Ludwig Halberstädter

Ludwig Halberstädter obtained his doctorate in 1901 in Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland). From 1901 to 1907 he worked at the surgical clinic in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia) under Carl Garré (1857-1928) and then dermatology with Albert Neisser (1855-1916) in Breslau. He was habilitated for dermatology and radiation therapy in Berlin in 1922 and in 1926 became "nicht beamtlicher ausserordentlicher Professor".

His interest in irradiation resulted in studies on its effects on lower forms of life and on tissues and cells. He became director of the Radiation Department at the Institute for Cancer Research, Berlin-Dahlem and used thorium in an effort to treat cancer. Halberstädter demonstrated sensitivity of the ovary to irradiation in 1904.

In 1907 he was a member of the research expedition on syphilis which went to Java under Albert Neisser’s direction.

After 1933 he was one of 276 Jewish dermatologists who were able to leave Nazi Germany. He settled in Palestine that year and became director of radiation therapy at the Hadassah Hospital, Jerusalem. He brought with him a tiny amount of radium and opened the first radium and X-ray institute in the Middle East. Working together with cytologist Dr. Leonid Doljansky, he was able to provide the first treatment for cancer in the country.

We thank Patrick Jucker-Kupper, Switzerland; and Renee Steinig, for information submitted.

• Hautkrankheiten und Syphilis im Säuglings- und Kindesalter.
  Ein Atlas. Mit 123 Farbigen Abbildungen auf 56 Tafeln nach Moulagen von F.Kolbow, A. Tempelhoff und M. Landsberg.
  Heinrich Finkelstein (1865-1942), Eugen Emanuel Galewsky (1864-1935) and L. Halberstädter, publishers.
  Berlin, Verlag von Julius Springer, 1922. 2nd edition 1924.
• Mikrobiologische Grundlagen der Strahlentherapie.
  In Handbuch der gesamten Strahlenheilkunde. Volume I. Munich, 1928.
• Allgemein biologische und schädigende wirkungen der Röntgenstrahlen.
  In Handbuch der Hautkrankheiten. Volume 5, 2. Berlin, 1929. Biographical:
• Isidor Fischer (1869-1943), publisher:
  Biographisches Lexikon der hervorragenden Ärzte der letzten fünfzig Jahre.
  Berlin – Wien, Urban & Schwarzenberg, 1932.
• Albrecht Scholz:
  The 100th birthday of Ludwig Halberstaedter (1876-1949) Dermatologist and radiologist.
  Dermatologische Monatsschrift, Leipzig, December 1976, 162 (12): 1015-1025.
• Barry G. Firkin and Judith A. Whitworth:
  Dictionary of Medical Eponyms.
  The Parthenon Publishing Group. 1989. New edition in 2002.
• Albrecht Scholz and Sven Eppinger:
  The fate of Germany's Jewish dermatologists in the period of National Socialism.
  International Journal of Dermatology, September 1999, 38 (9): 716.
• S. Eppinger, M. Meurer, A Scholz:
  The emigration of Germany's Jewish dermatologists in the period of National Socialism.
  Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, September 2003, 17 (5): 525.
• Albrecht Scholz, W. Burgdorf:
  The exodus of German dermatologists and their contributions to their adopted countries. Clinics in Dermatology, 2005, 23 (5): 520-526.