August Reuss (pediatrician)

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August Reuss' grave in the Neustift cemetery

August Reuss (born May 28, 1879 in Vienna ; † October 31, 1954 there ) was an Austrian pediatrician .

Life

August Reuss was the son of the Austrian ophthalmologist August Leopold von Reuss . Reuss studied medicine at the University of Vienna , where he received his doctorate in 1903 . In 1908 he became an assistant at the University Children's Clinic, and in 1914 he completed his habilitation. In World War I, Reuss was regimental doctor.

In 1924 he became an associate professor at the University of Vienna, and a year later he became head of the children's department at the Kaiser-Franz-Joseph-Spital . In 1930 Reuss moved to Graz , where he became a full professor and head of the University Children's Clinic. After all, from 1934 he was the medical director of the Vienna Children's Hospital in Glanzing . Under Austrofascism , Reuss was used by the Federal Ministry for Social Administration from 1934 to 1938 as a consultant for the supervision of all child health care. During this time he also became a member of the political unity party Patriotic Front . After the “ Anschluss ” he was director of the central children's home from 1938 to 1940 . As early as March 11, 1938, Reuss placed an admission order with the NSDAP , which was supported by the local branch but rejected in the autumn of the same year. In 1942, Reuss' commitment was repeatedly highlighted - but because he was politically classified as a "economic National Socialist" and his membership in the Rotary Club was known, the application was ultimately rejected.

After his death, Reuss received an honorary grave in the Neustift cemetery (group R, row 6, no. 2). In 1959, the August-Reuss-Gasse in Vienna- Hietzing was named after him by a municipal council resolution .

meaning

Reuss introduced improvements in the field of pediatrics, particularly in the field of newborns . So he outsourced the infant wards from general gynecology. He achieved recognition of paediatrics as a separate medical specialty and is thus Austria's first social pediatrician. He was the first in the world to discover congenital metabolic abnormalities and attempt to treat them.

While population policy in the inter-war period accepted eugenic ideas uncritically , Reuss was one of those representatives of the medical community who opposed it. Even "weak" infants, undesirable from the perspective of population policy, could develop into "full-fledged" people, he stated at a conference. Such infants would have a special life force that would enable them to overcome the "weakness of life". The medical side should therefore do everything necessary, because what is really not viable will die off anyway, and he warned:

"So no Spartan principles to which many valuable lives could fall victim!"

Among his students was u. a. Hans Czermak .

Fonts

  • The diseases of the newborn . Springer, Vienna 1914.
  • The nutrition of the newborn . Springer, Vienna 1925.
  • The rearing of premature and weak children . Springer, Vienna 1925.
  • Infant feeding . Springer, Vienna 1929.
  • Infant diseases . Springer, Vienna 1935.
  • Physiology and pathology of the newborn . In: Hans Heidler: Textbook of obstetrics for midwives . Maudrich, Vienna 1950.
  • Teething problems . Urban & Schwarzenberg, Vienna 1958 (with Hans Czermak).

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Street names in Vienna since 1860 as “Political Places of Remembrance” (PDF; 4.4 MB), p. 307ff, final research project report, Vienna, July 2013
  2. ^ Gudrun Exner: Population science in Austria in the interwar period (1918–1938): people, institutions, discourses (=  writings of the Institute for Demography of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute for Demography . Volume 18 ). Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-205-77180-X , p. 271 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
personal data
SURNAME Reuss, August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian pediatrician
DATE OF BIRTH May 28, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH October 31, 1954
Place of death Vienna