Adalbert Duschek

Born:	10-02-1895
Faculty:	Philosophical School
Category:	Expelled teacher

Adalbert DUSCHEK (born on October 2nd, 1895 in Moedling near Vienna/Asutria, died on July 6th, 1952 in Vienna/Austria) was private lecturer ("Privatdozent") for Mathematics at the Philosophical School of the University of Vienna. He was persecuted in times of Nazism because of his political orientation lost his position and was thrown out of the university on April 24th, 1938. Duschek, the son of a procurator, ^[1] attended secondary school in Gmunden and Vienna, ^[2] graduated in 1914, ^[3] and then began studies at the civil engineering school of the Technical University of Vienna. ^[4] After only one semester he enlisted for military service in March 1915 and took part in the First World War in Albania, Montenegro and Italy as a lieutenant of the reserve. ^[5] After the end of the war he studied mathematics and physics at the Technical University, as well as at the University of Vienna, ^[6] and obtained his doctorate in March 1921.^[7] At that time he already had been working as a scientific assistant since December 1920 ^[8] and became an assistant at the chair for mathematics at the civil engineering school of the Technical University one year later. Here he habilitated for mathematics in 1924, ^[9] and later, in 1930, also habilitated at the University of Vienna. He became an associate professor at the Technical University in 1936. ^[10] After the National Socialists came into power in Austria, Duschek’s teaching license was “suspended until further notice” by a ministry decree on April 22nd, 1938.^[11] At the end of May, the ministry of education forced him into early retirement. To accomplish this, the Nazi authorities - just like in other cases as well - referred to two federal laws from the Austro-fascist corporative state.^[12] The reasons for this measure against Duschek become clear in a letter from the Reichsstatthalterei (Reich deputy’s office) on March 27th, 1939, in which he was sent into retirement as of the end of April 1939, according to §3, par.1 of the career civil servant act.^[13] This article 3 was namely used when the person concerned and/or his or her spouse was not considered “Aryan”. Considering the suspension of his teaching license and the early retirement, it is, however, also possible that political or ideological reasons were responsible at first. Duschek’s “non-Aryan” descent might only have been noticed later by the Nazi authorities. However, political activities - such as for the Socialist party, for which Duschek acted as a member of the Federal Council beginning in 1945 - are not documented for the time before the “Anschluss”. Relieved from his teaching duties, he was able to work as a scientific consultant and technical employee for ELIN AG^[14] from 1940^[15] until the end of the war.^[16] Immediately after the end of the war, on April 6th, 1945, Duschek returned to his position at the Technical University.^[17] The faculty also elected him as provisional rector in May of that year.^[18] He resigned from this office in February 1946, after becoming a member of the Federal Council.^[19] He was not only elected rector in 1945, however, but also became professor at the 1st institute for mathematics of the Technical University^[20] starting on April 27th.^[21] In the summer semester of 1945, he also returned to his teaching duties at the University of Vienna.^[22] In the Second Republic, Duschek’s activity for the Social democratic party was not limited to his function in the Federal Council, which he held until his death. He also acted as an important advisor in matters of cultural and higher education policies played a leading role on the board of the Bund sozialistischer Akademiker (Association of Socialist Academics).^[23] Even though he had been negatively affected by National Socialism, Duschek positioned himself squarely against de-Nazification in December 1946. In the Arbeiter-Zeitung, he even compared it with the persecution and murder of Jews in the “Third Reich”: “It is clear that one can very easily de-Nazify the universities by eliminating everybody connected to the NSDAP in any way, whether they are students or professors, and one can do the same in the administration, the economy and so on. The Nazis did the same thing with the Jews and in its last consequence this road led to the gas chambers.”^[24] Duschek also was vice president of the Austrian UNESCO-commission as well as a member of the academic council.^[25] For the time around 1930, memberships in the mathematical society of Vienna, the chemical-physical society of Vienna, the German association of mathematicians and the Circolo matematico Palermo are furthermore also documented.^[26] Duschek above all published textbooks on differential geometry and tensor calculus, as well as papers on differential geometry, applied mathematics and variational calculus. He and Rudolf Inzinger were responsible for the founding of the mathematical laboratory of the Technical University. He always advocated a close cooperation between mathematics, engineering and economics. For two years he was the head of the mathematical society and was significantly involved in the organization of the congress of mathematicians in Vienna.^[27] He was also involved in the translation of important mathematical works from Italian.^[28]