Otto Gerstl

Born:	10-20-1893
Faculty:	Law School
Category:	Deprivation of academic degree

Otto GERSTL, born on October 20^th, 1893 in Linz/Upper Austria, was the son of Dr. Gustav Gerstl (1858-1920, lawyer) and his wife Emma nee Wolfsheimer (1864-1946). During the school years he was member of the "literarischer Club" and began to collect graphics. After he had graduated from high school ("Gymnasium Spittelwiese") in Linz in 1912, he began to study law at the University of Vienna, but also visited lectures in art history. In Vienna he met graphic artist Klemens Brosch, with whom a permanent friendship, but also a patronage connected him until his suicide in 1926. Gerstl supported Brosch with money and bought several of his pictures, e.g. a Ex-Libris which was designed for Gerstl personally (1915).
During World War I he passed the officer's exam in 1915 and then was sent to Imst/Tyrol to complete a mountain training. Later he was sent to the Italian frontline and from 1917 on he served at the Garrison in Linz. Although he was serving in the army he got the permission to interrupt his military service in Linz in 1918 to finish his studies at the University of Vienna. He graduated at the Law School of the University of Vienna on August 2^nd, 1919 with the academic degree 'Dr. iur.'. After his studies Otto Gerstl lived in Linz, Landstrasse 71-75, and worked as a lawyer in the law office of his father, which he took over after his father's death in 1920. Besides, he had gained his reputation as an art collector and art expert. In times of Nazism Gerstl was arrested in Linz for two weeks. He was banned from his profession and had to agree with the Gestapo to leave the German Reich. He was not allowed to take his collection to emigration and left it to the Upper Austrian State Museum in Linz. In July 1938, he emigrated together with his mother Emma Gerstl to London/UK, with the intention to continue to Cape Town/South Africa. Since he did not receive an appropriate visa, they emigrated instead in 1939 with the SS Hamburg on December 22nd, 1938 from Southampton to New York City, NY/USA and further to Chicago/USA, where they had to live - as in London - on support from "Jewish Welfare". In March 1940, he was expatriated from the German Reich due to forced emigration - this was associated with statelessness and loss of assets. As a result, on June 20^th (July 8^th), 1940, he was also deprived of his doctoral degree by the University of Vienna for racist reasons, since he was considered "as unworthy of an academic degree from a German university" by the National Socialists (by mistake, he was deprived of a "Dr. med." instead of the "Dr. iur" degree and the deprivation was announced in the Deutscher Reichsanzeiger on July 13^th, 1940). Otto Gerstl completed a course at the Art Institute of Chicago in the USA and worked as a commercial graphic artist from 1941 on. In 1942 he was mustered into the U.S. Army, but was not drafted - at that time he was living at 3356 W. Adams str., Chicago, IL/USA and was empolyed at Dixie Vortex Inc. in Chicago, IL and was naturalized in April 1944 and became a U.S. citizen. In 1947 Gerstl reclaimed his collection of graphics and drawings back from the Upper Austrian State Museum. It was restituted in 1948. He returned to Linz and Austria in 1952 and and in the same year became a student of the Art School of the City of Linz. In mid 1950ies he also regained Austrian citizenship (losing his American citizenship). It took 15 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 15^th, 1955. Otto Gerstl died in January 1974 and was buried at the Jewish cemetery in Linz. His graphic collection, which included drawings by Moritz von Schwind, Gustav Klimt, Klemens Brosch and Koloman Moser as well as his own works, had already been bequeathed to the Upper Austrian State Museum in 1959 as a legacy, was finally given to the museum by testamentary disposition after his death. In 2018, the Lentos Museum Linz thematized in the exhibition "1918 - Klimt - Moser - Schiele. Collected Beauties", the history of the collection and the collector in the light of provenance research.

Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/graduation register ("Promotionsprotokoll") IUR 1915–1919 No 1197, rectorate GZ 1003 ex 1939/40, GZ 1018 ex 1939/40, GZ 561 ex 1944/45 No 15; Deutscher Reichsanzeiger, No 52, March 1^st, 1940 and No 162, July 13^th, 1940; WAGNER vol. 1 2008, 316-328; POSCH 2009, 417; SAUER/REITER-ZATLOUKAL 2010, 151; Literature Archive of the Austrian National Library 2010; photo of the grave; estate at the State Museum Linz; www.ancestry.de.

Katharina Kniefacz, Herbert Posch