Dr. med.
Ernst Lyon
1890 - 1968

Ernst Lyon was born in Cologne in 1890 as the son of the merchant Gustav Lyon and his wife Franziska “Fanny”, née Feith. In the curriculum vitae of his dissertation he states: “I am a Prussian citizen and a Jew”. Ernst Lyon had been a staunch supporter of Zionism since his youth.

Education and Places of Work

Lyon attended the Royal Catholic Apostelgymnasium in Cologne from Easter 1900 and passed his school-leaving examination in 1909. He then went on to study medicine at the universities of Berlin, Heidelberg, Freiburg, and Bonn. He passed the state examination in Bonn in May 1914 and received his licence to practise medicine on 4 August of the same year. He received his doctorate from the University of Bonn in 1915 with the thesis “Ueber einen Fall von Zylinderzellencarcinom der Schilddrüse bei Basedowscher Krankheit”. He worked as a medical trainee with Paul Friedrich Richter at the I. Medical Clinic of the Friedrichshain Municipal Hospital in Berlin.

He actively participated in the First World War as a member of the medical service.

Lyon had been an intern at the department of internal medicine at the Jewish Hospital in Cologne under Dr. Benjamin Auerbach since 1918. He settled in Cologne as a specialist in internal medicine following his training.

Escape to Palestine in 1935 

Ernst Lyon fled to Palestine together with his wife and two sons after giving up his practice at Mozartstrasse 11 in Cologne in 1935. In Jerusalem, Lyon quickly obtained a licence to practise medicine in his own practice. He continued to publish. He became a naturalised Palestinian (British Passport Palestine) in 1938. He was awarded the title of professor in Israel.

Ernst Lyon died in Jerusalem on 10 January 1968 at the age of 77. His mother was able to flee to the USA in 1938, his sister Erna Katz, née Lyon, also fled to the USA.