Herbert Günzburg

Born:	08-17-1914
Faculty:	Philosophical School
Category:	Expelled student

Herbert GUENZBURG, born on August 17^th, 1914 in Wiener Neustadt/Lower Austria (entitled residency ("heimatberechtigt") for Vienna/Austria, Citizenship 1938: Austria), son of Dr. Adolf Guenzburg (secondary school professor), lived in Vienna's 7^th district, Mariahilfer Strasse 8/38. He had passed his school-leaving examination (Matura) at the Bundesrealgymnasium Wien 14 on June 21^st, 1934, and began studying at the University of Vienna in the fall term of 1934/35, majoring in German studies and History. He was enrolled finally in the spring term 1938 at the Philosophical School in the 4^th year of his studies and took courses in German language and literature Studies, English language and literature Studies and History. In addition to his studies, he had been working for the Association of Viennese Workers' Libraries since February 1934 and had been in charge of the Workers' Library No. 18 in Vienna's 11^th district, Geiselbergstrasse since 1935, where he was dismissed in the course of communalization in 1936, among other things because he was accused of having distributed 13 books that had been blocked for readers by the Austrofascist book censors. In addition, he worked for several months in the workers' libraries of the Viennese districts of Margareten, Landstrasse, Hernals and Floridsdorf (Strebersdorf) to conduct empirical studies in preparation for his dissertation. He had registeredat the University of Vienna for the final examinations (viva voce) on November 10^th, 1937, and had already successfully passed the first viva voce examination on December 18^th, 1937. After the "Anschluss", the examination procedure was interrupted, although he had already completed his dissertation "Die literarische Arbeit der Wiener Volksbüchereien mit besonderer Bezugnahme auf den Wiener Arbeiterleser" (The Literary Work of the Viennese Public Libraries with Special Reference to the Viennese Workers' Reader) under the supervision of Prof. Josef Nadler (1884-1963). After the Anschluss, he was forced to abandon his almost completed studies and the examination process and to leave the University of Vienna. In an introductory note to his dissertation of November 1947 he states:

"The events of 1938 forced me to leave Austria. I took the completed manuscript of the dissertation and a small part of the fair copy with me. The fair copy was completed in England, although some minor omissions and inaccuracies in the manuscript could unfortunately not be corrected, since the originals were of course not available to me. [...] The following years of uncertainty and continual relocation not only prevented a satisfactory editing of the work, but also seriously affected the external form of the manuscript."

He was able to emigrate to England/Great Britain, where he still married Anna Woitsch in 1938 in Pancras, Middlesex. From June 1940 to March 1941 he was interned as an enemy alien. He later became a tutorial assistant in the German Department of the School of Modern Languages at Cardiff University in Wales and was also able to continue his German studies, earning a B. A. in German studies at the University of London. From Birmingham, in October 1947, he asked the University of Vienna to nostrify his English B.A. degree as an Austrian Dr. phil. and to recognize his dissertation, completed in 1938, for which he submitted two English-language reports from 1940, one by Prof. John Duncan Cowley (1897-1944), Director of the School of Librarianship at University College London, and one by Douglas Waples (1893-1978), Professor of researches in reading at the Graduate Library School of the University of Chicago, IL/USA. The latter was so taken with the dissertation that he arranged at the time for an English translation of the manuscript to be published by the University of Chicago Press. However, the printing was made impossible at short notice by the entry of the USA into the Second World War in 1941. Herbert Gunzburg cited in his 1947 request:

"I would very much like to return to Austria, but the fact of an unfinished academic course is a great obstacle. I very much hope that the University of Vienna will take into account that my studies have come to a premature end through no fault of my own, that I have acquired an academic degree in England, that it is very difficult for me to resume exactly where I had to leave off in 1938. For any relief I would be very grateful, as it would enable me to acquire the Austrian university degree soon and thus make it easier for me to return to Austria."

The Dean of the Philosophical School at the time, the Orientalist Herbert Duda (1900-1975), supported the request, as did Richard Meister (1881-1964), a professor of education and university politician who was crucial to such issues. Thus, the English B. A.- examination was recognized as a substitute for the German major rigorosum, the minor rigorosum "will be exceptionally waived for him as a racially aggrieved person," and after payment of the doctoral fees he was granted the possibility of "promotio in absentia," i.e., it was made possible that he did not have to travel personally to Vienna to receive the doctoral degree - at the doctoral ceremony a deputy, who, however, had to be a Dr. phil. of the University of Vienna, was allowed to swear the doctoral oath for him on the scepter of the faculty (in this case his father, who lived in Vienna). Only a positive review of the dissertation by two Viennese professors of German was made a requirement. This was done in April 1948 by Prof. Oskar Benda (1886-1954), himself persecuted for "political" reasons in 1938 and only appointed as a professor of German studies at the University of Vienna after the end of National Socialism. However, he criticizes that the author "sees through party glasses and is nowhere able to deny the class-struggle Marxist. Not to be praised is the broad-mindedness and the unpleasant newspaper German of the presentation. With appropriate concentration and conciseness of expression, half the volume would have sufficed," but nevertheless concludes that the work meets the legal requirements. After Prof. Eduard Castle (1875-1959) also agreed with this assessment, the thesis was approved and Günzburg was able to receive his doctorate "in absentia" from the University of Vienna on May 12^th, 1948 - ten years late. A week later he thanked Dean Duda in writing:

"It fills me with extraordinary satisfaction that I have now attained my native doctorate in a foreign country, and I will always endeavor to represent the high reputation of the University of Vienna with honor abroad as far as I am able, until I am again granted the privilege of placing my work in the service of my father city."

However, he did not return to Austria. He continued to live and work in England and his son Walter Henry (molecular virologist) was also born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England in 1959. Dr. Herbert Karl (Charles) Guenzburg died on April 25^th, 1994 in Stratford-upon-Avon/England.

Lit.: Archives of the University of Vienna / National PHIL 1937-1938, viva voce act and record PHIL 13879, doctoral record PHIL VII (1941-1956) 910, PHIL GZ 171 ex 1947/48; Principal Probate Registries of the High Court of Justice in England (London); POSCH/INGRISCH/DRESSEL 2008, 398; Herbert Karl GUENZBURG, Die literarische Arbeit der Wiener Volksbüchereien mit besonderer Bezugnahme auf den Wiener Arbeiterleser, ungedr. phil. Diss. Univ. Vienna, Vienna 1938/1947; Gisela KOLAR, Ein "Vorspiel": Die Wiener Arbeiterbüchereien im Austrofaschismus, ungedr. phil. Dipl. Univ. Vienna, Vienna 2008, 123; www.ancestry.de.

Herbert Posch