Otto Marburg

Born:	05-25-1874
Faculty:	Medical School | Medical University Vienna
Category:	Expelled teacher

Otto MARBURG (born on May 25^th, 1874 in Roemerstadt, Marovia, Austro-Hungarian Empire [Rýmařov/Czech Republic]) was an extraordinary professor for Neurology at the Medical School of the University of Vienna and head of the Neurological Department in 1938. He was persecuted in times of Nazism as a Jew and lost his position  on April 22^nd, 1938 and was forced to leave the university. Otto Marburg had studied medicine in Paris/France, Berlin/Germany and Vienna/Austria and graduated at the University of Vienna in 1899 to "Dr. med. univ." ["M.D."]. He then worked as a secondary physician ["Sekundararzt"] and as an unpaid assistant in the AKH (General Hospital of the City of Vienna with university clinics): 1900-1903 at the Neurological Institute (head: Prof. bei Prof. Heinrich Obersteiner), 1903-1905 at the University Ophtalmologica Clinic (head: Prof. Ernst Fuchs) and at the Psychiatric University Clinic (head: Prof. Julius Wagner-Jauregg). In 1905 he habilitated at the University of Vienna for neurology and worked as a "Privatdozent" and salaried assistant 1906-1919 again at the Neurological Institute. In 1912 he was awarded the title of Associate Professor ("Pd., tit. ao. Univ.-Prof.") and was appointed in 1917 to actual Extraordinary Professor ("ao. Univ.-Prof."). In 1919 he succeeded his teacher Prof. Heinrich Obersteiner as director of this institute. He lived in Vienna 1^st district, Opernring 4. Otto Marburg had to flee Austria and was able to emigrate to the USA via Great Britain. On the ship (S.S. Aquitania), which arrived on June 14^th, 1938 in New York, was also his former colleague, the neurologist and psychiatrist Josef Gerstmann. Otto Marburg continued his scientific work in New York and became a professor of neurology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University in New York. He was the author of more than 200 scientific papers (articles, textbooks, books) from the clinical-neurological and neuro-anatomical area. His major works include the "Microscopic Topographical Atlas of the Human Central Nervous System" (1904, 1927 3rd ed.), "Tumors in the area of ​​the Cochlear, Vestibular and Cerebellar" (1926) and "X-ray Treatment of Nervous Diseases" (1930, w. Egon Ranzi). He died at the age of 74 on June 13^th, 1948 in New York / USA. In Vienna, in his honor the street "Marburggasse" in Essling in the 22^nd district, was named after him in 1960.

Lit.: MÜHLBERGER 1993, 26; MERINSKY 1980, 153-155; Archive of the University of Vienna/Personal records S 304.783, Rectorate GZ 677 ex 1937/38; UB MedUni Wien/van Swieten Blog; Lawrence A. ZEIDMAN, Matthias Georg ZILLER u. Michael SHEVELL, Gerstmann, Sträussler, and Scheinker. The persecution of the men behind the syndrome, in: Neurology 83/3 (July 15th, 2014), 272-277; www.geschichtewiki.wien.gv.at; RÖDER 1983; FISCHER 1932/1933; Österreichisches Biografisches Lexikon 1973, 68.

 Herbert Posch