| Born: | 08-18-1899 |
| Faculty: | Medical School | Medical University Vienna |
| Category: | Deprivation of academic degree |
Margarete WEINBERGER (divorced SPIELBERG, remarried HOLDHEIM), born on August 18th, 1899 in Vienna/Austro-Hungarian Emire [Austria], daughter of Leopold Weinberger (1867-1924, merchant) and Bertha Weinberger, née Tintner (1877-1956), lived in Vienna's 2nd district, Tandelmarktgasse 11, and graduated from the Privat-Mädchen-Obergymnasium in Vienna's 6th district, Rahlgasse 4, in the summer of 1918. In the fall term of 1918/19, she began to study medicine at the University of Vienna. She married Max Spielberg on May 5th, 1921 at the Vienna City Temple and on January 16th, 1922 her daughter Rosemarie Spielberg was born. She continued her studies and graduated from the Medical School of the University of Vienna on October 31st, 1927 with the degree of Dr. med.
In May 1928, the divorce took place and she resumed her maiden name. She then worked as a school dentist for the municipality of Vienna from 1928 until the "Anschluss" in 1938.
After the "Anschluss" she had to flee Austria and tried to emigrate to South America - her brother Stefan Weinberger Tintner (1901-1972) was already living in Montevideo/Urugay at that time and her brother Dr. Carl(os) Weinberger (1905-?) in Buenos Aires/Argentina. In July 1938 she applied to the emigration department of the Jewish Community for support in order to be able to emigrate to Argentina with her 16-year-old daughter. With this support, the crossing on the SS Neptunia succeeded and they arrived in Buenos Aires on August 22nd, 1938.
Her sister Friederike Schornstein, née Weinberger (1900-1944), was unable to leave in time and was deported to Theresienstadt [Terezín/Czech Republic] in 1942 and from there to the Auschwitz concentration camp [Oswiecim/Poland] in 1944, where she was murdered.
After Margarete Weinberger had successfully emigrated from the Third Reich, proceedings were initiated against her for the deprivation of her German citizenship. This also involved the confiscation of all assets in favor of the Third Reich as well as the deprivation of various civil rights. In the course of these proceedings, the Reich Ministry of the Interior in Berlin, via the Reich Ministry of Education in Berlin, requested the management of the University of Vienna on June 3rd, 1941, to deprive Margarete Weinberger, formerly Spielberg, of her doctoral degree as well. The deprivation of her citizenship as of July 9th, 1941 was announced in the Deutscher Reichsanzeiger on July 14th, 1941 and thus became legally binding. About a year later, the University of Vienna decided on May 21st, 1942, to deprive her of her academic degree on racial grounds, since she was considered "as a Jew unworthy of an academic degree from a German university" ("eines akademischen Grades einer deutschen Hochschule unwürdig") by the National Socialists, legally effective on July 14th, 1942 and announced in the Deutscher Reichsanzeiger on July 21st, 1942 (there erroneously "Max" instead of "Margarete" and "Spiegelberg" instead of "Spielberg").
It was not until 13 years after the revocation and long after the end of National Socialism that her doctoral degree was restored on May 15th, 1955, or the revocation was declared "null and void from the beginning."
Margarete Weinberger had married again in emigration - little is known about the further life of Dr. Margarete Holdheim, née Weinberger, divorced Spielberg, in Argentina is little known so far.
Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") Med 1918–1927, graduation registry ("Promotionsprotokoll") MED 1923–1929 No. 2192, Rectorate GZ 118 ex 1941/42, GZ 561 ex 1944/45 No. 15; Deutscher Reichsanzeiger No. 161, July 14th, 1941 and No. 168, July 21st, 1942; POSCH 2009, 490-491; POSCH/STADLER 2005; SAUER/REITER-ZATLOUKAL 2010; information from Dr. Barbara Sauer, Vienna 11/2022.
Herbert Posch
