| Born: | 04-12-1879 |
| Faculty: | Medical School | Medical University Vienna |
| Category: | Expelled teacher |
Richard BAUER, born on April 12th, 1879 in Vienna, died on September 3rd, 1959 in Vienna, was lecturer ("Privatdozent") with the title, but not the position, of an extraordinary professor ("tit. ao. Prof.") for internal medicine at the Medical School of the University of Vienna in 1938.
He was persecuted in times of Nazism for racist reason, lost his position and "venia legendi" on April 22nd, 1938 and was forced to leave the university.
Richard Bauer was born in Vienna in 1879 as the son of the lawyer Dr. Jakob Bauer (1840-1916?) from Bisenz/Moravia and Friederike, née Eisenmann (1848-?) from Brno/Moravia. He attended the Piaristengymnasium in Vienna's 8th district, where he passed his school-leaving examination (Matura) on July 12th, 1897, and then began to study medicine at the University of Vienna. On February 13th, 1903, he received his doctorate (Dr. med.), and in October 1903 he began working as an assistant physician (Hilfsarzt) at the II Medical University Clinic (directed by Prof. Neusser).
Before that he resigned from the Jewish Community in 1903, converted and was baptized Roman Catholic on October 16th, 1903, but also resigned from the Roman Catholic Church in 1918 and married Olga Goldner, divorced Popper (1883-1934) on June 16th, 1918, who had been separated from her first husband shortly before and also converted from Judaism to Protestant AB. This marriage was catholically convalidated on December 17th, 1931 in the Votivkirche in Vienna with which he was Roman Catholic again.
He later became an assistant at the II Medical University Clinic, remained at the clinic until 1908, and was then able to work at the Koch'sche Institute in Berlin/German Empire on a travel grant, and in 1909 at the Institute Pasteur in Paris/France. Back in Vienna, he habilitated at the Medical Faculty on November 27, 1912, and became a private lecturer in internal medicine and was admitted to the Vienna Medical Association as an internist. In 1917 he was appointed primary physician of the II Medical Department at Wieden Hospital, and on November 6th, 1926, he received the title (but not the position) of associate professor at the University of Vienna and was a member of the Society of Internal Medicine in Vienna.
He lived in Vienna's 6th district, Mariahilfer Strasse 62 in 1913, then in Vienna's 9th district, Beethovengasse 4 in 1931.
His numerous scientific publications deal heavily with serology and liver diseases, including, among others, The clinical-serological diagnosis of postluetic kidney diseases. Posttyphosis infection of the bile ducts in aplasia of the gallbladder (1911), The value of Wassermann's reaction. On the treatment of malignant tumors (1914), On Ambard's laws of urea elimination (1923), On the pathology and differential diagnosis of diabetes insipus and primary polydipsia. On the liver function test by means of galactose (1925), On the knowledge of the change of state of the blood complement. On the influence of ergotamine and liver diet on liver function (1929), On the complement content of human serum (1930), Our knowledge of liver function and its utilization for clinical purposes (1932), The galactose test in liver cirrhosis (1935).
Although in the fall term of 1937/38 he taught a course on "Differential Diagnosis and Therapy of Internal Diseases: Metabolism and Internal Secretion. Introduction to the Differential Diagnosis of Internal Diseases," he traveled to the United States via France on a tourist visa for a lecture tour at the end of September and completed several lectures there beginning in October 1937 and also visited his brother Siegfried Bauer (1874-?), who lived in New York. He entered the USA again on December 7th, 1937 via Canada in Rouses Point, NY, and again on December 15th to arrive shortly after the "Anschluss" on March 21st, 1938 via France again in New York City, NY to stay here. He immediately applied for naturalization on April 1st, 1938 and remained in the U.S., although he was not granted U.S. citizenship until January 12th, 1948. He lived and worked in Manhattan, New York City, NY, residing at 112 Central Park South and working at Manhattan Hospital there.
Prof. Dr. Richard Bauer was made an honorary member of the Vienna Society of Physicians ("Gesellschaft der Ärzte in Wien") in 1947, and had been widowed since April 1952.
He returned to Vienna only in 1954 at the age of 76, became an Austrian citizen and Roman Catholic again in April 1954 and lived in Vienna's 1st district, Krugerstrasse 3 and opened a practice in Vienna again on July 1st, 1954 in Vienna's 1st district, Graben 17 and continued his scientific work at a Viennese sanatorium.
Hofrat Prof. Dr. Richard Bauer died on September 3rd, 1959 in Vienna, was cremated and buried at the Vienna Central Cemetery.
Lit.: Archives of the University of Vienna/Rectorate GZ 677 ex 1937/38, MED GZ 1200 ex 1937/38, 106.I.897, personnel file S 304.43; Austrian State Archives OeStA/AdR/BMF/VVST/VA 50423; Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift vol. 72, issue 1, 1960, 13ff.; MERINSKY 1980, 17-19; MUEHLBERGER 1993, 18; BLUMESBERGER 2002, 77; UB MedUni Wien/van Swieten Blog; www.genteam.at, www.ancestry.de.
Herbert Posch
