| Born: | 03-17-1915 |
| Faculty: | Philosophical School |
| Category: | Deprivation of academic degree |
Kurt ENGELBERG [later: Kurt Harold FORSTER or ENGELBERG FORSTER] (born on March 17th, 1915 in Vienna, died on March 11th, 1999 in Los Angeles) has earned his doctoral degree "Dr. phil." in physics at the University of Vienna on March 8th 1938
Kurt Engelberg, son of Saul Engelberg and Mila, née Schorr (1887-1926), has graduated from high school ("Bundesrealgymnasium Wien 14") on July 3rd, 1933 and enrolled at the Philosophical School of the University of Vienna to study physics from fall term 1933/34 to spring term 1937. He registered for the final exams ('Rigorosen') on July 9th, 1937. His theses on photoelectric rectification in crystals ("Ueber den Zusammenhang einer Volumgleichrichtung in einem Halbleitkristall, mit selbstaendigen elektromotorischen Kraeften, die nicht durch ein Absorptionsgefaelle des Lichtes allein hervorgerufen sind") was approbated on November 8th, 1937 and he passed the two-hour-examination ('Rigorosum') on January 21st (Prof. Felix Ehrenhaft and Prof. Hans Thirring) and on February 18th, 1938 he also passed the one-hour philosophical examination ("Philosophicum") with psychologist Prof. Karl Bühler and philosopher Prof. Robert Reininger. Therefore, he could graduate from the Philosophical School at the University of Vienna in physics on March 8th, 1938 with the academic degree 'Dr. phil.' – the last Jewish student of physics that could graduate before the "Anschluss". The next graduation ceremony took place on April 12th, 1938 under the rules of the NS-regime.
After the "Anschluss" in March 1938, he had to flee from Vienna because of racist perpetration. Kurt Engelberg could emigrate from Austria to France in 1938 and to the USA in 1940. In 1941, he married his former fellow student from Vienna, Herta Foerster (Harriet H. Forster). She was a student of physics who was forced to leave the University of Vienna in 1938 in the 3rd year of her studies and without a chance to finish her studies. She could emigrate from Austria to Scotland in 1939 and to New York/USA in 1940.
In times of Nazism Kurt Engelberg (since 1941: Kurt Forster or Kurt Engelberg Forster) 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 unwürdig").
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.
In 1942, Kurt Engelberg had to serve in the U.S. Army (Nr. 32195760) and was based at in different states: training in Camp Upton / NY, then Jefferson Barracks / Missouri, then meteorologist in Williams Field near Chandler / AZ, then in Chaunte Field near Rantoul / IL and finally at different bases in California. 1943 Harriet H. Forster and Kurt Engelberg – since his marriage: Kurt Forster or Kurt Engelberg Forster - moved therfor to California, where he served in the U.S. Army Air Corps as a meteorologist until 1946. His wife Harriet enrolled at the University of California (UC), Berkeley, and restarted her physics studies and graduated in 1948 (Ph.D.) and started to work at the private University of Southern California (USC) in Dornsife at the physics department. Following World War II Kurt Forster became a researcher at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Cal Tech and contributed to the important efforts made there to understand supersonic flight. He began his academic career at UCLA in 1947 as a Lecturer in the Department of Physics and then in 1948 he became assistant professor at the recently established College of Engineering (Dean L.M.K. Boelter). He was initially a member of the Division of Applied Mechanics today: Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. He retired at UCLA in 1985.
He became involved in research on nuclear engineering and focused on the growth with time of vapor bubbles in superheated liquid and was able to predict a growth that agreed very well with experimental data. He then used the results to investigate boiling heat transfer. His work in this area was reported in both engineering and physics journals was very much recognized.
In 1952, the physicist working couple Engelberg Forster got divorced.
Kurt received a Guggenheim Fellowship, which allowed him to be a Visiting Professor at the University of Tokyo in 1958. Towards the end of his Guggenheim Fellowship he got married to Frauke (Karen) Domnick Forster in Tokyo (it was the second marriage for both of them) after which they took a trip around the world. They had two daughters, Susanne Del Rio of Berkeley (born in November 1960) and Nina Forster Engelberg of Madrid, Spain (born in September 1963).
His daughter, Nina Engelberg Forster, remembers in 2023:
"He led a rich and full life. My father used to say that if you want to enjoy life, you have to make an effort. He enjoyed season tickets for the LA Philharmonic. He travelled all over the world after his Guggenheim fellowship in Tokyo. He continued to travel to Europe every year, but never to Austria or Germany. (...)
He showed a great generosity to those in need. (...)
He was an avid and talented photographer. He was also an excellent pianist and, after putting my sister and I to bed, would play Brahms. (...)
My father also tried for years to convince the UCLA professors to unionize, but to no avail. They felt they were above that. Perhaps my father had a different perspective because when he told his father he wanted to study physics at the University of Vienna, my grandfather told him that he could, but only after learning a trade. He became a locksmith. That saved his life. He was caught in France two years into the war and sent to a camp there. He wrote many letters to “Forster” locksmiths in New York asking for sponsorship, and one did."
During the 1960s, he became active as a consultant to the Lockheed Corporation and TRW Systems in the area of astrodynamics. He published research articles on the satellite dynamics and the lunar trajectory problem, also served as chair of the education committee of the American Astronautical Society and as an adviser to the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research during 1964-66.
Later he married his third wife Vera Elizabeth Masters.
In 1985, he became professor emeritus at the UCLA.
He died, nearly 84, on March 11th, 1999 in the USA.
Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna, enrollment forms ("Nationale") PHIL 1933-1938, final examination registry ("Rigorosenprotokoll") No. 13705; graduation registry ("Promotionsprotokoll") PHIL 1931-1941 No. 2539, POSCH 2009, 407; VHA-interview No. 12082 with Kurt Forster (Engelberg), from February 16th, 1996 in Los Angeles, CA/USA Ort (interviewer: Mary Rothschild), USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education [http://vha.usc.edu/viewingPage.aspx?testimonyID=12082]; information from his nephew Dr. Frank A. Forster, 08/2018 and his daughter Nina Engelberg Forster, 04/2019 & 11/2023 and from Rita Gerstein, USA, 04/2021; obituary at UCLA; obituaries UCLA 1999; https://www.genteam.at; https://www.myheritage.at
Herbert Posch
