Josef Jadassohn – A pioneer in dermatology

Josef Jadassohn (1863–1936) [Figure 1] had a great impact on the growth of dermatology. He is well known for having described various conditions, many of which bear his name, along with his assistants. Some of these conditions include nevus sebaceous of Jadassohn, JadassohnLewandowsky syndrome (pachyonychia congenita), Jadassohn-Dössekker disease (myxoedema tuberosum), and Naegeli-Franceschetti-Jadassohn syndrome.^[1] He was the first to describe pityriasis lichenoides chronica, granulosis rubra nasi, incontinentia pigmenti, as well as the Borst-Jadassohn phenomenon. He is known as the father of the patch test.^[2] Other eponymous conditions include Jadassohn-Tieche nevus (blue nevi) and Jadassohn-Pellizzari anetoderma.^[3]

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Figure 1:

Josef Jadassohn. Reproduced with permission from Obituary.

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Jadassohn was born into a Jewish family in Liegnitz, Silesia (now in Poland) on September 10, 1863.^[1,2] He studied medicine in Göttingen, Heidelberg, Leipzig, and Breslau, obtaining his doctorate in 1888 at Breslau [Table 1]. He was offered a dermatology residency position at the University of Breslau by Albert Neisser. After residency, he joined the staff at the University of Breslau. In 1896, Jadassohn proposed a classification of skin diseases according to etiology.^[4] He was particularly interested in tuberculosis and contributed an extensive chapter on cutaneous tuberculosis to the Handbook of Skin Diseases (Handbuch der Hautkrankheiten) edited by Franz Mracek of Vienna. In 1896, at age 33, he succeeded Edmund Lesser as director of the skin clinic of the University of Berne. In 1903, Jadassohn was promoted to the rank of professor, and in 1906, the skin clinic of Berne conducted the 9^th Congress of the German Dermatological Society, which very much enhanced the prestige of the clinic. In 1917, after 21 years in Switzerland, Jadassohn moved to the University of Breslau where he succeeded his former teacher, Albert Neisser. This was the most prestigious chair of dermatology in the German Reich, and Jadassohn was given the title of “Geheimrat” (privy councilor), by which everyone called him.^[4] This period is considered one of the turning points for Dermatology.^[5] Jadassohn’s students included luminaries such as Bruno Bloch (1878–1933), Max Jessner (1887–1978), Marion Sulzberger(1895–1983), Stephen Epstein (1900–1973), Herman K.B.Pinkus (1905–1985) and Walter Freudenthal (1893–1952).^[5] Together they did phenomenal work in describing various skin conditions and their many facets.

Jadassohn also occupied a series of editorial and administrative posts [Table 2]. He was an editorial board member of “Archiv für Dermatologie und Syphilis.” One of his valuable contributions to dermatology was the “Handbook of Skin and Venereal Diseases,”^[3] published between 1927 and 1934 in 23 volumes and 41 different parts.^[4] Jadassohn’s handbook was considered by far the most comprehensive textbook of dermatology ever published. Whenever he wrote or spoke, he endeavored to be as accurate and conservative as possible.^[6] He was elected as an Honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1935.^[7]

Jadassohn married Margrete Kern in the year 1896, and they had a son (Werner Jadassohn) in 1897, who later became chairman of the Department of Dermatology at the University of Geneva. After 7 years, they had a daughter (Hilde). The activities of the Nazi party caused him and his family distress, and they migrated to Zurich in 1934. Jadassohn was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1936, to which he succumbed the same year on March 24.^[3,5]

Jadassohn, after the end of the war and the fall of the Nazis, was honored again as a pioneering dermatologist and as “the king of dermatology” in Germany and the world in the 1920s.