| Born: | 03-12-1912 |
| Faculty: | Medical School | Medical University Vienna |
| Category: | Expelled teacher |
Peter GRÜNWALD, born on March 12th, 1912 in Schönwald, Bohemia/Austria-Hungary [Šumná/Czech Republic] as the son of Dr.med. Julius Grünwald (1883-?, physician), was assistant III. class at the Histological-Embryological Department (Prof. Patzelt) at the Medical School of the University of Vienna in 1938 and lived in Vienna's 19th district, Nußwaldgasse 27.
He was persecuted as a Jew under National Socialism for racist reasons and had to leave the University of Vienna.
He had studied medicine at the University of Vienna and graduated on June 5th, 1936 (M.D./"Dr.med.univ.") and had been employed as an assistant III class at the Department of Histology and Embryology since October 1st, 1937. After the "Anschluss" he was excluded from the compulsory oath of allegiance to the "Führer" as a Jew on March 24th, 1938, lost his job and was replaced in April by Franz Friedrich Slawik. Peter Grünwald also lost his medical license, resigned from the Vienna Medical Association (before he could be expelled), and was able to emigrate to the USA via Hamburg/Germany in time, arriving in New York, NY, on June 18th, 1938. His father, also a doctor, was also able to emigrate to London via Prague in time.
He was able to continue working as a doctor in the USA. He was a researcher at the Department of Anatomy of the Medical School of the University of Chicago, IL (1938-1941), 1942 at the Medical School of the University of Boston, MA, later at the Department of Pathology of the Long Island College of Medicine of the King County Hospital in Brooklyn/New York, NY (later part of the State University of New York).
He was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1944 and married the pathologist Lotte Strauss (1913-1985), who had also emigrated, in 1944, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1949.
From 1960, he worked at the Department of Pathology at Sinai Hospital and the School of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. In 1970 he became Associate Professor of Pathology at Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital in Philadelphia, PA, where he remained until his retirement in 1975.
His focus was on comparative anatomy and embryology/developmental pathology, and he was a member of the Birthday Trust, a British medical society focused on prenatal development.
Prof. Dr. Peter Grunwald died on July 18th, 1979 in Philadelphia, PA/USA.
Lir.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") MED 1930-1936, graduation registry ("Promotionsprotokoll") MED 1929-1941 No. 2939, Rectorate GZ 680 I ex 37/38, GZ 730 ex 1937/38, personnel rooster ("Personalstand") University of Vienna 1937/38, 106; Nico BIERMANNS & Dominik GROß, eds., Pathologen als Verfolgte des Nationalsozialismus. 100 Portraits, Stuttgart 2022, 72f.; SAUER/REITER-ZATLOUKAL 2025; information by courtesy of Dr. Barbara Sauer Vienna 05/2025.
Herbert Posch
