(¤ 30.11.1793, † 1864) Internist, active in Würzburg, Zurich, Berlin. Schönlein was born in Bamberg on Nov. 30, 1793, the son of a ropemaker. He first attended the grammar school in Bamberg and began studying natural sciences and then medicine in Würzburg in 1811. In 1816, he received his doctorate there on the topic "of brain metamorphosis". Study visits took Schönlein to Göttingen, Gotha and Jena.
At the age of 24, habilitation in Würzburg. At the age of 25, he was appointed medical director of the Medical Clinic at Juliusberg.
1824 Appointed full professor of special pathology.
Schönlein was considered the best German internist at his time. After active participation in the Hambach Festival, he was ordered by the Bavarian government to Passau as a medical officer. He refused this forced transfer. Instead, he moved to Frankfurt/Main as a general practitioner. In 1833 he was called to the newly founded medical faculty in Zurich.
In 1840 he was called to Berlin, which he accepted because of a political quarrel. His students there included Rudolf Virchow. Schönlein published only one scientific paper, his dissertation.
Field(s) of research: Purpura Schönlein-Henoch (anaphylactic purpura); Trichophyton schönleinii (dermatophyte). First describer of the causative agent of favus (Achorion schönleinii). The publication about this was made by his colleague Robert Remak in 1845. To what extent the "Peliosis rheumatica" (= Purpura Schönlein-Henoch) can be attributed to Schönlein himself or to his student, the Göttingen professor Conrad Heinrich Fuchs, remains open.