Critical Reviews in Oral Biology & Medicine, Vol 8, 108-128, Copyright © 1997 by International & American Associations for Dental Research
Pioneers in oral biology: the migrations of Gottlieb, Kronfeld, Orban, Weinmann, and Sicher from Vienna to America
N. W. Kremenak and C. A. Squier
Dows Institute for Dental Research, College of Dentistry, University of Iowa, Iowa City 52242, USA.
Following the annexation of Austria by Hitler's Germany in 1938, officials
at the eminent University of Vienna Medical School purged faculty ranks of
Jews. Among those forced out were several distinguished physician dentists,
several of whom emigrated to the United States. The assimilation of
foreign-trained dentists raised questions at national meetings of the AADS
and the National Association of Dental Examiners. Already existing ties
between dental schools in Chicago and the University of Vienna, including
the 1928 appointment of Rudolf Kronfeld to the faculty at Loyola, led to
the relocation of Balint Orban, Harry Sicher, and Joseph Peter Weinmann in
that city. Bernhard Gottlieb, who had been director of the Dental Institute
in Vienna, transplanted less easily, but eventually found a niche at the
Baylor College of Dentistry in Dallas. The careers of the Vienna
dentist-scientists strengthened the scientific foundations of clinical
dentistry in the United States, contributed to the development of a
stronger research establishment, and enlarged the scope of oral biology.
