Felix Sieglbauer

Bust of Sieglbauer in the stairwell of the Anatomical Institute at the University of Innsbruck

Felix Sieglbauer (born October 23, 1877 in Vienna , † May 13, 1974 in Innsbruck ) was an Austrian doctor and head of the Anatomical Institute of the University of Innsbruck .

Private

Felix Sieglbauer was born on October 23, 1877 as the son of Schärdinger's middle school teacher Felix Sieglbauer (1853-1921) and his wife Leopoldine, née Petzold (1856-1938), the first of two children in Vienna .

His sister Hedwig, who was eight years younger than her father, also took up the teaching profession and became a primary school teacher. On June 28, 1906 Sieglbauer married Katharine Schirmer (born August 6, 1876 - February 10, 1958) in Leipzig . This marriage gave birth to two children, Marie - later called "Mizzi" (1907–1995) and Elisabeth - later called "Ilse" (1908-2000). Like their husbands Ludwig Holzberger and Wolfgang Hardt - Stremayr, both belonged to the Wandervogel youth movement .

1906 wedding photo

From 1917 Sieglbauer lived near his place of work in the Hötting district at Sonnenstrasse 16 in a rented two-story wooden house - he had never owned any real estate in his life. From there the family saw Innsbruck's beloved local mountain , the Patscherkofel , because Katharine felt more threatened in front of the massive northern chain . A Blüthner piano was set up in a separate room , which had been brought from Leipzig because Katharine had completed a pianist training and preferred to play conventional works from Schubert to Bach . Although French officers who used the wing were billeted for about five months in the course of the liberation in 1945, it nonetheless remained intact. The French writer, music critic and pacifist Romain Rolland can be described as Sieglbauer's favorite writer . Sieglbauer was more of an outsider who did not socialize at home. Rather closed and withdrawn, he was also able to open up with humor in the circle of his closest family. Due to a certain sensitivity to noise, his study on the first floor had double doors with soundproof pillows. Basically, he got up early, first of all fed his beloved tits in the large garden (summer and winter) and then went on a walk of about an hour to prepare for the working day.

Career

Sieglbauer studied medicine at the University of Vienna and had first contact with anatomy in 1896 .

From 1898 until his doctorate in 1902 he stayed as a demonstrator with the Viennese anatomy demonstrator Carl Toldt .

After completing his doctorate, he worked for a short time as an assistant to Carl Rabl at the Karl Ferdinand University in Prague , from where he returned to Vienna after Rabl was recalled to Leipzig and in 1904 as a surgeon in the first surgical department with Anton von Eiselsberg Clinic began.

Enthusiastic about anatomy, he turned away from surgery in 1905 and followed his former teacher Carl Rabl as curator and assistant to Leipzig. He worked there from 1905 to 1915 and completed his habilitation in 1911 with a thesis on the development of avian extremity, whereby he continued to work as a lecturer in normal anatomy.

In 1915 he was drafted into the military and entered Vienna as a high and German master . He came to Belgrade as a civilian doctor who was required to take part in the military attack, where he was head of the bacteriological laboratory at the National Hospital in Belgrade until 1917 .

Sieglbauer on his 50th birthday in front of his skull collection

In 1917 he received a call to Innsbruck and on March 10, 1918 was appointed director of the Anatomical Institute in Innsbruck. As the chairperson for the next 28 years, he shaped the institute. His focus, which he cultivated in close association with the universities in Prague and Leipzig , was descriptive and topographical anatomy.

Although he initially only had one assistant at his side and the teaching requirements were poor, he was able to teach a large number of students. A large number of instruction boards that are still preserved today came from his hand.

Sieglbauer lecture
Summer semester 1930
B&W photo skeletons
flickr; Hans-Michael tapping Link to the picture (please note copyrights )

He developed large anatomical models that can be seen in the collection with his taxidermist Franz Zima.

Its international reputation is also expressed by the fact that Sieglbauer

• in 1920 Hans Held (University of Leipzig) for his research in the field of nerve tissue and
• in 1927 Ludwig Haberlandt (University of Innsbruck) for his pioneering work in hormonal contraception (preliminary work on the development of the birth control pill)

for the award of the Nobel Prize could propose (albeit without subsequent award).

On March 1, 1939 (under the leadership of Rector August Haffner) he became a member of the NSDAP with membership number 7,889,365.

On December 15, 1943, a bomb hit mainly destroyed the anthropological skull and cast collection created by Sieglbauer.

In the same year Sieglbauer ended the practice of having the bodies of those executed from Munich Stadelheim (for political and other offenses), St. Johann im Pongau, Landeck and Jenbach delivered as study corpses for the institute.

When Sieglbauer was questioned by French security authorities about the origin of the study corpses after the end of the war in 1945, he admitted that the medical faculty or possibly the dean had personally endeavored to transport corpses from the prisoner of war camps and was in any case informed about their origin. He himself denied, however, that he had ever taken care of the origin of the corpses transferred to his institute or that he was responsible for their procurement. The content of the Geneva Convention with its provisions on dealing with prisoners of war was also completely unknown to him.

In 1946 he was retired for reasons of age and politics, but continued to work scientifically for the institute.

In February 1948 there were still 13 preserved corpses from the Nazi era as scientific material in the institute's morgue.

It quickly became clear to the French authorities that the members of the university were not responsible for the death of those affected in the course of their internationally customary scientific exploitation of corpses (including those who had been executed).

Sieglbauer lecture
Summer semester 1930
B / W photo nervous system
flickr; Hans-Michael tapping Link to the picture (please note copyrights )

On August 27, 1948, the French investigation was discontinued because the Anatomical Institute was not involved in the murder of the prisoners of war.

The large number of his students - he personally examined well over 3,000 and conveyed his professional approach to the budding doctors - knew him as a lecturer who introduced them to medicine with strong words. That is why he was also a speaker for popular university lectures.

Scientific work

In addition to his work in comparative development history, his scientific work also includes early statements and thoughts on teaching university didactics. Exceptionally talented in didactics, he recognized early on that the student had to be offered appropriate documents. In 1929 he created drawing portfolios that served as the basis for the lecture and contained instructions for dissecting entire corpses. His textbook on normal human anatomy , which he personally supervised in all nine editions (first edition 1927, 9th edition 1953), is regarded as the culmination of his life's work .

The book Research and Researchers at the Tyrolean Medical School (1945–1947) was dedicated to Felix Sieglbauer on the occasion of his 70th birthday by his professors at the medical faculty of the University of Innsbruck. A number of scientific works were dedicated to the jubilee in a closed form in order to express the general admiration that this medical teacher and researcher was shown far beyond the national borders. Among other things, it reads:

Ex-libris for Sieglbauer from his successor Sauser

“[…] Our medical faculty was lucky, I would almost like to say: the grace of having in Felix Sieglbauer the ideal representative of the basic subject, anatomy, for 30 years. An exemplary teacher who knew how to clearly structure the material and how to put the links back together into a lively unity, as he then put it in his textbook, generally valid and reaching far beyond Innsbruck. [...] Such a rounded personality of impeccable character not only had to make the deepest impression on the young medical professionals, it also exercised a silent but lasting influence on the formation of the faculty and the university. [...] "

“[...] Felix Sieglbauer's 70th birthday gives the medical faculty and its professors the festive opportunity to dedicate a series of scientific papers in closed form to the jubilarians and thus to express the general admiration that this medical teacher and researcher has far beyond Is brought across national borders. [...] During the period of its effectiveness, the anatomical museum turned from a cabinet of rarities into a sight, because it not only preserves scientific teaching and show specimens, many of which were from his hand, but also a number of anatomical models, creations of his wealth of ideas that are hardly ever seen an anatomical museum in this universality shows. One of the jewels of this collection, the anthropological department, was the victim of a bomb attack on December 15, 1943, which, along with the institute building, hit Sieglbauer's life's work and himself badly. [...] Sieglbauer was not only a "prospector" in the Goethean sense, but also a "proplasticist", his anatomical master school extended not only to the dissection room, but also to the anatomical modeling of the budding doctors. [...] Congenial to a Braus, a Mollier, a Tandler, amicably connected to a Bluntschli and Heidenhain, he led the fortunes of the Tyrolean Medical School together with Ranzi and Schumacher, Pommer and Haberer and many others for many years. [...] "

Sieglbauer (right) with successor Sauser (left) at the inauguration of the Sieglbauer bust

"[...] At first glance, Sieglbauer is one of those anatomists who, beyond morphology, particularly emphasize the functional and, above all, the surgically and practically significant. This came to the fore in his studies of the musculoskeletal system. No less in his constant demand for the X-ray image to be incorporated as a teaching aid in anatomical lessons. Here, in the 'anatomically viewed biology', the arc is drawn to general physiology, which has become the fixed framework. The basics of percussion and auscultation in Sieglbauer's lectures were clearly explained to the student and it was convincingly demonstrated that surgical action must be anatomically supported. Situs demonstrations, held by Sieglbauer himself, were unforgettable. As early as the third semester, it became clear to the doctor in the dissecting room that the basics of abdominal surgery are given in purely anatomical lines. In the dead body, the nature, purpose and significance of the peritoneum became an experience for him. . [...] "

“[…] We too are under the impression that what is needed is not one-sided specialization, but the consensus partium of science called for by Sieglbauer. [...] According to Sieglbauer, constant contact between theoretical, especially anatomical and psychological work with the clinic is essential for teaching the central and autonomous nervous system. […] The fact that the metal splinters tend to get caught on large vessels and the connective tissue septa indicates the importance of the connection with the anatomical conditions in the sense of Sieglbauer and makes it much easier to find these splinters during the operation. The Siemens fragment detector has not proven itself particularly well. [...] This opens up completely new aspects for the understanding of restitution processes in the brain, which is due to the cooperation between practical medicine and the theoretical subjects of biology, which Sieglbauer programmatically demanded. "

Other works

Sieglbauer also dealt intensively with Goethe's concept of morphology and knew about the various assessments: Syntheticists welcomed his work, while analysts such as the anatomist and embryologist KEV Baer, ​​the physiologist du Bois-Reymond and the botanist Jul. Sachs gave Goethe's morphological work every value to agree. He said that Goethe was not a scholar, but a wise man, a wise man, he was not a natural scientist, but a spectator of nature.

Fonts (selection)

• Muscles and nerves of the turtle extremity . Verh.anat.Ges. 22nd verse., Berlin, 22. – 25. April 1908: 283-288.
• Under a live occipital torsus . The Military Doctor, No. 6: 1–7.
• The normal anatomy in its development and in its relation to practical medicine . Sieglbauer, Felix. - Leipzig: G. Thieme, 1918.
• Textbook of normal human anatomy . Sieglbauer, Felix. - Berlin: Urban & Schwarzenberg, 1927.
• Anatomical folder . Sieglbauer, Felix. - Berlin: Urban & Schwarzenberg, 1929.
• Comments on the provisional list from 1931 of the Nomina anatomica . Sieglbauer, Felix. - Innsbruck, anatomist. Inst., 1932.
• Instructions for preparing entire corpses . Sieglbauer, Felix. - Innsbruck: anatomist. Inst., 1932.
• Textbook of normal human anatomy . Sieglbauer, Felix. - Berlin: Urban & Schwarzenberg, 1935.
• Anatomical folder . Sieglbauer, Felix. - Vienna: Urban & Schwarzenberg, 1950.
• Instructions for dissecting whole corpses . Sieglbauer, Felix. - Innsbruck: Anatomical Inst. D. University, 1966.

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Sieglbauer, Felix. Retrieved March 21, 2015 . 
2. ↑ On the development of avian extremity. Ztschr.wiss.Zool., 97 (2): 262-313.
3. ^ Clinic memorial. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on April 2, 2015 ; accessed October 1, 2015 . 
4. ↑ Felix Sieglbauer. Retrieved February 21, 2015 . 
5. ^ Peter Goller: The political situation at the University of Innsbruck 1933/34 - 1938 - 1945/50. Austrofascism - Nazism - Restoration - Denazification. In: Johannes Koll (Ed.): “Cleansing” at Austrian universities 1934-1945. Requirements, processes, consequences. Vienna 2017, p. 372.
6. ^ Gerhard Oberkofler, Peter Goller (ed.): The Medical Faculty Innsbruck. Fascist Reality (1938) and Continuity in Post-Fascist Conditions (1945). A documentation. Innsbruck 1999, p. 161.
7. ↑ Archives des Affaires étrangères, AUT 3122, 22/14, Haut Commissariat de la République Francaise en Autriche, Mission de Contrôle, Section Sécurité, Service Sûreté Tyrol, Fournier Chef de la Section Sécurité, February 19, 1948. The report is attached Lists of corpses transferred from Munich, Landeck, Jenbach and St. Johann im Pongau.
8. ↑ Archives des Affaires étrangères, AUT 3122, 22/14, [presumably Haut Commissariat de la République Francaise en Autriche, Mission de Contrôle, Section Sécurité, Service Sûreté Tyrol], to Délégué Général, March 8, 1948.
9. ^ Division for Clinically Functional Anatomy: Museum. Retrieved October 1, 2015 . 
10. ↑ Archives des Affaires étrangères, AUT 3122, 22/14, Haut Commissariat de la République Francaise en Autriche, Mission de Contrôle, Section Sécurité, Service Sûreté Tyrol, Fournier to Chef de la Section Sécurité, February 19, 1948.
11. ↑ Herwig Czech, From the place of execution to the dissecting table, On the anatomical utilization of Nazi victims in Vienna, Innsbruck and Graz. Documentation archive of the Austrian resistance (ed.), Feindbilder, Vienna 2015.
12. ^ Czech H .; Brenner E., 2019: "Nazi victims on the dissection table - The Anatomical Institute in Innsbruck. Annals of Anatomy - Anatomischer Anzeiger, 4/2019. Accessed October 5, 2019 . 
13. ^ Friedrich Kutzer. Retrieved October 1, 2015 . 
14. ↑ Sieglbauer, Felix: Textbook of normal human anatomy , 1944. online , accessed on December 30, 2014
15. ^ College of professors in the medical faculty of the University of Innsbruck: Research and researchers at the Tyrolean Medical School (1945–1947). University of Innsbruck, Wels 1947, pp. 5–6, QFFFQS by Gschnitzer, Rector (Quod faustum felix fortunatumque sit! - May it be cheap, happy and blessed!)
16. ^ College of professors in the medical faculty of the University of Innsbruck: Research and researchers at the Tyrolean Medical School (1945–1947). University of Innsbruck, Wels 1947, pp. 7–9, foreword by Prof. Dr. Dr. Mr. Gustav Sauser, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine
17. ^ College of professors in the medical faculty of the University of Innsbruck: Research and researchers at the Tyrolean Medical School (1945–1947). University of Innsbruck, Wels 1947, pp. 16–17, On the anatomy of the surgeon by Prof. Dr. Burghard Breitner, director of the Innsbruck University Surgical Clinic
18. ^ College of professors in the medical faculty of the University of Innsbruck: Research and researchers at the Tyrolean Medical School (1945–1947). University of Innsbruck, Wels 1947, p. 30, On the follow-up treatment of central and peripheral nerve injuries during the war by K. Th. Dussik and Prof. Dr. Hubert Urban, Head of the Psychiatric-Neurological University Clinic Innsbruck
19. ↑ Innsbruck University Almanac on the Goethe year 1949 , pages 165ff, 1944. After a lecture given on December 6, 1932 in the scientific-medical association in Innsbruck with explanatory demonstrations, printed for the first time in the Wiener Klin. Weekly 1933, No. 5, page 129.