After attending school in Essen and Höxter (Abitur) and studying medicine, he obtained his doctorate in Munich in 1904.
Hessberg published numerous scientific papers, campaigned for continuing medical education, and held an important position with the Ophthalmology Department of the "Society for Science and Life in the Rhenish-Westphalian Industrial District".
In 1929, the family of five moved into a villa in Essen-Bredeney, built according to the plans of the well-known architect Alfred Fischer, a representative of New Building (New Objectivity, Bauhaus).
After the war, the marriage was recognized by the city of Hamburg retroactively from 1935, because the two had become engaged in 1935 but were not allowed to marry because of Nazi racial laws since she was not Jewish.
In October 1952, he returned to Essen in retirement, but continued his scientific work and again supervised the municipal "Sehschonungsschule" which he had founded.