Eduard März

Born:	12-21-1908
Faculty:	Law School
Category:	Expelled student

Dkfm. Eduard MAERZ, born on December 21st, 1908 in Lemberg/Austro-Hungaria, later Poland [today Lwiw/Ukraine] (entitled residency ('heimatberechtigt') for Vienna, Citizenship: Austria), son of Sigmund Maerz (clockmaker), lived in Wien 19, Hungerbergstraße 10/6. After finishing a textile school and working in the textil industry he studied at the University of World Trade in Vienna ("Hochschule fuer Welthandel", today: Vienna University of Economics and Business) economy and graduated in 1933 with the academic degree "Diplomkaufmann" (Dkfm.). Then Eduard Maerz studied Political Sciences ("Staatswissenschaften") at the Law School of the University of Vienna. Since the early 1930 he was active in the socialist movement and during his studies at the University of Vienna he also worked as a lecturer for national economy at the adult education center in Vienna, 16th district ("Volkshochschule Ottakring"), but in times of "Austrofascism" he was no more allowed to teach due to his Marxist orientation. In 1934 he married Gertraud Ruth Maerz (nee Bleier), who studied at the Medical School and was also expelled from the University of Vienna four years later. He was finally enrolled in spring term 1938 in the 3rd year of his studies, before he was forced to leave the university for political and racist reasons. In order to pay the costs of his studies Eduard Maerz worked part-time in the newly founded Viennese branch of the International Business Machines Corporation - IBM -, which supported him in emigrating from Austria. The route led him to Switzerland, The Netherlands, Denemark, Poland and Bulgaria to Turkey. In 1940 he could continue his emigration, passing Odessa, Kiev, Moscow and taking the Trans-Sibirian Railway to Vladivostok and from there per ship via Japan to Vancouver and Seattle before he arrives in New York on Sylvester 1940/41. In the USA he served as a soldier in the US-Navy. In August 1938 – a few months after the so called "Anschluss" – his daughter Eveline Elisabeth was born in Vienna, after Eduard Maerz was already emigrated, so that he met her only after three years, when the family was reunited in the USA. In the end of December 1938 and together with their daughter his wife was able to emigrate to Geneva (Switzerland), where she was able to complete her studies at the University of Geneva. Shortly after her graduation they left Switzerland in April 1941 and emigrated via southern France, Spain and Portugal to the USA. In 1947 their son Richard Otto (later Prof. at the University of Vienna respectively at the Medical University of Vienna, which was founded in 2004) was born in Boston/Mass. In 1948 Eduard Maerz could complete his studies at the University of Harvard with Joseph Schumpeter as dissertation advisor. After he his graduation left IBM for an academic career and taught theoretical national economy, monetary theory and economic history at several American Universities. The family returned to Austria in 1953, his wife’s academic degree was formally recognized ("nostrifiziert") by the University of Vienna, in 1979 she gained the title of a medical officer of health ("Medizinalrat"). Eduard Maerz at first became consultant of the Austrian Department of economic research and of the Creditanstalt, later on – from 1957 to 1973 – head of the economy department of the Vienna Chamber of Labour, which he had founded before. He didn't succeed in gaining the "Habilitation" at the University of Vienna, but from 1971 to 1973 he became guest professor at the University of Salzburg and honorary professor at the universities in Linz, Salzburg and Vienna. He died on July 9, 1987 in Vienna. In 2012 a symposion took place in Vienna to honor Eduard Maerz on the 25th anniversary of his death, organized by Ludwig-Boltzmann-Institute for Historical Social Science, Karl-Renner-Institute and Department of Contemporary History of the University of Vienna.

Lit.: information of his daughter Mag. Eveline Elisabeth März, 2013; Familie Maerz 1938, in: Juedisches Echo 1987; obituary from Guenther Chaloupek; wikipedia; ; KNIEFACZ/POSCH 2017a; KNIEFACZ/POSCH 2017b.

Herbert Posch