Max Jessner (2 November 1887 – 27 August 1978) was a German dermatologist and university professor. In 1928 he travelled to Buriat-Mongolia on an expedition to study syphilis and the effects of the anti-syphilitic drug Salvarsan. After escaping Nazi occupied Europe in the mid-1930s, he settled in New York. Jessner is remembered for the development of the chemical peel known as Jessner's solution and the description of Jessner-Kanof disease.
Max Jessner was born on 2 November 1887 in Stolp (now Słupsk in Poland), the son of the dermatologist and lecturer at the University of Königsberg Samuel Jessner (1859–1929).[1] He studied medicine at the universities of Munich and Königsberg.[2]
Jessner did his dermatological training at clinics in Breslau (now Wroclaw) under Albert Neisser.[1]
He became assistant to Joseph Jadassohn at the University Department of Dermatology in Bern from 1912 to 1914.[2] Following the interruption of the First World War, in which he also fought,[3] he followed Jadassohn to the University of Breslau in 1917.[2] After his habilitation there in 1922, he was appointed associate professor in 1926.[4]
In April 1928,[5]
Jessner travelled to Buriat-Mongolia as part of the Soviet-German Syphilis Expedition, an expedition to study syphilis and the effects of the anti-syphilitic drug Salvarsan. The mission involved eight Soviet and eight German researchers.[2][5][6] For post-revolutionary Russia, the expedition marked an opportunity to use science to solidify political relations and improve communication. For the Germans, it was an opening to the east.[6][7]
In 1931, he was appointed to Josef Jadassohn's chair.[4] In either 1934[4] or 1935,[2] he was forced to resign, along with Hans Biberstein, because of his Jewish descent.[3][2][8] His successor was Heinrich Gottron who was favoured by the National Socialist regime.[4] Biberstein later became professor of dermatology at New York University[4] like many other dermatologists who escaped Nazi-occupied Europe by travelling to North America.[9]
Jessner first emigrated to Switzerland in 1935,[4] then in 1941 to New York,[10] where he was reunited with Biberstein.[11] At first, he found work at the New York Postgraduate Medical School and later, he was appointed to the teaching staff of New York University School of Medicine's Skin and Cancer Unit.[4]
In New York, he was assisted, like many others, by Marion Sulzberger at the New York Skin and Cancer Unit.[15] It was here that in 1953, with Kanof, he became renowned for the description of Jessner-Kanof disease, a lymphocytic infiltrate of the skin where the lesions were asymptomatic, presenting as red spots or plaques with spontaneous recurrences.[2][16]
^ abSolomon, Susan Gross (1993). "The Soviet-German Syphilis Expedition to Buriat Mongolia, 1928: Scientific Research on National Minorities". Slavic Review. 52 (2): 204–232. doi:10.2307/2499920. JSTOR2499920. S2CID156660997.(subscription required)
^Hamel, Johanna; Burgdorf, Walter H. C.; Bräuninger, Wolfgang (October 2009). "The man behind the eponym: Hans Biberstein and follicular hyperplasia overlying dermatofibroma". The American Journal of Dermatopathology. 31 (7): 710–714. doi:10.1097/DAD.0b013e3181a23b9e. ISSN1533-0311. PMID19633531. S2CID7015876.
^Grimes, Pearl E. (2012). "7. Jessner's Solution". In Tosti, Antonella; Grimes, Pearl E.; Pia De Padova, Maria (eds.). Color Atlas of Chemical Peels. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. p. 57. ISBN978-3-642-20269-8.
^Burgdorf, Walter H. C.; Gerami, Pedram; Yan, Albert C. (2011). "21. benign and malignant tumors". In Schachner, Lawrence A.; Hanson, Ronald C. (eds.). Pediatric Dermatology E-Book. Vol. 1 (4th ed.). Mosby Elsevier. p. 1021. ISBN9780723435402.
