Heinrich Noe Racker

Born:	07-03-1910
Faculty:	Medical School | Medical University Vienna
Category:	Expelled student

Dr. phil. Heinrich RACKER, born on July 3^rd, 1910 as Hirsch Noach ROSENFELD (name change to Heinrich Noe Racker approved in Vienna at the end of 1929) in Neu-Sandez, Galicia/Austria-Hungarian Empire [Nowy Sącz/Poland] (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") for Vienna/Austria, Citizenship: Austria), son of Naftali Mejer Racker (journalist, editor) and Ella, née. Spira, lived in Vienna's 2^nd district, Taborstrasse 52b/18. After elementary school in Vienna's 2^nd district, Obere Augartenstrasse, he had attended the Realgymnasium in Vienna's 2^nd district, Kleine Sperlgasse, from 1921 to 1929. Since he was an excellent pianist, he worked as a lecturer at the Workers' Conservatory in Vienna ("Arbeiterkonservatorium") after graduating from high school in 1929. In addition, he studied psychology and exact philosophy with Hermann Swoboda, Karl Buehler and Moritz Schlick as a "work student" from 1929 to 1934 (with a one-year interruption in the academic year 1932/33) at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Vienna, as well as musicology with Robert Lach and German studies. Since 1933 he worked on his dissertation "Das Problem der psychischen Periodizitaet in historischer Betrachtung" (supervisor: Hermann Swoboda/Munich and Karl Buehler/Vienna) and received his doctorate in psychology in 1935.
He then began training as a psychoanalyst at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Association. He had already incorporated medical findings into his dissertation and, accompanying his psychoanalytic training, had begun to study medicine at the Medical Faculty in the winter semester of 1937/38 and was enrolled in the 1^st year in 1937/38. He was forced to abandon his medical studies and to leave the University of Vienna for racist reasons under National Socialism after the Anschluss. So was his younger brother Efraim Racker (1913-1991), who also studied at the Medical Faculty of the University of Vienna, but was still able to obtain his doctorate in 1938 as part of a "non-Aryan doctorate," albeit only under numerous discriminatory rituals and combined with a simultaneous professional ban throughout the German Reich. His older sister Miriam Racker (b. December 15^th, 1907) had studied German language and literature at the University of Vienna from 1928 to 1932 and has been able to obtain her "Dr. phil." in 1933 without any problems with her dissertation "Figure and Symbolism of the Artificial Man in 19^th and 20^th Century Poetry.". Heinrich Racker was able to escape from Austria to England/Great Britain and then emigrated from Southampton on December 28^th, 1938 with the SS Asturia to Argentina, arriving in Buenos Aires in early 1939. He had already begun his training as a psychoanalyst in 1936 at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Association, and after emigration continued this in Buenos Aires - again financing this through his work as a pianist and piano teacher - becoming a member in 1948/50 and a teaching analyst in 1951 of the Argentine Psychoanalytic Association, and becoming an internationally known psychoanalyst.

"Nature had given me a gift that made me happy: music moved me deeply, and philosophical, scientific and literary creations filled me with Freud. Moreover, I found eminent teachers who were first my guides and then became my friends; they opened new worlds to me and stimulated me to train my own faculties." (quoted in Marie LANGER 1997, 215)

His study "Transference and Countertransference" is one of the classics of psychoanalytic literature. He had met and married Noune Tronquoy in Uruguay in 1944, and the couple had two children. Heinrich Racker died, only 51 years old, on January 28^th, 1961 in Buenos Aires/Argentina.

Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna, enrollment forms ("Nationale") PHIL 1929-1934, MED 1937-1938, final examination files and registry ("Rigorosenakt & -protokoll") PHIL 12503, graduation registry (Promotionsprotokoll) PHIL VI (1931-1941) Nr 1443 , POSCH/INGRISCH/DRESSEL 2008, 125f., 453; POSCH 2009, 239, 370f., Christine DIERCKS, 2010, psyalpha; Eleanor SAWBRIDGE BURTON 2018|Melanie-Klein-Trust.

Herbert Posch