{{Short description|German dermatologist (1887–1976)}} {{Infobox medical person | honorific_prefix = | name = Max Jessner | honorific_suffix = | image = Max Jessner.jpg | image_size = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = 2 November 1887 | birth_place = Stolp, German Empire | death_date = {{death date and age|1978|8|27|1887|11|2|df=y}} | death_place = Switzerland | citizenship = | education = | occupation = | years_active = | known_for = Jessner's solution<br/>Jessner-Kanof disease | relations = | profession = Physician | work_institutions = University of Breslau | specialism = Dermatology | research_field = | notable_works = | prizes = | signature = }} '''Max Jessner''' (2 November 1887 – 27 August 1978){{cn|date=July 2024}} 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.
==Early life and education== 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).<ref name=Altmeyers2014>{{Cite news|url=https://www.enzyklopaedie-dermatologie.de/dermatologie/jessner-max-12449|title=Jessner, Max – Altmeyers Enzyklopädie – Fachbereich Dermatologie|date=15 May 2014|access-date=16 September 2018}}</ref> He studied medicine at the universities of Munich and Königsberg.<ref name=Białynicki2014/>
Jessner did his dermatological training at clinics in Breslau (now Wrocław) under Albert Neisser.<ref name=Altmeyers2014/>
He became assistant to Joseph Jadassohn at the University Department of Dermatology in Bern from 1912 to 1914.<ref name=Białynicki2014>{{Cite journal|last1=Białynicki-Birula|first1=R|last2=Maj|first2=E|date=1 January 2014|title=Max Jessner (1887–1978) – A prominent Wroclaw's dermatologist|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/292652919|volume=16|pages=83–87}}{{subscription required}}</ref> Following the interruption of the First World War, in which he also fought,<ref name="Weyers1998"/> he followed Jadassohn to the University of Breslau in 1917.<ref name=Białynicki2014/> After his habilitation there in 1922, he was appointed associate professor in 1926.<ref name=Derm101/>
== Career == In April 1928,<ref name=Lilly>{{Cite web|url=https://blogs.libraries.indiana.edu/lilly/|title=Lilly Library News & Notes|website=blogs.libraries.indiana.edu|access-date=16 September 2018}}</ref> 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.<ref name=Białynicki2014/><ref name=Lilly/><ref name=Solomon1993>{{Cite journal|last=Solomon|first=Susan Gross|date=1993|title=The Soviet-German Syphilis Expedition to Buriat Mongolia, 1928: Scientific Research on National Minorities|journal=Slavic Review|volume=52|issue=2|pages=204–232|doi=10.2307/2499920|jstor=2499920|s2cid=156660997 }}{{subscription required}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Solomon1993" /><ref name="Solomon2006">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6ZAShqCwB0UC&q=max+jessner+publications&pg=PA274|title=Doing Medicine Together: Germany and Russia Between the Wars|last=Solomon|first=Susan Gross|date=2006|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=9780802091710}}</ref>
In 1931, he was appointed to Josef Jadassohn's chair.<ref name=Derm101/> In either 1934<ref name=Derm101/> or 1935,<ref name=Białynicki2014/> he was forced to resign, along with Hans Biberstein, because of his Jewish descent.<ref name="Weyers1998">{{cite book|author=Wolfgang Weyers|title=Death of Medicine in Nazi Germany: Dermatology and Dermatopathology Under the Swastika|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=leFsAAAAMAAJ|year=1998|publisher=Ardor/Scribendi|isbn=978-1-56833-121-8|pages=75–79}}</ref><ref name="Białynicki2014"/><ref name="Biberstein2009">{{Cite journal|last1=Hamel|first1=Johanna|last2=Burgdorf|first2=Walter H. C.|last3=Bräuninger|first3=Wolfgang|date=October 2009|title=The man behind the eponym: Hans Biberstein and follicular hyperplasia overlying dermatofibroma|journal=The American Journal of Dermatopathology|volume=31|issue=7|pages=710–714|doi=10.1097/DAD.0b013e3181a23b9e|issn=1533-0311|pmid=19633531|s2cid=7015876}}</ref> His successor was Heinrich Gottron who was favoured by the National Socialist regime.<ref name=Derm101>[https://www.derm101.com/dpc-archive/january-march-1995-vol-1-no-1/dpc0101a12-dermatology-and-dermatopathology-under-the-swastika/ Dermatology and Dermatopathology under the Swastika.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180910014901/https://www.derm101.com/dpc-archive/january-march-1995-vol-1-no-1/dpc0101a12-dermatology-and-dermatopathology-under-the-swastika/ |date=2018-09-10 }} Wolfgang Weyers. Derm101. Retrieved 9 September 2018.</ref> Biberstein later became professor of dermatology at New York University<ref name=Derm101/> like many other dermatologists who escaped Nazi-occupied Europe by travelling to North America.<ref name=Holubar>{{Cite journal|last1=Holubar|first1=Karl|last2=Wolff|first2=Klaus|date=April 1989|title=The Genesis of American Investigative Dermatology from its Roots in Europe|url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/82525189.pdf|journal=Klaus|volume=82|pages=14–21}}</ref>
Jessner first emigrated to Switzerland in 1935,<ref name="Derm101" /> then in 1941 to New York,<ref>[https://portal.dnb.de/opac.htm?method=simpleSearch&cqlMode=true&query=idn%3D993487351 Jessner, Max (Bestandsbildner).] Deutsche National Bibliothek. Retrieved 9 September 2018.</ref> where he was reunited with Biberstein.<ref name="Stern2007">{{cite book|author=Fritz Stern|title=Five Germanys I Have Known: A History & Memoir|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9JmNeibfCqQC&pg=PT104|year=2007|publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux|isbn=978-1-4668-1922-1|page=104}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Derm101" />
===Research=== Also known as the Coombe's formula,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MRRjDAAAQBAJ&q=jessner+coombe&pg=PA379|title=Textbook of Chemical Peels, Second Edition: Superficial, Medium, and Deep Peels in Cosmetic Practice|last=Deprez|first=Philippe|date=2016|publisher=CRC Press|isbn=9781482223941|edition=2nd|page=379}}</ref> Jessner developed it to form Jessner's solution,<ref name="BrodyBrody1997">{{cite book|author1=Harold J. Brody|author2=Harold Joseph Brody|title=Chemical Peeling and Resurfacing|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P41sAAAAMAAJ|year=1997|publisher=Mosby|isbn=978-0-8151-1261-7|page=82}}</ref> a liquid peeling treatment for hyperkeratotic epidermal lesions, containing salicyclic acid, resorcinol, and lactic acid in 95% ethanol, and works by breaking intracellular bridges between keratinocytes. He reduced the concentration of resorcinol due to its associated allergic contact dermatitis, irritant contact dermatitis and skin discolouration. Modified Jessner's solutions, replacing resorcinol with TCA are available.<ref name="TostiGrimes2012">{{cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N6NHcORe5YsC&pg=PA57|title=Color Atlas of Chemical Peels|last=Grimes|first=Pearl E.|publisher=Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg|year=2012|isbn=978-3-642-20269-8|editor-last=Tosti|editor-first=Antonella|page=57|chapter=7. Jessner's Solution|editor-last2=Grimes|editor-first2=Pearl E.|editor-last3=Pia De Padova|editor-first3=Maria}}</ref>
In New York, he was assisted, like many others, by Marion Sulzberger at the New York Skin and Cancer Unit.<ref name="BADSulberger">{{Cite web|url=http://www.bad.org.uk/about-us/history/the-sarkany-interviews/dr-marion-sulzberger|title=British Association of Dermatologists - Dr Marion Sulzberger|website=wbad.org.uk|access-date=10 September 2018|archive-date=10 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180910204417/http://www.bad.org.uk/about-us/history/the-sarkany-interviews/dr-marion-sulzberger|url-status=dead}}</ref> 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.<ref name=Białynicki2014/><ref name="SchachnerHansen2011">{{cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tAlGLYplkacC&pg=PA1021|title=Pediatric Dermatology E-Book|last1=Burgdorf|first1=Walter H. C.|last2=Gerami|first2=Pedram|last3=Yan|first3=Albert C.|publisher=Mosby Elsevier|year=2011|isbn=9780723435402|editor-last=Schachner|editor-first=Lawrence A.|edition=4th|volume=1|page=1021|chapter=21. benign and malignant tumors|editor-last2=Hanson|editor-first2=Ronald C.}}</ref>
==Later life== After retiring, Jessner moved back to Switzerland, where he died on 27 June 1978.{{cn|date=July 2024}}<ref name=Białynicki2014/>
==Selected publications== *[https://ac.els-cdn.com/S0022202X15502935/1-s2.0-S0022202X15502935-main.pdf?_tid=25660e5b-76eb-4af1-9be4-48d344da97d3&acdnat=1536584801_b43ce9d5ccc9959ef7fa6cf1cb93e29d Clinical and Histopathalogic Aspects of Skin Cancer]{{Dead link|date=February 2026 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}, ''Journal of Investigative Dermatology'', Vol. 11, Issue 1, July 1948, pp. 91–92. {{doi|10.1038/jid.1948.72}}
== References == {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== *[https://meg.library.albany.edu:8443/archive/view?docId=ger106.xml Oral history with daughter, Sabine Jessner]{{Dead link|date=February 2026 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }} *[https://books.google.com/books?id=_ZtKAQAAIAAJ&q=Max+Jessner "Society Transactions"], American Medical Association, ''Archives of Dermatology'', 1957, Volume 75. *[https://books.google.com/books?id=RKBKAQAAIAAJ&q=thorium+x Dr Max Jessner’s Comments on Thorium X], ''Archives of Dermatology and Syphilology'', Volume 62, Issues 1–3, pp. 11–162. *[https://books.google.com/books?id=z2nPBgAAQBAJ&dq=Neisser+jessner+wroclaw&pg=PA143 ''Geschichte der deutschsprachigen Dermatologie - History of German Language Dermatology'']. Gebundenes Buch – 2009, von Albrecht Scholz (Herausgeber), Karl Holubar (Herausgeber), Günter Burg (Herausgeber), {{ISBN|978-3000267840}}. {{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jessner, Max}} Category:1887 births Category:1978 deaths Category:German dermatologists Category:20th-century Jewish medical doctors Category:Jewish German medical doctors Category:People from Słupsk Category:Medical doctors from the Province of Pomerania Category:German people of Jewish descent Category:Academic staff of the University of Breslau Category:Jessner family