Robert Lande

Born:	01-18-1918
Faculty:	Medical School | Medical University Vienna
Category:	Expelled student

Robert LANDE, born on January 18^th, 1918 in Vienna/Austria (no entitled residency and no citizenship: stateless), son of Josef Lande (1879–1952, bookseller in Wolkersdorf/Lower Austria) and Katharina, née Weisz (1877–1955), and lived in a dormitory "Akademikerhilfe" in Vienna's 9^th district, Saeulengasse 18. He hd visited the Katholischen Privatgymnasium Kollegium Kalksburg and graduated from ther in June 1936 (Matura/Reifepruefung) and started to stdy medicine at the University of Vienna in fall term of 1936/37 and was enrolled at the Medical School in the spring term of 1938 in the 2^nd year of his studies. He was discriminated as a so called 'Mischling 1. Grades' and could continue his studies at first - valid until revoked. After the Nazi seizure of power, his father, the Catholic Josef Lande, was considered a "Jew" and Robert Lande himself a "Mischling 1st degree". His father was born Moses Aaron Lande in 1879 in Ukraine and grew up with his grandfather in Jerusalem in Jewish Orthodox surroundings. He was chosen by his uncle, the chief rabbi of Jerusalem, for the high office of rabbi in Tiberias (Galilee), but during a visit to his parents in Vienna he broke off all relations with his family, later converted to Catholicism and was baptized with the name "Josef". He met Katharina Weiss, a farmer's daughter, the two married in 1914 in from Wolkersdorf/Lower Austria, and they had three sons: Robert (born 1918) and his two brothers Paul (born 1916) and Josef Jr. (born 1920). His father had set up a bookshop in the house of a Viennese priest in Wolkersdorf in 1918, and Robert and his brothers completed their secondary education at the Kollegium Aloisianum, a private Catholic high school run by the Jesuit order in Linz/Upper Austria. Under National Socialism, the father's bookshop was "Aryanized"/expropriated in 1938, he and his three sons were expelled from Wolkersdorf to Vienna (the mother was able to stay in Wolkersdof and supports them from there). Robert Lande, student at Medical School, and his brother Paul Lande (1916-1999), student at Philosophical School, were already living there in the dormitory at Saeulengasse 18, but in 1938 were forced to leave and moved in with their father to Vienna's 18^th district, Schumanngasse 36. Both were allowed to continue their studies only for the time being as "Mischling 1. Grades" and subject to revocation at any time. Robert was still studying medicine with the old, Austrian, rules and since he had already passed the 1^st viva voce examination, he was exceptionally admitted to the next medical examinations in 1940 with the approval of the Reich Ministry of the Interior in Berlin, which was responsible for doctors, and in 1941, since he was considered a "stateless person" and therefore could not obtain a professional license as a doctor in the Third Reich, he was also admitted to the doctoral examination procedure. Thus, on September 27^th, 1941, he was exceptionally able to graduate and to obtain the "Dr.med."-degree, but without a license to practice and with a professional ban. But under the patronage of National-Socialist Prof. Leopold Schoenbauer (1888-1963), who headed the University Surgical Clinic in the Nazi period - and afterwards - he was able to work at the nearby Private Clinic Hera in Vienna, where Prof. Schoenbauer's numerous private patients were also treated.
When his brother Paul Lande (1916-1999) applied to graduate in Classical Philology in July 1940, this was, however, first provisionally forbidden by the Reich Ministry of Education in Berlin in September 1940, and then finally forbidden in March 1941, after consultation with the Deputy of the Fuehrer, since the intended school service for "Mischlinge 1. Grades" was forbidden under National Socialism. He was forced to leave the University of Vienna without graduateion. From 1941 on, "Mischlinge 1. Grades" were also excluded from the Deutsche Wehrmacht and Paul and his younger brother Josef jun. Lande found employment in Vienna through the mediation of Catholic circles during the war, the father Josef Lande was temporarily employed in the archives of the archbishop's office, and returned to Wolkerdorf after the end of the Nazi regime, and took over his book and paper shop again, which was later run by his youngest son until 1978. His brother Paul Lande (1916-1999) went into higher education and became a secondary school professor.

Lit.: Archive of the University of Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") PHIL 1937-1938, MED 1937–1941, Rectorate GZ 944 ex 1939/40/41, PHIL GZ 743 ex 39/40, ONr. 67, MED GZ 1115 ex 1939/40, MED S 51.2 ONr. 2 und 33; Austrian Ste Archives OeStA / AdR / Unterricht / Kurator der wiss. Hochschulen in Wien / K 13, GZ 5201 ex 1940-1943; Ferdinand ALTMANN, "Josef Lande, geb. Moses Aaron Lande", in: www.wolkersdorf1938.at/.

Herbert Posch