Fritz [Frederick J.] Hacker

Born:	01-19-1914
Faculty:	Medical School | Medical University Vienna
Category:	Expelled student

Fritz HACKER, born on January 19^th, 1914 in Vienna/Austria (entitled residency ('heimatberechtigt') for Vienna/Austria, Citizenship: Austria), son of Cornel Anthony Hacker (merchant) and Johanna Carola Hacker, lived in Vienna's 1^st district, Wallnerstr. 6. After graduation from high school in 1933 at "Gymnasiun Wien 1., Studenbastei" he strted to stuy medicine at the University of Vienna and he was finally enrolled in spring term 1938 at the Medical School in the 5^th and last year of his studies. In 1938, after the takeover of power of National-Socialism he was forced to quit his studies for racist reason and to leave the University of Vienna(Leaving Certificate ('Abgangszeugnis') was issued on May 10^th, 1938). He had to flee from the National Socialists in Austria and was able to emigrate to Switzerland in 1938, where he was able to complete his medical studies in 1939 and received his doctorate. In 1940 he emigrated to the USA and became as Frederick J. Hacker ain internationally known psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and aggression researcher. He initially worked at various clinics before founding the Hacker Psychiatric Clinic (Beverly Hills and Lynwood, California) in 1945, as well as the Hacker Foundation (Beverly Hills), which was directed by Theodor W. Adorno in 1952/53. In America he also worked with the emigrated members of the Frankfurt School on, among other things, the study of the "authoritarian character." He later became a professor of psychiatry at the University of Kansas and a professor of psychiatry and law at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. He was married to Anastasia, née Lohr. He divided his working centers between America and Europe after 1945 and also lived in Vienna, where he founded the Sigmund Freud Society in 1968, and as its first president (until 1977) was instrumental in preserving Sigmund Freud's longtime home and practice at Berggasse 19 in Vienna. Today it houses the Sigmund Freud Museum. Hacker was also the founder and scientific director of the "Institute for Conflict Research" in Vienna in 1976. In the U.S. and Europe, Hacker's advice was sought in spectacular crime cases, such as the murder of actress Sharon Tate or, for example, in 1972 in Germany when he advised the government on the terrorist attack at the Munich Olympics; in 1973 he negotiated on behalf of the Austrian government with terrorists who had the passengers of a train in Lower Austria in their power and was able to end the hostage-taking without bloodshed. In 1974, he advised the family of kidnapped Patty Hearst, granddaughter of American media mogul William Randolph Hearst. He was also involved in the 1980 hostage-taking of the Austrian ambassador in Bogotá, where he was able to persuade the terrorists to release their hostages. Friedrich Hacker became known in the German-speaking world primarily for his publications on the subject of aggression and violence, which reached million-circulation (among others: Is Man or Society Failing? Probleme der modernen Kriminalpsylchologie, Vienna 1964; Aggression. Die Brutalisierung der modernen Welt, Reinbek 1977; Terror. Myth, Reality, Analysis, Reinbek 1975; Das Faschismus-Syndrom. Analysis of a Current Phenomenon, Frankfurt/Main 1992). Friedrich Hacker died on June 23^rd, 1989, in Mainz, Germany, during a television discussion at ZDF on the subject of "The Republicans". He was a member of the American Psychiatric Association, was awarded the Grand Decoration of Honor in Gold for Services to the Republic of Austria in 1971, the Decoration of Honor in Gold for Services to the Province of Vienna in 1984, and after his death was given a grave of honor in the Vienna Central Cemetery (Group 33 G, Number 76), and in 2010 Hackergasse was named after him in Vienna Favoriten (10^th district).

Lit.: POSCH/INGRISCH/DRESSEL 2008, 399; information from Dr. Barbara Sauer, Vienna 2017; Wikipedia; obituary in Los Angeles Times June 30, 1993; obituary in the New York Times; open library; REITER-ZATLOUKAL/SAUER 2022.

Herbert Posch