Paul Gerson Unna

Who was Paul Gerson Unna?

Paul Gerson Unna, was a German physician specialized in dermatology and one of the pioneers in dermatopathology.

Paul Unna was the son of Moritz Adolph Unna, a physician from Hamburg. Unna was educated at the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums. He began to study medicine at the University of Heidelberg, but had to interrupt it in order to fight in the Franco-Prussian war, where he was severely wounded. In 1871, he resumed his studies in Heidelberg and later went to the University of Leipzig, finally attaining a doctorate under Prof. Heinrich Wilhelm Waldeyer in Strasbourg. His doctoral work was on the subject of the histology and development of the epidermis, and was published in 1876. The thesis contained a set of new ideas and aspects that were met with hard criticism. They were accepted only after some corrections were made.

He went on to receive his training in dermatology in Vienna, where he worked in cooperation with Ferdinand von Hebra, Moritz Kaposi and Heinrich Auspitz, among others.

After his return to Hamburg, Unna started working in the clinical practice of his father, then in the Sankt Georg Hospital. Unna's main interest resided on dermatology: he opened his own practice for skin diseases in Hamburg in 1881, and later opened the Dermatologikum private dermatological hospital in Hamburg Eimsbüttel, so that he could concentrate entirely on the field, beginning in 1884. In that year, Unna published his first book, Histopathologie der Hautkrankheiten, which exposed the entire knowledge in the field at that time and which made him one of the most prominent dermatologists of his time. Besides describing all known skin diseases, Unna proposed new therapies. Among the innovations, in 1886 he proposed the use of ichthyol and resorcinol against skin diseases.