Walter Hollitscher
| Born: |
05-16-1911 |
| Faculty: |
Medical School | Medical University Vienna |
| Category: |
Expelled student |
Dr. Walter HOLLITSCHER, born on May 16th, 1911 in Vienna/Austria (entitled residency ('heimatberechtigt') for Vienna/Austria, Citizenship: Austria), son of Paul Hollitscher (merchant), moved to Prague together with his father, after his parents split up. His mother lived in Berlin. Still in school he joined the communist movement in 1925. After he had graduated from high school in Arnau an der Elbe [Hostinné / Czech Republic] he began to study philosophy (biology and medicine) at the University of Vienna in 1929. In this year, he also joined the Austrian Communist Party (KPÖ) in Vienna. In 1933 he was graduated ‘Dr. phil.’ At the Philosophical School of the University of Vienna with a dissertation on the understanding of causality in quantum physics (supervisors: Moritz Schlick, Robert Reininger). He lived in Vienna 1st district, Gonzagagasse 12. He was not able to finish his studies at the Medical School and was enrolled finally in the spring term 1938 at the Medical School in the 4th year of his studies.
He emigrated via Zurich/Switzerland to Great Britain in 1938 and was able to continue his studies in London. As a committed Marxist, he worked as Vice President of the "Austria Centre".
In October 1945, Walter Hollitscher returned to Austria, where he worked in the field of public education and at the Institute for Science and Art (“Institut für Wissenschaft und Kunst”). From 1946 he was head of its Department of Science and became science adviser in the Office of Culture and Education of the City of Vienna in the following year.
1949-1953 he was full professor of logic and epistemology and head of the Department of Philosophy at the Humboldt University in Berlin.
Back in Vienna, he was again science consultant, but for the Communist Party, and was from 1965 to 1977 member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Between 1965 and 1984 he also served as a visiting professor of philosophical problems of modern natural science at the "Karl Marx University" in Leipzig. In 1971 the Leipzig university honoured him with a honorary doctorate. He was awarded the "Lenin Medal" by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in 1974, and the "Star of People's Friendship in Gold" of Ministers of the German Democratic Republic in 1976.
Walter Hollitscher dealt with general philosophical and special problems of the natural sciences, biology, psychology and medicine (Major work: "Man and Nature in the world of science"). In addition to his scientific publications, he was also active as a publicist and journalist for science policy and national artistic purposes and conducted the science section of the Communist Party newspaper “Volksstimme”.
Walter Hollitscher died on July 6th, 1986 in Vienna. His library and estate are located in the Alfred Klahr society.
Katharina Kniefacz
