Maurice Oppenheim was born in Vienna, a descendent of the court factor, Samuel Oppenheimer. He received his M.D. degree from the University of Vienna in 1899 and after being assistant professor he became full professor in 1915. During World War I he served in the Austrian-Hungarian army as a surgeon major. From 1927 on he was acting professor of dermatology and siphilology at the University of Vienna. He was also head of the department of skin and venereal diseases of the Wilhelminen Hospital (1918-1938).
In 1939, after the annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany, Oppenheim immigrated to the United States, where he became full-time professor and head of the dermatological department of Chicago Medical School. Oppenheim was a member of many dermatological societies and he received several gold medals and distinctions for his research on occupational disorders of the skin. A major part of his publications dealt with skin diseases which derived from vocational or circumstantial causes, including Die Schaadigungen der Haut durch Beruf und Arbeit (3 volumes; Ullmann and Pille, co-authors; 1922); Die Schaadigungen der Haut durch Beruf, Sport, Jahreszeiten, Kosmetik und erste Hilfe bei ploetzlichen Hautschaadigungen (1937). Maurice Oppenheim died in Chicago, USA, in 1949.