Charles H. Liebermann (September 15, 1813 – March 27, 1886) was a Russian-American physician and one of the co-founders of the

Georgetown University School of Medicine Georgetown University School of Medicine, a medical school opened in 1851, is one of Georgetown University's five graduate schools, and is the most applied-to medical school in the nation with a matriculation rate of 1.40%. It is located on Res ...

Biography

Liebermann was born in

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

, then part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. His father, a military surgeon, died when Liebermann was young, but his uncle ensured that he received a quality education. He studied medicine at the

University of Dorpat The University of Tartu (UT; ; ) is a public research university located in the city of Tartu, Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is also the largest and oldest university in the country.

in Russia, but he was arrested for his involvement in the Polish independence movement. He escaped from prison in

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

and continued the study of medicine at the

University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

. He became an assistant to the surgeon

Johann Friedrich Dieffenbach Johann Friedrich Dieffenbach (1 February 1792 – 11 November 1847) was a German surgeon. He was born in Königsberg and died in Berlin. Dieffenbach specialized in skin transplantation and plastic surgery. His work in rhinoplastic and maxill ...

and also studied under

Karl Ferdinand von Graefe Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl of Austria, last Austrian Emperor * Karl (footballer) (born 1993), Karl Cac ...

. Liebermann returned to Czarist Russia. He was briefly imprisoned again, then banished from the country. After spending brief periods in Holland and England, Liebermann came to the United States. He arrived in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

and, despite struggles with the English language, was able to set up a profitable medical practice. However, he was disappointed with how the level of medical care in Washington compared to that of Europe. He became one of four physicians who received approval to found the medical school at Georgetown College. He became the first Jewish professor at Georgetown University when he was appointed Professor of Principles and Practice of Surgery in 1849. While Liebermann did not have the most well-known medical career of the four medical school founders, he was responsible for most of the initial planning that went into the establishment of the school. He was president of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia and he was one of the physicians who cared for

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...

after the president was shot. Liebermann and his wife had two children. He retired in 1872 and died in 1886.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liebermann, Charles H 1813 births 1886 deaths Georgetown University Medical Center faculty Physicians from Riga 19th-century American physicians Physicians from Washington, D.C. Surgeons from the Russian Empire Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States