Felix Reach

Born:	11-24-1872
Faculty:	Medical School | Medical University Vienna
Category:	Expelled teacher

Felix REACH (born on November 24th, 1872 in Prag [Czech Republic] as the son of Rudolf Reach (merchant) and his wife Pauline nee Kuh) was in 1938 lecturer ('Dozent') for Physiology at the Medical School of the University of Vienna and at the University of Agricultural Sciences (' Hochschule für Bodenkultur') in Vienna.  Felix Reach studied medicine at the German University in Prague, where he was graduated 'Dr.med.' in 1895. He then devoted himself to his further education in Vienna, Strasbourg, Basel and Königsberg. In 1909 was appointed 'Privatdozent' of Physiology of animal metabolism at the University of Agricultural Sciences in Vienna. During World War I he served as a military doctor and senior physician in the Austro-Hungarian Army.
In 1919 he was habilitated at the Medical School of the University of Vienna. Reach taught as lecturer ('Privatdozent') in physiology with special emphasis on metabolic physiology. His main areas of work were feeding and applied physiology. He was a member of the Society of Physicians and the Society of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics in Vienna.
On November 11th, 1924, he married Therese Koreff (born on October 30th, 1871). The couple lived in Vienna 9th district, Alserbachstrasse 5, until 1938. He was persecuted in times of Nazism as a Jew, lost his position (his venia legendi was invalidated) and was thrown out of the university on April 22nd, 1938. In November 1938, he had to deal with together to move with his wife in a small room (Vienna 18, Sternwartestraße 43). On July 10th, 1942, Felix and Therese Reach were deported from their last address in Vienna 2nd district, Zwerggasse 5/11, to Theresienstadt [Terezín / Czech Republic]. Both died there in 1943. 

Lit.: Exhibition "Bedrohte Intelligenz – Von der Polarisierung und Einschüchterung zur Vertreibung und Vernichtung im NS-Regime", Vienna 2015; Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance (DÖW): Austrian Victims of the Holocaust; EMÖDI/TEICHL 1937; FISCHER Vol. 2 1933; Kürschners Gelehrtenkalender 1931; MERINSKY 1980, 208-209; PLANER 1929; UB MedUni Wien/van Swieten Blog; Rudolf M. WLASCHEK, Biographia Judaica Bohemiae, Dortmund 1995-1997. 

Katharina Kniefacz