From unskilled worker to full professor: The eventful life and career of the Jewish pathologist Herman Medak (1914–1991)

Abstract

The Jewish pathologist Herman Medak (1914–1991) went down in medical history as a pioneer in the early detection of oral carcinomas. As a longtime full professor of oral pathology at the University of Illinois, he influenced several generations of students and young researchers. His many experimental studies attracted special attention, as did his “Atlas of Oral Cytology” (1970).Largely unknown, however, is the fact that the Viennese-born scientist had to flee from the Nazi regime immediately before his medical state examination and thus arrived in the United States without a qualifying professional degree. This article attempts to fill the existing research gaps and to reconstruct Medak’s life and work. It sheds light on Medak’s years of study in Vienna, his forced emigration from Austria, his restart in the U.S. and his path to becoming a full professor of oral pathology. It also addresses the question of why Medak remained in Chicago until the end of his life and how the University of Vienna later dealt with its expelled students.The analysis is based on a large number of documents from archives in Austria and the U.S., but also on transcripts and other material from the private collection of the Medak family. These documents were supplemented and compared with the relevant secondary literature.It can be shown that Medak had to overcome considerable setbacks not only in Vienna, but also in the U.S., before he got on the road to professional success. Five factors ultimately proved to be career-enhancing: the Nimbus of the “Vienna School”, Medak’s unconditional striving for education, his deliberate specialization in oral pathology, his early international contacts and his willingness to adapt and acculturate. Like most other displaced scholars, Medak was widely ignored in postwar Austria. Today, the University of Vienna maintains an online memorial book that also provides information about Medak – albeit still rudimentary.