Heinrich Albers-Schönberg

Who was Heinrich Albers-Schönberg?

Heinrich Ernst Albers-Schönberg was a German gynecologist and radiologist who was a native of Hamburg.

He studied medicine at the Universities of Tübingen and Leipzig, where in 1891 he earned his medical doctorate under the guidance of Heinrich Curschmann. From 1892 to 1894 he was an assistant at Hamburg-Eppendorf Hospital, afterwards working as an assistant to gynecologist Paul Zweifel at the University of Leipzig. Soon afterwards, he settled in Hamburg as a medical practitioner.

In 1897, with internist Georg Deycke, he established an x-ray clinic and laboratory in Hamburg. Later, he was appointed head of the radiology department at St. Georg Hospital. In 1919 he became a full professor and chair of radiology at the newly established University of Hamburg.

Albers-Schönberg is credited with providing a description of osteopetrosis, a condition sometimes referred to as "Albers-Schönberg disease". It is described as a syndrome of excessive bone calcification causing a marble-like appearance with increased radiological density of the skeleton.

He was an early specialist in the field of radiological medicine. In 1903 he discovered that exposure to radiation caused damage to the reproductive glands of rabbits. In cooperation with other scientists, he helped bring about numerous technical innovations into the field of radiology. He is credited with the introduction of radiation protection devices, procedures and equipment for radiation/dose assessment, the "orthoroentgenograph", and the compression diaphragm. He received a grand prize at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis; his diagnostic X-ray pictures far outclassed the competition in regards to clarity.