The Medical University of Vienna mourns the death of Prof. Dr. Herbert Hönigsmann, former head of the Department of Dermatology. Herbert Hönigsmann passed away on 21.8.2023 surrounded by his family.
Herbert Hönigsmann was born on 26.3.1946 in Vienna. He studied human medicine at the University of Vienna (1962-1968) and was assistant physician at the I. Department of Dermatology from 1969-73. In 1976 he followed Klaus Wolff as senior physician at the Department for Dermatology in Innsbruck, where he established an outpatient clinic for radiation and phototherapy. Herbert Hönigsmann returned to the I. Department of Dermatology in Vienna in 1981, where he took up the position of managing senior physician of the clinic. With the move from the old to the new University Hospital Vienna, he was appointed Head of the Department of Special Dermatology and Environmental Dermatoses (1992-2008) and was Head of the Organisational Unit of the Department of Dermatology from 2004-2008. Herbert Hönigsmann retired in October 2008.
During his clinical-scientific career, Herbert Hönigsmann was a highly active and highly renowned clinical and translational researcher in the field of cutaneous photobiology. Together with Klaus Wolff, he pioneered UV light therapy for inflammatory dermatoses, such as psoriasis vulgaris, and cutaneous lymphomas in the 1970s. Especially the combination with retinoids made the so-called PUVA therapy a widely used and effective remedy against these diseases until today. Other clinical focal points included the therapy of diseases of the scalp and disorders of hair growth, pigment anomalies and the diagnosis and therapy of light dermatoses. Experimentally, Herbert Hönigsmann dealt with the testing of photoactive substances, the action spectrum for light- and UV-induced skin diseases, repair mechanisms after UV damage to the skin and photocarcinogenesis. His expertise with sun protection and evaluation of light and UV filtering substances was well respected. His work in the field of photobiology made him an international expert often present in the media.
Herbert Hönigsmann comes from the generation of academic doctors who helped Austrian dermatology achieve lasting world fame. Especially the Innsbruck years and the early 1980s in Vienna are considered the "golden age" of our discipline. The enthusiasm for clinical and experimental dermatology combined with the profound clinical knowledge of personalities like Herbert Hönigsmann have had a significant influence on generations of medical students and doctors, and have attracted countless talents to dermatology. Herbert Hönigsmann was not only an outstanding "Physician Scientist" par excellence, but also a teacher and mentor for many dermatologists to follow, both at university and in private practice. His dedication to our discipline was also demonstrated by the fact that Herbert Hönigsmann was an active congress participant until the end, belonged to a large number of specialist societies and was a reviewer and editor for international journals.
Austrian and international dermatology is forever indebted to Herbert Hönigsmann for his decades-long, authoritative contributions!
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Weninger
Department of Dermatology