| Born: | 09-11-1889 |
| Faculty: | Medical School | Medical University Vienna |
| Category: | Expelled teacher |
Harry SICHER (b. September 11th, 1889 in Vienna, d. September 10th, 1974 in the USA) was a private lecturer with the title of associate professor ("Pd. tit.ao.Prof.") for dentistry and dental surgery at the Medical School of the University of Vienna in 1938.
He was persecuted under National Socialism for racist reasons and was dismissed from his post on April 22nd, 1938 and expelled from the University of Vienna.
Harry Sicher was born in Vienna on September 11th, 1889, the son of Isak/Ignatz Sicher (merchant) and Johanna Sicher, née Frommer. After graduating from the Maximilians-Staatsgymnasium in Vienna's 9th district in 1907, he studied human medicine at the University of Vienna and received his doctorate on March 13th, 1913 and shortly afterwards married Lydia Bak (1890-1962, she received her doctorate in 1916 as "Dr.med.univ." in 1916, later focusing on psychiatry and individual psychology with Alfred Adler and "Dr.phil." in zoology in 1921) in the Stadttempel in Vienna and they moved to Vienna's 9th district, Beethovengasse 4. The marriage remained childless.
While still a student, Harry Sicher worked as a demonstrator at the First Anatomical Institute under Prof. Emil Zuckerkandl (1849-1910) and Prof. Julius Tandler (1869-1936) from 1909 to 1913, and he remained loyal to this specialty throughout his life. After completing his studies, Harry Sicher decided to train as a specialist in dentistry. His years as an assistant at the Dental Institute from 1914 to 1920 (under the direction of Julius Scheff (1846-1922) and Rudolf Weiser (1859-1928)) were interrupted by three years of military service in the First World War (in Bosnia Duchy, Montenegro and Dalmatia). Through Tandler, he was appointed professor of anatomy at the newly founded institute at the University of Sofia/Bulgaria in 1919, but declined. He converted and left the Jewish Community in October 1919, habilitated in June 1920 and became a private lecturer in dentistry. From 1921, he also ran a private dental practice in Vienna's 1st district, Mölkerbastei 5. In July 1933, he was awarded the title - but not the position - of associate professor (Pd. tit.ao.Prof.).
Under National Socialism, he was expelled from the University of Vienna in 1938 for racist reasons and his venia legendi was annulled.
His sister, the chemist Dr.phil. Grete Sicher (1893-1956) - she worked until March 1938 as a research assistant at the University Clinic for Syphilidology and Dermatology at the University of Vienna (director: Prof. Wilhelm Kerl) - was also dismissed under National Socialism for racist reasons.
As he also had to close his private practice and was no longer allowed to work as a doctor, he had to flee Vienna and was able to emigrate to Great Britain with his wife and sister in time in 1938, but his attempt to obtain a license as a dentist or find another relevant position there failed and he emigrated to the USA on April 23rd, 1939. There he found employment as an assistant professor of neuroanatomy at the University of Chicago Medical School from June 1939 and separated from his wife, who found a job as a psychiatrist at the Family Service Society in Salt Lake Cita, Utah, in 1940, before moving to Los Angeles in 1941, where she set up an individual psychology center (she became the long-standing chairwoman of the Alfred Adler Society and vice president of the American Society of Adlerian Psychology at the Institute for Individual Psychology).
In Vienna in 1942, Sicher's mother was deported to several concentration camps, most recently to the Treblinka extermination camp where she was presumably murdered.
Harry Sicher became Professor of Anatomy and Histology at the College of Dental Surgery at Loyola University, Chicago, in 1942 and was appointed Chairman of the Institute there. According to Timo Schunck, he was able to launch his career in anatomy in the USA thanks to his strong motivation to learn, exceptional teaching skills, the uniqueness of his research topics and approaches and the dense academic network he was able to establish with other representatives of the "Vienna School". He became a US citizen on November 30th, 1944 and retired from Loyola University in 1960.
Over the course of his career from 1911 to 1970, Harry Sicher published around 145 scientific articles in renowned specialist journals worldwide, in which he covered all areas of dentistry.
In addition, there are six textbooks, four in German and two in English, a book contribution in a textbook for dentistry, and a textbook which he published in the 5th edition after the death of his colleague Balint Orban (1960). He was a pioneer in the field of oral anatomy, his groundbreaking textbook "Oral anatomy" (1949) was published in four languages and became THE standard anatomy textbook for dental students in many countries for many decades, appearing in its 8th edition in 1988. Through numerous developmental studies of bones and jaws, Sicher achieved great honor among orthodontists. His pioneering work on anatomy for the practice of dental block anesthesia and his work "Bone and Bone" are also worthy of mention.
He received a number of high-ranking awards and honors, including an honorary doctorate from Loyola University Chicago (1952), the "Alpha Omega Achievement Medal" (1962), the "Samuel Charles Miller Award" (1962) from the "American Academy of Oral Medicine", the "Albert H. Ketcham Memorial Award" (1967) from the "American Association of Orthodontics" and the "Isaac Schour Memorial Award" from the "International Association of Dental Research".
In 1963, the University of Vienna only presented him with the "Golden Honorary Diploma" on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his doctorate in 1913.
Prof. Dr. Harry Sicher died at the age of 85 on December 9th, 1974 in Chicago.
Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna, personnel file S 304.1192, 106.I.1570; personnell rooster 1937/38, Rectorate GZ 730 ex 1937/38 No 4, 10, 11, GZ 677 ex 1937/38 No 62; DOeW: 6802b; MERINSKY 1980, 223; MUEHLBERGER 1993, 32; BLUMESBERGER 2002, 1263; UB MUW/van Swieten Blog (2008/2018); Timo Schunck u. Dominik Gross, From Nazi victim to honored scientist: The two lives of Jewish anatomist Harry Sicher (1889–1974), in: Annals of Anatomy, 235 (2021); information by courtesy of Dr. Timo Schunck, Inst.f. History, Theory and Ethics of Medicine, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen 02/2021; wikipedia.
Herbert Posch
