanchez JL, Ackerman AB (1979) The patch stage of mycosis fun-goides. Am J Dermatopathol 1: 5-26

Ackerman AB (1980) Malignant melanoma: a unifying concept. Human Pathol 11: 591-597

Gottlieb GJ, Ackerman AB (1988) Kaposi’s Sarcoma A Text and Atlas. Lea & Febiger, Phialdelphia

Ackerman AB, Dubow B (1990) Malignant melanoma in situ: the evolution of a concept. Modern Pathol 3: 734-744

Ackerman AB, Cerroni L, Kerl H (1994) P itfalls in Histopatho-logic Diagnosis of Malignant Melanoma. Lea & Febiger, Phila-delphia

Ackerman AB (1999) A Philosophy of Practice of Surgical Pathol-ogy: Dermatopathology as Model. Ardor Scribendi, Philadel-phia [Source for opening quote]

Ackerman AB, Massi D, Nielsen TA (1999) Dysplastic Nevus. Ar-dor Scribendi, Philadelphia

Ackerman AB, Kerl H, Sanchez JL et al (2000) A Clinical Atlas of 101 Skin Diseases with Histopathologic Correlation. Ardor Scribendi, New York

Ackerman AB (2000) A t rial in P hiladelphia. Dermatopathol Pract & Concept 6: 238-242

Ackerman AB (2006) Autobiography: L’Chaim – To Life! Derma-topathol Pract & Concept 12: 20-….

Ackerman AB, Miller RC (2007) A Year without Peer: 1963 – 1964 in the Department of Dermatology of Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. Ardor Scribendi, New York

Ackerman AB (2008) The Sun and the ‘Epidemic’ of Melanoma: Myth on Myth! Ardor Scribendi, New York

References

Barankin B (2004) A. Bernard Ackerman, MD. In: Dermogra-phies. Autobiographies in D ermatology. Vol 1. C ommunity books, Lockeport pp 11-13

Kerl H (2009) A. B ernard Ackerman, 22 November 1936 – 5. Dezember 2008. An once-in-a-lifetime dermatologist. J Dtsch Dermatol Ges 7: 385-389

Kerl H, Burgdorf W (2010) A. Bernard Ackerman (1936 – 2008). The most important dermatopathologist of the 20th century, who transformed the world of dermatopathology. Am J Der-matopathol 31: 734-739

Thoreau HD (1854) W alden; or, life in t he woods. Ticknor & Fields, Boston

Weyers W (1999) The International Society of Dermatopatholo-gy. Ardor Scribendi, New York

Weyers W (2006) A. Bernard Ackerman – the ‘Legend’ turns 70. J Am Acad Dermatol: 55: 862-866

Weyers W (2009) In memoriam A. Bernard Ackerman 1936-2008. Hautarzt 60: 165-166