Walter Wasservogel
| Born: |
02-28-1919 |
| Faculty: |
Medical School | Medical University Vienna |
| Category: |
Expelled student |
Walter WASSERVOGEL, born on February 20
th, 1919 in Vienna/Austria (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") for Vienna/Austria, Citizenship 1938: Austria), son of Arnold Wasservogel, MD (physician), lived in Vienna's 3
rd district, Ungergasse 16, was enrolled finally in the spring term 1938 at the Medical School in the 1
st year of his studies (spring term 1938 was validated on April 26
th, 1939).
He was treated as a "Mischling" after the "Anschluss" for racist reasons - although baptized Protestant AB - under National Socialism and forced to abandon his studies and leave the University of Vienna in 1938.
His father Arnold (1887-1962) was considered a "Jew" under National Socialism and was deported to the concentration camps Dachau and Buchenwald in 1938/1939 and nevertheless remained in Vienna after his release: Protected by the so-called "mixed marriage" with his "Aryan" wife Marie Therese (née Wanko, 1886-1951), he survived in Vienna.
Walter Wasservogel played on the ice hockey team of the Vienna Ice Skating Club before 1938 and won several titles. He also survived in Vienna and directed his professional orientation away from medicine entirely to ice hockey and became a leading official in Austrian ice hockey: he organized the ice hockey division at the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, he was president of the Austrian Ice Hockey Association from 1962-1977 (then honorary president) and secretary general of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) from 1978-1986. He received the "Olympic Order" of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1985 and was posthumously inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame (Toronto/Canada) in 1994.
He died at the age of 74 on April 14
th, 1993 in Vienna and is buried at the Zentralfriedhof/Feuerhalle Simmering.
Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") MED 1937-1938; information from Dr. Barbara Sauer, Vienna 07/2020; wikipedia, IIHF roll of honour.
Herbert Posch
