Friedrich Franz (Fritz Frans) Koczy
| Born: |
06-16-1914 |
| Faculty: |
Philosophical School |
| Category: |
Deprivation of academic degree |
Friedrich Franz (Fritz Frans) KOCZY (born on June 16th, 1914 in Vienna), was the son of Victor Koczy and his wife Auguste nee Swoboda. He had graduated at the Philosophical School at the University of Vienna in Physics on February 3rd, 1939 with the academic degree 'Dr. phil.' (dissertation: 'Heliumbestimmungen an Steinsalz Sylvin').
Koczy emigrated to Sweden in 1939, where he became research fellow at the Oceanographic Institute in Gothenburg in the same year and married Brita Gunvor Bresky in 1943.
In times of Nazism he was deprived of his academic degree on September 11th, 1943 with the racist argument, that he as a Jew was not considered dignified an academic degree of a German university ('eines akademischen Grades einer deutschen Hochschule unwuerdig').
In 1947 he left his job at the Oceanographic Institute and worked as an oceanographer at the Swedish Deep Sea Expedition, preparing and converting the "Albatross" into a research vessel and analyzing data acquired through the expedition. After that he worked as an oceanographer for the Swedish Fisheries in Gothenburg, interrupted by a research fellowship at the Oceanographic Institute in Gothenburg in 1955/56
It took 12 years since the deprivation – and a very long time since the end of Nazism – until the regranting of the doctorate took finally place on May 15th, 1955.
Fritz Frans Koczy emigrated to the USA in 1957, where he became faculty member of the Institute of Marine Sciences of the University of Miami, Florida. From 1959 on he was professor of marine sciences and member of the editing boards of several scientific journals. Besides he als worked as a consultant for underwater technology for the National Science Foundation and the Franklin GNO Corporation.
In 1963 Koczy received the US-citizenship.
From 1967 he was member of the Oceanographic Commission at the National Research Council at the National Academy of Sciences and visiting professor at the University of Hawaii.
Fritz Frans Koczy died on April 18th, 1967 in Hawaii.
Lit.: Gedenkbuch für die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus an der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften; RÖDER 1983.
Katharina Kniefacz
