| Born: | 09-24-1894 |
| Faculty: | Law School |
| Category: | Deprivation of academic degree |
Josef Eduard GEIRINGER (born on September 24th, 1894 in Vienna, died on March 8th, 1994 in Vienna), had graduated at the Law School of the University of Vienna on January 28th, 1920 with the academic degree 'Dr. iur.'.
He was the son of lawyer Dr. Friedrich Geiringer (1859–1923) and Johanna Jenny Geiringer, née Hesky (1866–1957) and married Stefanie Ullmann (1895-1971) on January 24th, 1924, who, like himself, also came from a "family of lawyers", and in 1930 their son Friedrich Robert Geiringer was born. Shortly after the marriage, Dr. Josef Eduard Geiringer was registered as a lawyer on October 14th, 1924 and opened his own law office in Vienna's 8th district, Friedrich-Schmidt-Platz 4 and lived in Vienna's 2nd district, Rotensterngasse 16.
Geiringer worked as a lawyer for the Zweig family of entrepreneurs in Vienna - he was, among others, together with Dr. Stefan Zweig, sister-in-law Stephanie Zweig and others on the board of directors of the cloth factory in Reichenberg [Liberec] and also represented the writer Stefan Zweig in matters of publishing rights and royalty payments, in the sale of Zweig's real estate in Salzburg and Vienna as well as in securities transactions.
Under National Socialism, he was forced to close his law firm, his license to practice law was cancelled, and he was forced to flee Austria. He was de-registered from Vienna to Switzerland on April 7th, 1939. In 1941 Josef Eduard Geiringer emigrated from Switzerland to Rio de Janeiro and lived in seclusion in São Paulo.
In times of Nazism he was deprived of his academic degree on July 22nd, 1943 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').
At this time he was already living in São Paolo/Brazil from where he returned to Vienna in 1947 to live and work as a lawyer again.
It took 12 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.
Dr. Josef Eduard Geiringer died aged 99 on March 8th, 1994 in Vienna.
Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/graduation register ("Promotionsprotokoll") IUR 1920–194 Nr. 5, rectorate GZ 118 ex 1942/43, GZ 561 ex 1944/45 ONr. 15; Austrian State Archive (OeStA) / Archives of the Republic (AdR) / E-uReang / VVSt / VA / 1057; POSCH 2009, 416; SAUER/REITER-ZATLOUKAL 2010, 149; GAUGUSCH 2011, 845f., 1427f.; Geiringer Family Genealogy|rootsweb-ancestry; www.geni.com; www.ancestry.de.
Herbert Posch
