Josef Hangleithner

Born:	02-02-1912
Faculty:	Medical School | Medical University Vienna
Category:	Expelled student

Josef HANGLEITHNER, born on February 2^nd, 1912 in Vienna/Austria (entitled residency ('heimatberechtigt') for Vienna/Austria, Citizenship: Austria), son of Johann Hangleithner (horticulturist, 1873-1941) and Maria Hangleithner, née Bilbel (1875-1962), lived in Vienna's 21^st district, Donaufelder Str. 139. He had graduated from high school in Vienna and then began to study at the Medical School of the University of Vienna. He was enrolled in spring term 1938 at the Medical School in the 5^th year of his studies. He was discriminated as a so called "Mischling 1. Grades" but could continue his studies at first - valid until revoked.
His mother Maria Hangleithner, née Bilbel, was born to a Jewish mother but was handed over to foster parents immediately after her birth and didn't know her mother in person nor her father (her mother was not married and the identity of her father was unknown). Maria Hangleithner was registered in the Jewish Community of Vienna and converted to Roman Catholic faith at the age of 16 in 1891. If it would have been possible to prove that her father was "Aryan", her son Josef Hangleithner would have been categorized "Mischling 2. Grades" in times of National-Socialism and he would have been able to graduate, but her father's identity could not be unveiled. Josef Hangleithner was a working student and practiced as a private tutor in spring and fall and as a helping hand in his parents' horticulture business during summer in order to finance his studies. Due to an administrative mistake he had been allowed to take examinations without "Ariernachweis" (racial proof of non-Jewish descent), although "Mischling 1. Grades" in February 1940 and he had passed the "II. Rigorosum" (group of final examinations) except for a last one. As the administration had missed to apply for approval to the Berlin ministry of education before, the whole examination was cancelled by the ministry. Since May 1^st, 1940 he could not continue with his studies as he had to serve in the German Wehrmacht but was expelled on July 18^th 1940 for racist reason - as a "Mischling 1. Grades". He returned to university and in December 1940 he applied for admission to the German ministry of education to continue with the final examinations, but the application got lost. On June 16^th, 1942, after one and a half year of waiting for an answer – meanwhile his father had died in 1941 and his mother was incapable of work after a gastric surgery so that he had to take over the family business of horticulture – he applied again for admission to continue with his final examinations and got the allowance by way of exception to take the final examination, but was also informed explicitly that in the end he will not be allowed to graduate and that he will be excluded from the accreditation as medical practitioner in the German Reich as "Mischling 1. Grades". After successfully taking all final examinations ("III. Rigorosum") his application for graduation from August 10^th, 1943 was therefore denied on September 9^th, 1943 by the ministry. They allowed the university only to certify to him, that he had fulfilled all requirements to graduate except for non-Jewish descent and to exemplify that therefore this certificate does NOT equivalent a medical doctor's diploma. He returned to the family business and in the beginning of 1945, only three months before the end of war, he was killed as a civilian during an air raid near his home due to blast waves of a nearby detonation of aircraft bombs. He was buried in the family grave in Kagran cemetery in Vienna. Only months later, if still alive, he would have gained his doctoral degree with no further examination, as non-Jewish descent was no more a requirement for graduation after the end of National-Socialism.
A corresponding application by his fiancée Gertraut Plauensteiner was forwarded in July 1945 by rector Ludwig Adamovich Sr. to the Dean of the Medical School Leopold Arzt for a negative decision, with the remark "Since there is no such thing as a doctorate post mortem, I ask that the applicant's application be rejected directly".

Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") MED 1937-1943, graduation registry ("Promotionsprotokoll") MED 1941-1954, rectorate GZ 97/I ex 1942/43 ONr. 60-61, GZ 97/I ex 1943/44 ONr. 11-13, GZ 482 ex 1944/45 ONr. 5-6, MED GZ 1115 ex 1939/40, GZ 10 ex 1943/44; POSCH/INGRISCH/DRESSEL 2008, 400;  find a grave in Vienna; information from his great-grandnephew Mag. Alexander Lieberich, Vienna 02/2020.

Katharina Kniefacz, Herbert Posch