Kurt Horeischy

Born:	03-25-1913
Faculty:	Philosophical School
Category:	Expelled teacher

Kurt Horeischy, born on March 2^nd, 1913 as the son of the secondary school teacher Jakob Horeischy, graduated from the Bundesrealgymnasium in Vienna´s 13^th district in 1931 and studied physics and chemistry at the University of Vienna from 1932 to 1937, was a member of the "Red Students" and a convinced anti-fascist.
After approbation of his dissertation "On the Measurement of Extremely Low Gas Pressures" in physics in October 1937, successful completion of his physics viva voce ("Rigorosum") with Professors Egon Schweidler, Hans Thirring and Hermann Mark in December 1937 and after passing the philosophy viva voce with philosopher Robert Reininger and psychologist Karl Buehler in February 1938, he graduated and received his doctorate in physics after the so-called "Anschluss" on April 12^th, 1938. He was soon drafted into the German Wehrmacht and took part in the Polish campaign. Due to a severe lung condition, he was soon discharged from the Wehrmacht and became an assistant at the Vienna University First Chemical Institute at Waehringer Strasse 42, where he headed the Microchemical Laboratory from 1941. During World War II, there was a civilian shelter from air raids ("Tiefkeller"), but was increasingly used as a hiding place for Jews and for those persecuted for political reasons. The "Tomsk" resistance group, which was founded in October 1944, also met here regularly and included Otto Hoffmann-Ostenhof as well as Kurt Horeischy. A few days before the end of the war, it was clear to all members of the institute that the order to destroy important facilities and equipment was imminent, and when his assistant-colleague Hans Vollmar informed Horeischy on April 5^th, 1945, that the deputy director of the institute, extraordinary Prof. Joern Lange, was preparing to destroy the electron microscope, the only device of its kind in Austria, Horeischy spontaneously decided to prevent this, but this ended with the murder of Horeischy and Vollmar. His murderer, Joern Lange, was arrested shortly after the liberation of Vienna and sentenced to death by hanging by the People's Court of Vienna on September 15^th, 1945, but shortly before the execution of the death sentence he evaded it by suicide on January 21^st, 1946. In 1951, Horeischygasse in Vienna Hietzing was named after Kurt Horeischy. At the Faculty of Chemistry in Vienna's 9^th district, Waehringerstr. 42, a memorial plaque has commemorated him and Hans Vollmar since 1947, donated by the Association of Academic Freedom Fighters. In 1995 and 2005 commemorative events took place at the Chemical Institute (2005: "Resistance against Nazi rule at the Chemical Institute of the University of Vienna", organized by the Austrian student union ("OeH") and the Austrian Resistance Archive ("DoeW")). In 2018, the commemorative plaque for Vollmar and Horeischy (together with that for Jacques Pollak) was moved slightly and artistically re-contextualized in the Memorial Wall of the Faculty of Chemistry by Bele Marx and Gilles Mussard.

Lit.: University of Vienna, enrollment forms ("Nationale") PHIL 1932-1938, final examination registry and file ("Rigorosenakt und -protokoll") PHIL 13698, graduation registry ("Promotionsprotokoll ") PHIL (1931-1941) No. 2580; Ein Naziprofessor vernichtete Elektronenuebermikroskop – Und mordete zwei Menschen, in: Neues Oesterreich, April 27, 1945, 2; Naziprofessor als Saboteur und Doppelmoerder – Der Mikroskopzertruemmerer Lange vor dem Volksgericht, in: Neues Oesterreich, September 9, 1945, 3; Der Tod der Opfer fordert Suehne! – Schlussreden im Mordprozess Lange, in: Neues Oesterreich, September 15, 1945, 3; "Dr. Lange hat den ersten Schuss abgegeben" – Die Braut Dr. Horeischys als Tatzeugin vor dem Volksgericht, in: Arbeiterzeitung, September 14, 1945, 3; Universitaet-Akademisches Institut. Gedenktafel für die Opfer eines Nazimordes (Dr. Kurt Horeischy und Dr. Hans Vollmar), in: Oesterreichische Zeitung vom 24. Oktober 1947, 2; TIDL 1976; Johannes Mario Simmel, Wir heissen Euch hoffen, Zurich 1980; Karl Kratzl, Karl, der Eierkopf, Selbstportrait eines Karikaturisten, Vienna 1992, 50-55; Gerhard Oberkofler & Peter Goller, Fritz Feigl (1891–1971), Notizen und Dokumente zu einer wissenschaftlichen Biographie im Gedenken an Kurt Horeischy und Hans Vollmer (hgg. v. d. Zentralbibliothek für Physik in Wien), Vienna 1994; Toedliche Schuesse im I. Chemischen Institut, in: Chemie - Das Oesterreichische Magazin für Wirtschaft und Wissenschaft, 1994; Ernst Lammer, Chemie – Widerstand gegen die Nazi-Herrschaft. Zum Gedenken an die 1944 gegruendete Widerstandsgruppe am I. Chemischen Universitaetslaboratorium, in: UNIQUE – Magazin der OeH Uni Wien, 2005; Roman Pfefferle u. Hans Pfefferle, Glimpflich entnazifiziert. Die Professorenschaft der Universitaet Wien von 1944 in den Nachkriegsjahren, Goettingen 2014, 101f., Herbert Posch, Kurt Horeischy, in: 650plus | History of the University of Vienna (2015); Stephanie de la Barra, Das Verbrechen ohne Rechtfertigung. Mord an Uni-Assistenten: Der Strafprozess gegen Joern Lange im September 1945 und die Erinnerungspolitik der Universitaet Wien, Vienna 2018.

Herbert Posch