Holubar, Karl

Karl Holubar (* June 3, 1936 in Vienna; † January 6, 2013 Vienna) Karl Holubar was an Austrian dermatologist and medical historian. He studied medicine at the University of Vienna from 1954 and received his doctorate in 1960. In 1968, he studied abroad in Amsterdam. After his habilitation in dermatology and venereology in 1970, further studies took him to the USA from 1972 to 1973. From 1975 he was an associate professor and from 1980 to 1981 interim director of the First Vienna Dermatology Clinic. From 1983 to 1986, he was then full professor for this subject and head of the Department of Dermatology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His habilitation in the history of medicine followed in 1986. Karl Holubar was Professor and Director of the Institute for the History of Medicine in Vienna from 1989 to 2001.

Holubar received several prizes and medals for his work in the history of medicine, in particular the history of dermatology. He was a member or honorary member of more than 30 medical societies, including corresponding member of the Accademia Galileiana in Padua, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and honorary member of the Royal Society of Medicine in London, honorary member of the German, Israeli, British, Dutch, Hungarian, Italian, Polish and other dermatological societies as well as the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. He was a Life Member of the American Academy of Dermatology, Honorary President of the European Society for the History of Dermato-Venerology and Vice-President of the Societé Française d'Histoire de la Dermatologie. In 1979 and 1980 he was President of the Austrian Society for Dermatology and Venereology. In 2002, he was Spinoza Professor at the University of Amsterdam. Holubar was also an honorary member of the philosophical-historical class of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and was awarded the Grand Decoration of Honor of the Republic of Austria in 2000.

His outstanding specialist knowledge and comprehensive general education allowed him to give brilliant lectures in a firework display of knowledge, cross-connections and rhetorical highlights. Few people were as eloquent or spoke and wrote as many languages from different cultures as Karl Holubar. He spoke fluent English, Italian and French, as well as Latin, ancient Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Russian and Mandarin. He was the author of more than 570 scientific publications and several books. Holubar wrote fundamental works on bullous dermatoses and other immune dermatoses. His scientific work in recent years has been characterized by his extensive knowledge and enthusiasm for the history of medicine. His publications naturally focused on the history of dermatology, but he also represented Austrian medical history in the most profound way in his function as director of the institute.

1. History of German-speaking dermatology. Wiley, Weinheim 2009 (bilingual German-English, with A. Scholz and G. Burg)
2. Holubar K (2002) Historical Atlas of Dermatology and Dermatologists. Parthenon, London, 2002 (with John Thorne Crisse and Lawrence Charles Parish)
3. Holubar K et al. (2004) Disease and sickness: a philosophical commentary. J Investig Dermatol Symp Proc 9:105-107
4. Mukhopadhyay AK (2013) In Memoriam: Prof. Karl Holubar (1936-2013). Indian Dermatol Online J 4:165-166.
5. Pehamberger H: https://www.meduniwien.ac.at/web/ueber-uns/news/detail/trauer-um-karl-holubar/