Viktor Blum

Born:	01-10-1877
Faculty:	Medical School | Medical University Vienna
Category:	Expelled teacher

Viktor BLUM (born on January 10^th, 1877 in Vienna, died March 3^rd, 1954 in Chicago, IL/USA) was a private lecturer with the title of an associate professor ("Pd., tit. ao. Prof.") of urology at the Medical School of the University of Vienna in 1938. He was persecuted in times of Nazism as a Jew, his venia legendi was revoked on April 22^nd, 1938, he removed from office and was expelled from the university of Vienna. He was the son of Alois Lazar Blum (1839-1904) and Sophie Blum, née Pick (1846-1914), had graduated from high school - Piaristengymnasium in Vienna's 8^th district - in 1894, then enrolled at the Medical School at the University of Vienna. While studying medicine he resigned from the Jewish Community in October 1898. He received his doctorate MD ("Dr.med.univ.") on May 26^th, 1900. He then worked as a secondary physician and assistant at the Vienna General Hospital and at the surgical, and from 1902 at the urological department of the Polyclinic in Vienna. In 1903 he married Alice Hatschek (1884-1954), a cousin of the zoologist Univ. Prof. Berthold Hatschek (1854-1941). Viktor Blum habilitated as a private lecturer in urology at the Medical Faculty of the University of Vienna in 1912 and served as head of the Urology Department at the Sophienspital from 1919. He published numerous scientific papers in the field of urology (including Symptomatology and Diagnosis of Urological Diseases, Renal Physiology and Functional Renal Diagnosis, and Urological Surgery), and was awarded the title (but not the position) of associate professor at the University of Vienna in 1921. In 1919 he became head of the urological ward at the hospital Sophienspital and in 1920 vice-president of the Austrian Society of Urology, and ran a specialist practice for kidney and bladder diseases in Vienna's 8^th district, Alser Strasse 43. He was a member of numerous Austrian, German and international urological societies, a member of the Society of Physicians in Vienna and a member of the Society for Internal Medicine and was awarded numerous orders and decorations. After the Anschluss on April 30, 1938, he was also dismissed from the Sophienspital for racist reasons, had to flee from Austria, and succeeded in emigrating to Paris with his wife Alice Blum. There they were able to obtain U.S. visas on July 28^th, 1939 and emigrated to the U.S. via Le Verdon/France on October 26^th, 1939 with the SS Washington, arriving in New York City, NY on November 1^st, 1939. Viktor Gregor Blum became a U.S. citizen in December 1944 and lived in Chicago, Illinois, was able to continue medical work in the U.S. despite advanced age, became a professor at Loyola University Chicago and a member of the medical staff of various Chicago hospitals. Prof. Viktor Gregor Blum died on March 3, 1954 in Chicago, Illinois/U.S. He was honored by the Medical University of Vienna by having his name inscribed on the "Fountain of the Displaced 1938" opened on November 30^th, 2008 (in front of the Rector's Office in Vienna's 9^th, Spitalgasse 23), which complements the "Memorial to Victims of National Socialism of the Medical University" opened next to it in March 2008.

Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/personal files MED PA 48, personal record S 304.88; Austrian State Archive, OeStA/Archive of the Republic, AdR /E-uReang/VVSt/VA/27423; FISCHER 1932/1933, 133; MERINSKY 1980, 26-27; MÜHLBERGER 1993, 18; BLUMESBERGER 2002, 138; TRAGL 2007, 350; FIGDOR 2007, 44-47; REITER-ZATLOUKAL/SAUER 2022; UB MedUni Wien/van Swieten Blog, www.ancestry.de.

Herbert Posch