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Hans August Wilhelm Kotrnetz

Born: 08-23-1903
Faculty: Medical School | Medical University Vienna
Category: Deprivation of academic degree
Hans August Wilhelm KOTRNETZ (born on August 23rd, 1903 in Vienna), had graduated at the Medical School at the University of Vienna  on March 2nd, 1928 with the academic degree 'Dr. med.'.

After the "Anschluss" Hans A. Kotrnetz emigrated together with his wife Margarethe Erna Kotrnetz, nee Kelsen (1907-1993), to the USA in 1938.
In times of Nazism he - as his wife - was deprived of his academic degree on February 17th, 1944 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').  

It took 11 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. Hans Kotrnetz died on January 25th, 1993 in Bella Vista, Arkansas, and was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Herkimer, New York.


Lit.: photo of the grave; crestleaf.com; Lutz Elija POPPER, Briefe aus einer versinkenden Welt 1938/1939, Oberwart 2008, 60-73.


Katharina Kniefacz

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