Felix Fanto

Felix FANTO, born on April 13^th, 1910 in Vienna-Floridsdorf/Austro-Hungaria (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") for Vienna/Austria, Citizenship: Austria), son of Emil Fanto (merchant, general store, later tobacconist, ?-1955) and Karolina "Lina" Fanto, née Schlesinger (1882-1941), lived in Vienna's 21^st district, Donaufelderstrasse 40. He passed the school-leaving examination ("Matura") at the Bundesrealgymnasium in Vienna 21, Franklinstrasse 21 on June 7^th, 1929, and then began to study geography and history at the University of Vienna in the fall term of 1929/30. He was last enrolled in the spring term of 1933 at the School of Philosophy in the 4th and last year of studies and after an interruption in the civil war year of 1933/34, he began working on his doctoral thesis in 1935 with the title: "Untersuchung von Klima- und Ernteertragsschwankungen im oesterreichischen Raume für die Zeit von 1890 bis 1929 mit besonderer Beruecksichtigung der 35-jaehrigen Klimaschwankungsperiode", supervised by Prof. Hugo Hassinger and Prof. Johann Soelch. The dissertation was very positively reviewed and approved in June 1937.

In 1938, after the takeover of power of National-Socialism he was forced to quit his nearlyfinished studies for racist reason and to leave the University of Vienna withour graduation.

The two planned viva voce examinations - the geographers Hassinger and Soelch as well as the historian Bauer and for the "Philosophicum" the pedagogue Richard Meister and the psychologist Karl Buehler - could not take place after the "Anschluss" in March 1938. In the viva voce file there is only the request of Feix Fanto from July 1938 to please return his documents (birth certificate, certificate of origin, school leaving certificate, graduation certificate, etc.), which were still available in the dean's office until then, and on July 5th, 1938 he confirmed their receipt. There is no further reference to the aborted examination procedure. The fact that the dissertation was discussed in detail and with praise in the "20th Geographical Annual Report from Austria" (edited by Hassinger and Soelch) in 1940 did not change the fact that it did not lead to an academic degree.

Felix Fanto had to flee Vienna and was able to cross the border into Switzerland at Feldkirch on October 13^th, 1938 and emigrate with his parents to Argentina in time, where he arrived on  November 4^th, 1938 and where married his wife Fanny Fischer (1904-1997) in Buenos Aires/Argentina on May 16th, 1939. In 1940 their son Paul (1940-2000) was born. In 1941 his mother Katharina Fanto de Schlesinger died in La Talada, Buenos Aires/Argentina, in 1955 also there his father Emilio Fanto.

He lived in General Capitan Ramon Freire 839, Buenos Aires, until at least 1961, later returning to Austria with his wife and child after serious health problems. Little is known so far about his further life and career.

Felix Fanto died on October 25^th, 1991 in Vienna Ottakring and was buried on November 12^th, 1991 at the cemetery in Vienna's 21st district, Jedlesee.

Lit: Archives of the University of Vienna/National 1929-1933, Dissertationsverzeichnis 1937-1944, No. 1399, Rigorosenakt und -protokoll PHIL 13487, www.genteam.at, www.ancestry.de, find a grave in Vienna.

Herbert Posch