Pioneering German Dermatologist
Karl Herxheimer was born on 26.6.1861 in Wiesbaden,Germany, he studied in Freiburg, Wuerzburg and Strassbourg, where he finished his dissertation and received his MD. He was subsequently assistant at the pathological institute at Frankfurt am Main under Carl Weigert and moved on to Breslau, where he trained with Albert Neisser, the discoverer of the gonococcus. In 1885 he joined his brother in practice in Frankfurt-am-Main, where he spent his entire professional life.
At the amazing age of 33 he became the director of the local dermatological clinic, which he led for 10 years.
Although advised by his friends to leave the country he refused and was by taken by the nazis to the concentration camp Theresienstadt where he died in 1942.
He named the late stage of Lyme Disease: Acrodermatitis chronica atrophicans Herxheimer and an impressive antibiotic drug reaction in Syphillis, Jarisch - Herxheimer Reaction.
People still see him as one of the leading dermatologists of the century and the german dermatological society named their yearly award after him.