1 Mount Sinai Hospital, 1 East 100th Street, New York, New York 10029
Bela Schick was born in Bolgar, Hungary, on July 16, 1877. He received his medical degree from Karl Franz University at Graz in 1900. After a period of 6 months in the Austro-Hungarian army, he returned to Graz where he became a voluntary assistant in the clinic of Professor Theodore Escherich. In 1902 when Professor Escherich left Graz to accept the chair in pediatrics in Vienna, Dr. Schick was invited to accompany him. In Vienna, Dr. Schick was appointed volunteer to work with Dr. Clemens von Pirquet, who was an assistant at the Children's Clinic of the University. A perfect life-long friendship sprang up at once between these two men of genius.