Hans von Haberer was born in 1875 in Vienna but studied in Graz. In 1902 he joined the “Eiselsberg Clinic” in Vienna and completed his habilitation there in 1907. Only four years later he was appointed Ordinarius in Innsbruck, succeeding Schloffer, and remained there for 13 years.

In 1924 he received a call to Graz. His career continued to advance: in 1926 he became head of the Academic Surgical Clinic in Düsseldorf, and in 1930 he was appointed Ordinarius in Cologne, where he remained until the end of the Second World War in 1945, after which he had to leave his position. In 1950 he was elected honorary member of the German Society of Surgery.

Von Haberer was an extraordinarily prolific author. His work focused primarily on abdominal surgery, and he gained a reputation through thousands of gastric operations. He resected more than 500 aneurysms, further developed surgery of the gallbladder and large intestine, and published on advances in renal surgery, neurosurgery, and also war surgery.

Hans von Haberer died in 1959.