| Born: | 11-07-1876 |
| Faculty: | Medical School | Medical University Vienna |
| Category: | Expelled teacher |
Ludwig (Louis) ADLER (born on November 7th, 1876 in Vienna/Austro-Hnugarian Empire [Austria], died on August 8th, 1958) was private lecturer for obstetrics and gynacology with the title, but not the position of an associate professor ("Privatdozent, tit.ao.Prof.") at the Medical School of the University of Vienna in 1938.
He was persecuted under National Socialism as a Jew was removed from office on April 22nd, 1938 on racial grounds, his venia legendi was revoked and he was expelled from the University of Vienna.
Louis Adler was the son of Adolf Adler (master baker) and Josefine Adler, née Wolf, and completed his secondary school studies in Vienna and studied medicine at the University of Vienna from 1894-1900, where he also received his "Dr.med.univ." from the Medical School on December 22nd, 1900, as" Ludwig Adler."
He then worked at the Vienna General Hospital in the I medical university-clinic and the university-clinic of dermatology as well as at the athological-anatomical institute of the University of Vienna and, from 1904, at the I university-clinic of obstetrics and gynecology (head: Prof. Friedrich Schauta) was an assistant there from 1906 and in 1908 published, together with Fritz Hitschmann, his fundamental work "Der Bau der Uterusschleimhaut des geschlechtsreifen Weibes mit besonders Berücksichtigung der Menstruation" (Berlin 1908) where they described for the first time the cyclic changes of the endometrium that could be demonstrated in connection with menstrual bleeding - the basis of all Adler's further research on menstruation, ovulation and pathological bleeding.
He habilitated in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Vienna in 1912 and had also married Berlin born Hedwig Joanna Bertha Quant (1884-?), without confession in Salzburg on December 18th, 1912.
In 1913 he became director of the radium ward of the I university-clinic of obstetrics and gynecology, conducted research on radiation therapy of uterine carcinoma, and gained an excellent reputation as a surgeon (vaginal radical hysterectomy). He published numerous scientific papers - including "Nursing of Women in Childbirth" (1917), "The Radium Treatment of Malignant Tumors in Gynecology" (1919), "The Nursing of Women in Pregnancy, in the Puerperium, and in Female Diseases" (1921), "Physiology of the Ovary" (1929).
In 1919 he was awarded the title - but not the function - of associate professor ("tit.ao.Prof.") at the University of Vienna.
1921-1933 he was primarius of the gynecological department at the Wilhelminenspital, 1933-1934 primarius at the hospital Rudolfstiftung, 1934-1938 primarius and board of directors at the Bettina Foundation Pavilion of the Kaiserin-Elisabeth-Spital, Vienna, from 1936 also with the title "Hofrat".
When he had to flee Vienna after the Anschluss with his wife and his daughter Dorothea (Dorle Nichols), born in 1925, he was able to emigrate to the USA in time. They traveled via LeHavre/France on the SS Ile de France to New York City, NY, where they arrived on April 19th, 1938. They lived initially in Yonkers, NY, later 60 Fanshaw Avenue, Yonker, Westchester, NY, later at 24 5th Avenue, Manhattan, New York City, NY.
He worked there from then on at Beth Israel Hospital and St. Claire's Hospital, both in New York, and became a U.S. citizen on November 4th, 1943. He did not retire until he was 80 years old in 1956.
He was a member of numerous scientific societies, had been chairman of the Obstetrical-Gynecological Society of Vienna, was a member of the New York County Medical Society, the Medical Society of the State of New York, the American Medical Association, and among others. also an honorary member of the British Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology (1934), the Edinburgh Obstetrician-Gynecological Society (1934), the Sociedad de Obstetricia y Gynecologia de Buenos Aires (1935), the British Association of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Vienna Society of Physicians (1947), the Swedish Medical Society (Svenska Läkaresällskapets), and the American Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and Abdominal Surgeons.
Dr. Ludwig Adler died on August 8th, 1958 in New Milford, Litchfield County, CT/USA.
Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") 1894-1900, graduation registry ("Promotionsprotokoll") MED VIII (1898-1904), personnel file MED PA 949, personnel sheet S 304, Rectorate GZ 680/I+II ex 1937/38, 677 ex 1937/38; FISCHER 1932/1933, 300; MERINSKY 1980, 3-4; ROEDER 1983, 13; MUEHLBERGER 1993, 18; STADLER I 2004 [1987], 370; UB MedUni Wien/van Swieten Blog; New York State Journal of Medicine 1958, 3013; www.genteam.at, www.familysearch.org; www.ancestry.de; wikipedia; information courtesy of Helga Henriette Zeinler-Kareis, Vienna 06/2022.
Herbert Posch
