| Born: | 02-12-1919 |
| Faculty: | Medical School | Medical University Vienna |
| Category: | Expelled student |
Alfred WOLLNER, born on February 12th, 1919 in Liesing/Lower Austria [Vienna] (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") for Liesing/Lower Austria, citizenship 1938: Austria), son of Dr.med. Emil Wollner (physician, 1869–1919, died a few weeks after the birth of Alfred and Magdalena Wollner, née Haala, remarried Seiser (1889–1978, seamstress) and lived with his mother, stepfather (died in 1936) and three siblings in Liesing, Wiener Straße 7. He graduated from the Realgymnasium in Mödling/Lower Austria, where he also passed the Matura in 1937 and then began to study medicine at the University of Vienna in the fall term of 1937/38. In the spring term of 1938, he was enrolled at the Medical School in the 1st year of his studies.
He belonged to the Protestant religious community A. B. from birth (his father had left the Jewish Community before marrying in 1908 and converted to Protestantism), but after the "Anschluss " in 1938 he was persecuted for racist reasons as a so - called "mixed race of the 1st degree" and was only able to continue his studies for the time being – at the risk of revocation at any time – but in the end he was no longer able to earn a doctorate.
At the mustering for the Wehrmacht in February 1939, he was released from military service for one year to continue his studies and completed the I. Rigorosum on March 8th, 1940. After successfully completing all courses and examinations, Woller would have been entitled to a doctorate on October 13th, 1942 and submitted the corresponding mandatory application. Dean Prof. Pernkopf had made the following statement: Woller "is a half-breed of the first degree. Otherwise he doesn't make a bad impression; perhaps a little Semitic comes out." The application is rejected by the Reich Ministry of Education in Berlin, since no doctorate would be awarded without the prospect of professional admission and this would not be granted to Mischlinge of the 1st degree as a matter of principle. The Rector and Dean are only authorized to issue Alfred Wollner "a certificate to the effect that, apart from proof of German-blood ancestry, he has fulfilled all the requirements for the award of the doctoral degree. The certificate shall expressly state that it is not considered to be a doctoral diploma." Without admission to the medical profession, he could only gain unpaid or underpaid professional experience during the Nazi era.
It was only after the end of National Socialism that Alfred Wollner received his doctorate in the course of the first post-war doctoral ceremony in liberated Austria on June 8th, 1945, with the doctoral diploma backdated to October 13th, 1942, i.e. the day on which he had completed his last examination, and at that time had not received his doctoral diploma only because of his Jewish ancestry.
He was married and after the war in November 1947 opened a practice as a general practitioner in Vienna's 23rd district, Breitenfurterstraße 350, which he ran until his retirement in 1984. He was also awarded the professional title "Medizinalrat".
Dr. Siegfried Alfred Wollner died on June 7th, 2011, in Vienna and is buried at the cemetery Vienna-Liesing..
Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") MED 1937–1940, Doctoral Protocol MED XIV (1941-1949), No. 1270, MED S 51.1, MED S 51.2, MED GZ 1115 ex 1939/40/41, Rectorate GZ 944 ex 1939/40/41; Vienna City and State Archives/Doctors Index Card; POSCH/INGRISCH/DRESSEL 2008, 502; information by courtesy of Dr. Barbara Sauer, Vienna 11/2025; REITER-ZATLOUKAL/SAUER 2025; find a grave in Vienna.
Herbert Posch
