| Born: | 02-26-1894 |
| Faculty: | Medical School | Medical University Vienna |
| Category: | Expelled teacher |
Richard SINGER (born on February 26th, 1894 in Witkowitz, Moravia/Austro-Hungarian Empire [Vitkovice-Ostrava, Czech Republic]) was lecturer ('Dozent') in internal medicine at the Medical School of the University of Vienna in 1938.
He was persecuted under National Socialism on racist grounds and was removed from office on April 22nd, 1938, his venia legendi was revoked and he was expelled from the University of Vienna.
Richard Singer was born in 1894 as the son of Ladislav/László Singer (1859-1943, innkeeper, founding member of the Jewish Temple Association) and Laura Singer, née Kohn (1870-1939) in Vitkovice. He attended the German primary schools there and then the German grammar school in nearby Moravská Ostrava, where he also passed his school-leaving examination (Matura) in the summer of 1912. He then moved to Vienna to study medicine and enrolled at the Medical School of the University of Vienna from the fall term of 1912/13. Before the end of the First World War, he was able to graduate as "Dr.med.univ." (M.D.) on March 23rd,1918.
Richard Singer remained in Austria after the collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy and worked for the time being as an assistant physician at the l. Medical Univ. Clinic. He married the opera singer Jolanthe Garda (1893-1970), a Hungarian citizen from Timisoara/Romania, on September 17th1921 in Baden near Vienna, and they had a daughter, Marianne Jolanthe (m. Anderson, 1924-1997). Richard Singer was already living in Baden near Vienna at the time and worked as a doctor in the Esplanade Sanatorium there from October 1924. In 1929 he habilitated at the University of Vienna and became a lecturer in internal medicine. At the beginning of 1935 the family moved from Baden to Vienna's 9th district, Liechtensteinstrasse 32 and he became head of cardiology at the Hospital of the Viennese Merchants in Vienna's 19th district.
After the Anschluss in March 1938, he was expelled as a Jew from the University of Vienna and from the hospital, could no longer practice medicine and had to flee Austria. He managed to emigrate with his wife and daughter to England in 1939, where the family initially settled in East Grinstead, Sussex, later presumably moving to Birnock, Bridge of Allen, Scotland. He was one of only a few emigrated doctors allowed to practice in Britain and worked at Westminster Hospital in London.
On May 2nd, 1940, he was involved in the founding of the Austrian Academy in Great Britain in London, which included numerous emigrated artists and scientists from Austria, such as the chemist Emil Abel, the internist Walter Zweig, the economist Richard Schüller and the writer Stefan Zweig.
In 1940, the family managed to emigrate from Liverpool on August 11th, 1940 with the SS Samaria to the USA, where they arrived in New York, NY on August 21st, 1940.
While his brothers Dr. Berthold Ernst Singer (1888-1961, chemist) and Rudolph Singer (1897-1993) were also able to emigrate to the USA in time, his brother Dr. med. Oskar Singer (1890-1945) and his father László Singer were deported to Theresienstadt in 1941, where the father died in 1943, while Oskar was further deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp [Oświęcim/Poland], where he died in January 1945.
Dr. Richard Singer lived with his family in Manhattan, 410E, 57th str., New York from 1940 and worked at the West Side Hospital and Dispensary 1942-1946 and Bird S. Coler Memorial Hospital 1946-1950. He then worked as an internist and cardiologist in private practice.
He was a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology and a member of the American Geriatrics Society, the New York County Medical Society, the Medical Society of the State of New York and the American Medical Association.
His works include "New observations on the circulatory conditions in the lower extremities and their relation to the clinic" and "On the pain sensitivity of the heart and the large vessels and their relation to angina pectoris".
Dr. Richard Singer died at the age of 85 on July 8th, 1979 in Manhattan, New York, NY/USA.
Lit.: Archives of the University of Vienna/graduation registry ("Promotionsprotokoll") MED 10 (1912-1919), personnel sheet S 304.1203, 112.267; Austrian State Archives OeStA/AdR E-uReang/AHF/Singer Richard Dr.; MERINSKY 1980, 226; NOE AERZTECHRONIK 1990, 726; MUEHLBERGER 1993, 25; BLUMESBERGER 2002, 1275; UB MedUni Wien/van Swieten Blog; New York State Journal of Medicine 1979, 1797; New York Times, July 12th, 1979, D 17; www.genteam.at; www.geni.com; www.myheritage.at; www.ancestry.de.
Helga Fellner, Herbert Posch
