Pinkus, Walter H., 1942-

Felix Pinkus was born April 4, 1868 in Berlin, the son of the businessman Benjamin ("Benno") and Rosalie (née Franckel) Pinkus. He had three brothers: Paul, Georg and Eugen. In Berlin he attended the Friedrich Werder Gymnasium, from which he graduated in 1885. Thereafter he studied medicine at the Universities of Berlin and Freiburg im Breisgau, with special interests in comparative anatomy and dermatology. At Freiburg he wrote his doctoral dissertation Über einen noch nicht beschriebenen Hirnnerven des Protopterus annectens (On an as yet undescribed cranial nerve of the Protopterus annectens) in 1894 – important because it identified and described the nervus terminalis (now called the nervus pre-olfactorius or olfactory nerve). In Freiburg he also met his future wife Elise Etzdorf, to whom he became engaged in 1890. After a ten-year engagement they married and went on to have two children Luise (born in 1902) and Hermann (born in 1905); both of their children became physicians.

After receiving his degree, Felix Pinkus worked at the Freiburg Anatomical Institute and in the laboratory of Paul Ehrlich at the Koch Institute. He would later write a chapter on lymphatic leukemia in Ehrlich's book on leukemia in 1901. From 1895-1898 Felix Pinkus worked under Albert Neisser at the Dermatological University Clinic in Breslau. Afterward, he opened his own clinic for dermatology in Berlin. In 1902 he discovered Haarscheiben (tylotrich pads). In 1908 he became a lecturer at the University of Berlin in dermatology and venereal diseases, in 1916 an associate professor. In 1910 his textbook on skin and venereal disease was published. With Rudolf Isaac Felix Pinkus led the Policlinic for Skin Diseases in Berlin and was also director at the Women's Hospital of Reinickendorf ( Frauenkrankenhaus Reinickendorf ). During World War I he was a staff physician in the military hospital of Berlin. He wrote articles not only on skin diseases, but also frequently on venereal diseases, including on its treatment and societal statistics. In 1917 he became secretary of the German Society for Venereal Disease Control. He was also secretary of the Berlin Dermatological Society.

In addition to his medical work, Felix Pinkus collected insects, often for the purpose of sketching them, which was a hobby. He also illustrated his own anatomical writings as well as sketching artwork, people – including his patients – and animals.

In 1933 Felix Pinkus lost his position as director of the Women's Hospital. The following year his wife Elise died, and his son Hermann left Germany for the United States. Hermann Pinkus eventually settled in Michigan and was later that year joined by his fiancée, Hilde Hensel, also a physician. Luise Pinkus married the pharmacist Werner Grab. In 1939 Felix Pinkus went to Oslo, Norway, where he remained for about a year until his son was able to procure an American entry visa for him. Then he went to the United States via Russia, taking the Trans-Siberian railroad from Moscow to Vladivostock, then traveling by boat to Tokyo, took an ocean liner at Yokohama, and crossed the Pacific to San Francisco, arriving in January 1941. He joined Hermann and Hilde in Michigan, where he resided with them and assisted in Hermann Pinkus's dermatopathology practice. He also became an honorary member of both the Detroit Dermatological Society and the Society for Investigative Dermatology. Felix Pinkus died on November 29, 1947.

Felix Pinkus was a prolific writer and produced more than 165 articles in dermatology.

From the guide to the Felix Pinkus Family Collection, 1861-1982, 2011, bulk 1900-1960, (Leo Baeck Institute)