Schweninger, ernst

(¤ 1850, † 1924) Dermatologist, working in Berlin, Großlichterfelde, Munich Born on 15 June 1850 in Freystadt/Upper Palatinate. Ernst Schweniger came from a family of doctors and received his medical training from the pathologist v. Buhl in Munich. In 1857 he received his doctorate on the subject of enchondromas. 1875 habilitation there with the subject: About transplantation and implantation of hair. 1879 interruption of his academic career. He was sentenced to four months imprisonment for a "misdemeanour, committed in a public place". A short time later he asked to be released from the function of a private lecturer at the University of Munich. Schweninger established himself as a general practitioner in Munich. In 1882 he took over the treatment of Reich Chancellor Prince Otto von Bismarck (1815-1889), who was on the verge of "nervous and health bankruptcy" at the time. On Bismarck's initiative, Schweninger was appointed extraordinary professor at the University of Berlin in 1884, against the will of the medical faculty. Associated with this was the Extraordinariat for Dermatology. His predecessor, Georg Richard Lewin, was relieved of his duties as head of the main department for health reasons from October 1884. Towards the end of the eighties of the 19th century, Schweninger became increasingly estranged from orthodox medicine. In 1900 he gave up his professorship in Berlin and took over an internal department at the hospital in Groß-Lichterfelde, which he gave up again in 1906 after quarrels. In 1906 he left Berlin for good and moved to Pullach near Munich. He died on 13 January 1924.

Among Schweninger's publications in the field of dermatology, the works on herpes zoster, atheroma, vascular ectasia at the lower rib edge as well as some casuistics are to be mentioned. Together with his assistant Fausto Buzzi, he published scientific papers on leg ulcers, traumatic epithelial cysts. First description of the clinical picture of anetodermia named after Schweninger and Buzzi.

1. Harnack, Klaus (2000) The Dermatology Clinic of the Charité and the Dermatology Department in Berlin (1710-1999). Berlin Medical Publishing House GmbH pp. 36-39