| Born: | 06-11-1911 |
| Faculty: | Medical School | Medical University Vienna |
| Category: | Expelled teacher |
Ludwig Selzer, born June 11th, 1911 in Vienna/Austro-Hungarian Empire [Austria] (entitled residency (“heimatberechtigt”): Vienna, citizenship 1938: Austria) as son of Baruch (from 1912: Bruno) Selzer (1877-1933) and Bina Selzer (1881-?), lived in Vienna’s 9th district, Rossauerlaende 43 and had studied medicine at the University of Vienna from 1930 to 1935 and received his doctorate on February 5th, 1936.
From April 1937 to April 1938 he was employed as an unsalaried clinical assistant physician at the I. Medical University Clinic (head: Prof. Hans Eppinger), but this was revoked in May 1937; rather, in November 1937 a new unsalaried clinical assistant physician position was applied for and the appointment of Dr. Ludwig Selzer was approved as of April 1st, 1938, which he was not allowed to take up after the Anschluss for racist reasons - rather, he was expelled from the clinic and the University of Vienna.
He had to flee Vienna and was still able to emigrate to London/UK in 1938, where he stayed until he received an exit visa for the USA in London on November 23rd, 1938 and then traveled on the MS Batory from Gdynia/Poland on February 28th, 1939 to the USA where he arrived in New York City, NY on March 11th, 1939 and lived for the time being with his uncle Moses Selzer at 3, Clinton Street.
However, he quickly moved to the West Coast to California and settled first in Palo Alto, where he worked as a researcher at Stanford University Medical School, and moved to Santa Cruz in 1940, where he worked as a physician and surgeon at Santa Cruz County Hospital, in phases as assistant director, and later opened his own practice until he retired in 1975. He was also a pianist, violinist, and art collector, and had married American and public health nurse Mary Marcella Wofford (1914-2012) on December 12th, 1941, in Palo Alto, CA, and they had three children: sons Gerald Selzer, MD (b. 1944, of Bathseda, CA) and David Selzer (b. 1945, of San Francisco, CA), and daughter Fern A. Fehmi (b. 1948, of Princeton, NJ).
Ludwig Selzer was a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians, the California Academy of Medicine, the Santa Cruz Medical Society (president 1956), and the California Academy of General Practice. He was an honorary member of Dominican and Community Hospitals, was president of the Santa Cruz County Touberculosis Association and the Wedgewood Society of Northern California.
He was also a member of the San Francisco Symphony Association, the Bruckner Society of America and the Temple Bath El.
Dr. Ludwig Selzer died on March 10th, 1979 in Santa Cruz, CA/USA.
Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/graduation registry ("Promotionsprotokoll") MED 1929-1941, No 2814, MED GZ 1332 ex 1935/36, MED GZ 988 ex 1937/38, MED GZ 1037 ex 1936/37, GZ MED I. Med Klinik GZ 104 ex 1937/38; death notice in Santa Cruz Sentinel (Santa Cruz, California), March 12th, 1979, 1; www.ancestry.at, www.ancestry.de, www.myheritage.at
Herbert Posch
