| Born: | 01-12-1901 |
| Faculty: | Medical School | Medical University Vienna |
| Category: | Deprivation of academic degree |
Hugo STANKA (born on 12th, 1901 in Libschitz, district Smichow, Bohemia/Austro-Hungarian Empire [later: Czechoslovakia, today: Libčice nad Vltavou/Czech Republic]), had studied Medicineat the Universities of greifswald and Vienna and graduated at the Medical School at the University of Vienna on February 19th, 1926 with the academic degree "Dr. med.univ.".
From 1926 to 1932 he worked as a secondary physician at the Wieden Hospital in Vienna, then worked for a year as a ship's doctor and subsequently worked at the psychiatric sanatorium "Am Steinhof" in Vienna until 1937, finally becoming primary physician at the psychiatric hospital of the City of Vienna in Ybbs/Danube/Lower Austria in 1938
After the so called Anschluss, he was deprived of his position for political and/or racist reason in March 1938, arrested by the Gestapo, and had to flee Vienna as quickly as possible and was able to leave for the time being for Switzerland and further emigrate to the USA in 1939. There he worked from 1940 to 1971 as a practicing physician and surgeon in Chicago, IL.
In times of Nazism he was deprived of his academic degree on May 22nd, 1944 with the argument, that he was not considered dignified an academic degree of a German university after expatriation.
In the early 1970s, Stanka moved from Chicago, IL, to Boca Raton, FL.
In 1973, he was awarded the Gold Medal of Honor for Service to the Republic of Austria at the Austrian Embassy in Chicago for his postwar efforts to provide food for Austrian families (active in the organization American Relief to Austria, Chicago South Side Branch).
He was a member of the American Medical Association, the Illinois State Medical Society, and the Christian Medical Association of the United States since 1940, a member of the German Medical Society of Chicago since 1952, and was vice president of the Medical Society of Chicago from 1962 to 1972.
Hugo Stanka died on January 9th, 1982 in Boca Raton, FL/USA after an extended illness.
He was survived by his brother Dr. Franz Josef Stanka, Obermagistratsrat of the City of Vienna/AAustria, his daughter Phyllis Loving of Boca Raton, two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
It took 64 years since the deprivation – and a very long time since the end of Nazism – until the regranting of the doctorate took finally place in 2008.
Lit.: Archives of the University of Vienna/graduation registry ("Promotionsprotokoll") MED 1923–1929, No 1458, rectorate GZ 151 ex 1942/43 (= S 127.9) No 112-115, GZ 686 ex 1944/45; Austrian State Archives OeStA/AdR/BMfSV/Praes/PA Stanka Hugo; Deutscher Reichsanzeiger Nr. 84 from April 12th, 1944; obituary in: Boca Raton News, January 11th, 1962, 8A; POSCH 2009, 480; REITER-ZATLOUKAL/SAUER 2022.
Herbert Posch
