Leopold Freund

Born:	04-05-1868
Faculty:	Medical School | Medical University Vienna
Category:	Expelled teacher

Leopold FREUND, born on April 5^th, 1868, in Miskowitz, Bohemia (Austria-Hungary) [Míškovice, Czech Republic], died on January 7^th, 1943, in Brussels [Bruxelles]/Belgium, was a private lecturer with the title of an extraordinary professor ("Pd. tit. ao. Prof.") for medical radiology at the Medical Faculty of the University of Vienna in 1938 and honorary lecturer ("Honorardozent") for "First Aid in Accidents" at the Vienna Technical University. He was persecuted in times of National Socialism for racist reasons and in 1938 was deprived of his office ("Venia legendi withdrawn") and expelled from the University of Vienna. Leopold Freund, son of Leopold Freund (1815-1897, factory director and postmaster) and Marie, née Sprinzels (1836-1914), studied medicine at the University of Vienna from 1888 and received his doctorate ("Dr.med.univ.") on February 23^rd, 1895. He then worked in various departments and clinics of the Vienna General Hospital as an assistant and secondary physician, and from 1899-1913 was an assistant at the University Clinic for Skin and Venereal Diseases (head: Prof. E. Finger) and habilitated in 1904 and became a private lecturer in medical radiology. In 1905 he married Stefanie Abeles and lived in Vienna's 1^st district, Graben 12. In 1906 he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Medicine, but came away empty-handed. In 1913 he was appointed honorary lecturer in "First Aid in Accidents" at the Staatsgewerbeschule; he also lectured at the Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt. 1913-1920 he was on the board of the laboratory of the University Clinic for Skin and Venereal Diseases and assistant at the Vienna Polyclinic. In 1914 he was awarded the title of associate professor at the University of Vienna, in 1935 he was made an honorary member of the Austrian Roentgen Society, and in 1937 he was announced "Hofrat". He is regarded as the founder of medical radiology and X-ray therapy. He was the first to use X-rays and radioactivity in medical therapy and diagnostics on patients - initially for skin diseases, later also for deeper organs - and thus created the basis for radiation therapy. His extensive scientific work of over 340 articles includes, in addition to the pioneering article "A case of nevus pigmentosus piliferus treated with X-rays" (Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift of March 6^th, 1897), mainly papers on the therapeutic application of X-rays, but also on the light treatment of occupational diseases and the use of X-rays for testing building materials, such as "Occupational Diseases and the Use of X-rays in the Examination of Building Materials", e.g. "Berufskrankheiten und ihre Verhütung mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der graphischen Gewerbe" (1901); "Grundriß der gesamten Radiotherapie für praktische Ärzte" (1903, the world's first textbook devoted exclusively to radiotherapy), "Elektrische Funkenbehandlung der Karzinome" (1908) and many others until 1938. After the so-called "Anschluss", the seizure of power by National Socialism, he was persecuted as a Jew, his teaching license was revoked, and his apartment was searched because of "suspicious behavior" and he himself was taken into "preventive detention" from November 25^th-28^th, 1938 and reported for "undeclared Jewish property". The director of the Brussels Radium Institute, Félix Sluys (1875-1965) helped the 70-year-old Leopold Freund and his wife to organize visas for Belgium and in August 1939 they managed to emigrate to Brussels [Bruxelles]/Belgium. Barely nine months later, Belgium was occupied by the German Reich and he again became a victim of Nazi persecution policies. His brother Heinrich Freund (1863-1942) was deported from Vienna to Riga in February 1942 and murdered. Leopold Freund died at the age of 74 on January 7^th, 1943 in German-occupied Brussels/Belgium for unknown reasons; his wife survived.

Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") MED 1888-1895, graduation regrister ("Promotionsprotokoll") MED VII (1894-1898), personal file MED PA 130/17, photo 106.I.1478, personal form S 304.303; OeStA/ Archiv der Republik/ BMF /VVST /VA 16202; FISCHER 1932/33, 447; ÖBL 1957, 359; JANTSCH 1961, NDB, 413; MERINSKY 1980, 59-61b; MÜHLBERGER 1993, 20; BLUMESBERGER 2002, 367; EBNER/MIKOLETZKY/WIESER 2017, 83; UB MedUni Wien/van Swieten Blog; ANGETTER 2011.

Herbert Posch