Karl Portele

Karl von PORTELE, born on January 13^th, 1912 in Vienna, Austro-Hungarian Empire [Austria] (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") in Vienna, citizenship 1938: Austria), son of k.k. Hofrat Karl von Portele (1856-1922, oenologist and viticulture officer in the Ministry of Agriculture). In his youth, Portele was a wrestler and reporter and studied medicine at the University of Vienna from the fall term of 1933/34 - in the spring term of 1938 he was enrolled in the 4^th year of his studies at the Medical School.

He was arrested under National Socialism for political reasons and was forced to abandon his studies and leave the University of Vienna.

He had joined the Catholic student fraternity K.H.V. Welfia Klosterneuburg in the Austrian Cartel Association|ÖCV in 1937 and, as a legitimist, was a member of the monarchist resistance group around Wilhelm von Hebra (1884-1944) after the "Anschluss" of Austria, which also included the clerics Peter August Blandenier (1905-1941), Father Beda Land and Father Franz Hierzer (1897-1945) as well as the theology student Josef Pinzenöhler (1909-1991). Together they planned leaflet campaigns at the Vienna Minorite convent on Alser Straße. A draft leaflet written by Hebra in November 1938 and signed "Östfrei" (Austria free) read:

"Austria is not a part of the German Empire, but a country conquered by lies and violence, held down by tyranny, deprived of all rights, tormented and tortured. We Austrians are distinguished from the other Germans by our history and culture, in spirit and attitude, in character and way of life, and are opposed to the Prussians. We are a nation of our own: the Austrian nation."

The resistance group was betrayed to the Gestapo by an infiltrating police informer, Franz Paiha. At the end of March 1939, around 20 members of the resistance group were arrested, including von Hebra and Blandenier. Karl Portele was arrested soon afterwards on April 18^th, 1939, and imprisoned in the Vienna police detention center and then in the remand prison at the Vienna district court. The indictment before the People's Court was for "anti-state activity" and he was sentenced to death. The death sentence was postponed several times, mostly under the pretext of tuberculosis contracted in prison. On March 15^th, 1944, the People's Court in Berlin sentenced him to three years in prison, ineligibility for military service and exclusion from medical studies. The prison sentence was served with his pre-trial detention in Vienna and Regensburg. While in Gestapo custody in Regensburg, he became a member of the (legitimist) Ottonen Corps. After his release, he returned to Vienna and applied to the Reich Ministry of Education Berlin for permission to continue his studies, which was rejected in June 1944. He was only able to resume his studies after the end of the Nazi regime and graduated with a "Dr. med.univ." ("M.D.") from the University of Vienna on December 20^th, 1946.

In the same year, he became an assistant at the Institute of Pathology at the University of Vienna, headed since 1936 by Prof. Hermann Chiari (1897-1969), and worked specifically in the field of bacteriology. From 1946 to 1965, he was head of the Leptospira Research Center for Austria, Vienna and Lower Austria and expanded his research during study visits to the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam, the Bacteriological Institute in St. Gallen and the National Institute of Health in Rome.

From 1947, he was in charge of the pathological-anatomical museum on behalf of Prof. Chiari, but regularly came into conflict with Portele over its management. As senior assistant, Portele switched to the status of a scientific civil servant and it was only under Chiari's successor, Johann Heinrich Holzner, that the museum and Portele's commitment to it were once again given greater recognition. The museum became independent of the Institute in terms of space, organization and budget after Portele was able to persuade Science Minister Firnberg to take over the collection as a federal museum: The Federal Museum of Pathology and Anatomy thus founded in 1974, which he steadily expanded over the next few decades by integrating around 30 other medical history collections, was his life's work, which he managed until his death. It was originally housed in the lower two floors of the "Narrenturm" in the old AKH, where it eventually filled all the rooms and remained even after the AKH was donated and transformed into the campus of the University of Vienna.

He also founded the training course for medical technical specialists, which he also headed until his death (since 2005, its umbrella organization has awarded the prize "Der Portele", named after him and with his portrait lasered into a glass cube, to honor deserving members).

He was awarded the title "Hofrat", as well as the Decoration of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria (1965), the Decoration of Honor for Services to the Liberation of Austria (1978) and the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art I Class (1981).

Hofrat Dir. Dr. Karl Portele died on September 24^th, 1993, in Vienna and was buried at the Vienna-Dornbach cemetery.

Lit: Archive of the University of Vienna, enrollment forms MED 1937-1939, graduation registry ("Promotionsprotokoll") MED 1941-1949 No. 1554, US 245 No. 25, rectorate GZ 118 ex 1944/45; wikipedia; J. Heinrich HOLZNER, Karl Alfons von Portele, in: Verhandlungen der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Pathologie No. 79, 1995, 688–690; Herbert KRITSCHER, Beatrix PATZAK & Johann SZILVASSY, In memoriam Hofrat Dr. med. univ. Karl Alfons von Portele, in: MAGW Band Nr. 123/124, 1993, 465–469; Beatrix PATZAK & E. WINTER, Karl Alfons Portele, Pathologe und erster Direktor des Pathologisch-anatomischen Bundesmuseums in Wien, in: Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift 163, 2013, 322–326.

Herbert Posch