Urbach, erich

(¤ 29.7.1893, † 1946) Dermatologist. Erich Urbach was born in Prague as the son of a textile manufacturer. He studied medicine in Vienna. In 1919 he began his dermatological training at the General Hospital in Vienna under Salomon Ehrmann.

1920-1921 trained under J. Jadassohn in Breslau.

1929 First description of lipoid proteinosis named after Urbach and Camillo Wiethe (Urbach-Wiethe).

1932 First description of necrobiosis lipoidica.

1936 Primary physician in the Department of Dermatology and Allergy at the Hospital of the Vienna Merchants.

In 1938 his venia legendi was revoked for racist reasons. Urbach emigrated to the USA that same year, where he worked at the dermatology dept. of the Univ. of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia 1938-46.

In 1938-46 he was head of the allergy department of the Jewish Hospital there. Together with his wife he also ran a private practice. Urbach was mainly concerned with the physiological and pathological chemistry of the skin. Urbach was mainly concerned with the physiological and pathological chemistry of the skin, allergies and clinical immunology, including reactions to insect venoms, odors and foods, as well as the classification of hypersensitivities and possibilities for desensitization. Furthermore, he worked in the fields of endocrinol. and metabolic dermatoses.

Urbach contributed to Jadassohn's Handbuch der Haut- und Geschlechtskrankheiten (1927ff.) and to the Lehrbuch und Atlas der Haut- und Geschlechtskrankheiten (1924, 2nd ed. 1928), edited by Leopold Arzt and Karl Zieler.

1. Luger A (2008) In: Löser Ch, Plewig F (eds.) Pantheon of Dermatology, S. 1050-1058 Springer Medizin Verlag, Heidelberg
2. Urbach E, Wiethe C (1929) Lipoidosis cutis et mucosae. Virchows Arch Path Anat 273: 285-319
3. Wiethe C (1924) Congenital, diffuse hyaline deposits in the upper airways, familial occurrence. Z Otolaryngology 10: 359