Pioneers in oral biology: The migrations of Gottlieb, Kronfeld, Orban, Weinmann, and Sicher from Vienna to America

Abstract

Following the annexation of Austria by Hitler's Germany in 1938, officials at the eminent University of Vienna Medical School purged faculty ranks of lews. 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.