Richard Kuschnitzky
| Born: |
02-09-1883 |
| Faculty: |
Law School |
| Category: |
Deprivation of academic degree |
Richard KUSCHNITZKY (born on February 9
th, 1883 in Vienna), had graduated at the Law School at the University of Vienna on March 16
th, 1908 with the academic degree 'Dr. iur.' (L.L.)
He had been registered with the Vienna bar since December 1918 and had his own law practice in Vienna's 1
st district, Goldschmiedgasse 5. After the "Anschluss", he could no longer practice law for racist reasons and was struck off the bar list as a Jew under the National Socialist Reich Citizenship Act on April 8
th, 1939.
Richard Kuschnitzky and his wife Johanna, née Rathaus (1890-1977), were able to flee Vienna in time and emigrated to France, where they last lived in Grenoble. In mid-March 1940, they were able to obtain U.S. immigration visas in Lyon and thus emigrated from St. Nazaire/France on the
SS Champlain to the U.S. in time for the German occupation of France on March 30
th, 1940. They arrived in New York City, NY, on April 8
th, 1940 to join their daughter Gerda Newman (1914-1987) in Miami, FL/USA (daughter Gerda Newmann was emigrated with her husband Paul Neumann to the USA in summer 1938).
They also applied for U.S. citizenship, since it was already foreseeable that they would be expatriated from the German Reich - which was the case and was officially announced on May 15
th, 1941 - which, in addition to statelessness and property confiscation, also led to the revocation of her academic degrees.
On July 17
th, 1942, Richard Kuschnitz was deprived of his doctoral degree by the University of Vienna on racist grounds, since under National Socialism he was considered "as a Jew unworthy of an academic degree from a German university."
He returned to Austria after the end of National Socialism and the Second World War and was again registered as a lawyer in Vienna on January 25
th, 1949.
However, it was not until 13 years after the disqualification and long after the end of National Socialism that his doctoral degree was also restored on May 15
th, 1955, or the revocation was declared "null and void from the beginning".
Richard Kuschnitzky died on May 20
th, 1970 in Vienna and is buried at the Vienna Central Cemetery.
Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/graduation register ("Promotionsprotokoll") IUR 1903–1908 No 1450, rectorate GZ 118 ex 1941/42 No 23, GZ 561 ex 1944/45 No. 15; Austrian State Archives OeStA/AdR/EuReang/VVSt/VA 14187; Deutscher Reichsanzeiger, Nr. 111, May 15th, 1941; POSCH/STADLER 2005, 441; SAUER/REITER-ZATLOUKAL 2010, 216; information from Dr. Barbara Sauer, Vienna 12/2021.
Herbert Posch
