Rudolf Zifferer

Born:	09-07-1908
Faculty:	Philosophical School
Category:	Deprivation of academic degree

Rudolf ZIFFERER (born on September 7th, 1908 in Vienna), had graduated at the Philosophical School at the University of Vienna in Chemistry | Pharmacy on June 18th, 1931 with the academic degree 'Mag. Dr. phil.' (dissertation: 'Ueber die Oxydationsvorgaenge an der organischen Schwefelstickstoffbindung').
Since May 1932 he was the owner of the pharmacy "Zur Mutter Gottes" in Vienna 10th district, Gudrunstrasse 150, in February 1936 he received the concession to run the pharmacy.

After the "Anschluss" 1938 Rudolf Zifferer's pharmacy was "aryanized" - he was forced to sell it to SA-Obersturmbannfuehrer and member of the Reichstag, Walter Rentmeister at low price, who changed the name in "Saarland-Apotheke" and ran up debts of 200.000 Reichsmark until the end of the war in 1945.

Zifferer was able to emigrate to Canada in 1938, where he built up a pharmaceutical wholesale business in Vancouver under the name "Rudolf John Stanford".
In times of Nazism he was deprived of his academic degree on July 14th, 1942 with the racist argument, that he as a Jew was not considered dignified an academic degree of a German university ('eines akademischen Grades einer deutschen Hochschule unwuerdig').

On July 11th, 1948 the pharmacy was given back to Rudolf J. Stanford, who re-changed the name in "Zur Mutter Gottes" and founded a limited partnership with Erwin Stoegermayer in 1949, in order to run the pharmacy.

It took 13 years since the deprivation – and a very long time since the end of Nazism – until the regranting of the doctorate took finally place on May 15th, 1955.

Lit.: Alfred FEHRINGER/Leopold KÖGLER, Die Pharmazeutische Gehaltskasse für Österreich von 1908 bis 1948 unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der ‚Arisierung‘ und Rückstellung österreichischer Apotheken, Wien 2008 [pdf], 152f.; LEIMKUGEL1999, 225.

Katharina Kniefacz