Leon Landau

Born:	05-14-1911
Faculty:	Philosophical School
Category:	Expelled student

Leon LANDAU, born on May 14^th, 1911 in Przemyśl, Galicia/Austro-Hungarian Empire [Poland] (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") for Ropica polska near Gorlice/Poland, Citizenship: Poland), son of David Landau (salesman n Przemyśl), lived in Vienna's 2^nd district, Malzgasse 2/17. On June 25^th, 1930, he had passed his secondary school-leaving examination (Reifepruefung/Matura) at the Bundesgymnasium Wien 2 and, from the fall termof of 1932/33, had begun to study history at the University of Vienna. He was enrolled finally in the fall term 1937/38 at the Philosophical School in the 4^th and last year of his studies and took courses in History and Geography. He has registered for the viva voce, the final examinations ("Rigorosen") already on November 12^th, 1937 and passed the first Rigorosum on December 15^th, 1937 and January 31^st, 1938. "Absolutorium" was certified on February 1^st, 1938  In 1938, after the takeover of power of National-Socialism he was forced to quit his studies for racist reason, the examination procedure was interrupted. He had to leave the University of Vienna and couldn't finish his studies any more. He had to flee Vienna and was able to emigrate to the British Mandate Territory of Palestine [Israel] and lived in Jerusalem Keren Kayemeth Str. 6 and from there turned back to the University of Vienna in early 1947. He pointed out that he had already begun collecting material for his dissertation "The Position of the Jews in Austria, 1849-1867" under the supervision of Prof. Wilhelm Bauer (1877-1953) from March 1937, but had to leave all the archival and research material behind when he fled Austria in 1938: "With the exception of a provisional chronological list and some notes and excerpts, most of my work has been lost." He pointed out that he continued to study history until he was drafted for war service in the British Army/Royal Air Force, where he was demobilized only in the fall of 1947, and now wanted to continue and complete the examination procedure for obtaining a philosophical doctorate, and asked about the conditions - or the facilities provided in such cases. On March 8^th, the dean of the Philosophical School informed him that the faculty had already in another case "particularly accommodated" a former student from Vienna who had completed his dissertation in Tel Aviv,

"had been particularly accommodating, and we will of course know how to take into account in your case, too, the particularly difficult circumstances under which you had to work. But, of course, it is necessary that you come to Vienna to take the examinations and, moreover, it is necessary that you submit a dissertation, which you would have to complete precisely on the basis of the documents and notes still saved."

These necessities are the requiirements of the doctoral procedure applicable to all without any recognizable concession, and Leon Landau also referred to this in his reply of March 31^st, 1947, that he was well acquainted with the case of the fellow student from Tel Aviv, in whom the taking of the viva examinations was dispensed with, and requested that this be done in his case as well, although he had already successfully taken one of the two viva examinations in 1938 and would also like to complete and submit his dissertation. "I would ask you to consider in your deliberations that the taking of further examinations and the travel to Vienna that would be required as a result would not only not make things easier for me, but on the contrary would make things more difficult." However, due to unexplained circumstances, this letter did not arrive at the Dean's Office until nine months later on January 5^th, 1948, which then immediately replied that even in previous cases viva voce examinations were only dispensed with if corresponding academic degrees were acquired abroad, which were included as a substitute, which would also be possible in his case if he could present corresponding examinations, and concludes slightly contradictorily: "An award of the doctorate without taking the viva voce examinations cannot be envisaged." This is the end of the correspondence in the files in the archives of the University of Vienna; there is no evidence of a doctorate for Leon Landau in the doctoral records of the University of Vienna, not even in the next 15 years.

Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") PHIL 1937-1938, final examination registry ("Rigorosenprotokoll und -akt") PHIL 13903, PHIL GZ 45 ex 1946/47, ONr. 7–7b; POSCH/INGRISCH/DRESSEL 2008, 426.

Herbert Posch