Oskar Pilzer

Born:	11-22-1882
Faculty:	Law School
Category:	Deprivation of academic degree

Oskar PILZER (born on November 22nd, 1882 in Czaniec/Galicia [Czaniec, Poland]), son of Samuel Pilzer (merchant, 1849-1915) and his wife Regina, nee Robinson. After he had graduated from high school ("Gymnasium") in Bielitz/Silesia [Bielsko-Biała/Polen] he began to study law at the University of Vienna and graduated at the Law School on March 23rd, 1906 with the academic degree 'Dr. iur.'.

Specialized in commercial and financial law, he initially joined a private practice, then worked as a legal counsel for the International Bank of Commerce and later as an independent legal counsel. In 1921 he married Hilda Kamarad, in 1921 and 1922 their sons George and Herbert were born.

By the end of the 1920s the Austrian film industry was in a crisis caused by the transition from silent films to talkies and the increased amount of needed capital of a producer. In July 1930 the Viennese "Sascha-Filmindustrie AG" was taken over by new owners, a private consortium consisting of Oskar Pilzer and five other investors. The company was renewed fundamentally: sound systems were installed in the cinemas, the studio was remodeled, the own film copying facility was renewed and the first talkie of the company was produced.
Because of irreconcilable differences Oskar Pilzer resigned from the board in May 1931. After the company got into financial difficulties, lawyer Kurt Pilzer and banker Viktor Pilzer became new directors in Dezember 1931. In August 1932 Oskar and his brother Severin Pilzer joined them. The so-called "Pilzer-group" was headed by Oskar Pilzer. The "Sascha-Filmindustrie AG"bought the studios at Rosenhügel in Vienna 13th district, in the same year as an important producing facility and in January

The company signed a collaboration agreement with Berlin-based company Tobis and in January 1934 the corporation "Tobis-Sascha-Filmindustrie AG" was founded. In the same year "Sascha-Filmindustrie AG" produced it's most famous production, "Maskerade" by Willi Forst.
After Jewish filmmakers were excluded from the German film industry, beginning in 1933, pressure on the Austrian filom industry grew, too.
By the end of 1933, the Third Reich’s Film Board ("Reichsfilmkammer“) began to prohibit the screening of Austrian films on which prominent Jews had worked, claimed to certify film scripts and lists of cast members in advance and effected that Jews were banned from the film industry from February 1935 on (for the moment only producers were still excepted from this rule).
By the end of November 1936 Oskar Pilzer resigned the presidency of the Producers Association. in January 1937 his business shares from "Sascha-Filmindustrie AG" were taken over by the Creditanstalt, and all remaining Jews, among them Pilzer, departed.
Oskar Pilzer was still active as co-founder and participant of several film companies until 1938.

Two days after the "Anschluss" 1938 Pilzer was arrested, but released a short time later after the intervention of Albert Göring. He emigrated first to Rome/Italy and at the beginning of 1939 to Paris/France, where he met his wife and sons again, who had fled via Zurich/Switzerland. On June 7th, 1939 Oskar Pilzer died of complications resulting from a botched surgical procedure. His widow Hilda and his sons were able to flee via Portugal to Casablanca/Morocco in May 1940, from there to New York/USA in August 1941.

In times of Nazism he was deprived of his academic degree on July 17th, 1942 with the racist argument, that he as a Jew was not considered dignified an academic degree of a German university ('eines akademischen Grades einer deutschen Hochschule unwuerdig'). 

It took 13 years since the deprivation – and a very long time since the end of Nazism – until the regranting of the doctorate took finally place on May 15th, 1955.

On November 6th, 2013, the Austrian Broadcasting ("Oesterreichischer Rundfunk", ORF) unveiled a plaque at hall 1 of the Filmstadt Wien Studios to commemorate Oskar Pilzer. After that the new documentary "Oskar Pilzer – Die bewegte Geschichte der Wiener Filmateliers" was presented. Among the guests of honor at the commemoration was also Oskar Pilzer's son George Pilzer of New York, aged 92 years.

Lit.: Armin LOAKER, Oskar Pilzer and the Austrian Film Industry in the 1930s, in: Eleonore Lappin: Jews and film, Wien 2004, 37-56; Der Standard 2006; ORF 2013.

Katharina Kniefacz