Franz Seitelberger

Franz Seitelberger (1975)

Franz Seitelberger (born December 4, 1916 in Vienna ; † November 2, 2007 there ) was an Austrian neurologist . He was rector of the University of Vienna from 1975 to 1977.

Life

Franz Seitelberger, born in Vienna-Margareten , attended elementary school and grammar school in Vienna. After graduating from high school in 1935, he studied medicine at the University of Vienna. In 1940 he was promoted to Dr. med. univ. doctorate . During the Second World War he was used as a battalion doctor on the Eastern Front and suffered severe wounds. In 1945 he worked in the neurological department of the hospital there in Bad Ischl and in 1946 he began to work in the neurological clinic on Rosenhügel in Vienna. In 1950 he was approved as a specialist in neurology and psychiatry . For further studies he stayed at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Gießen in 1952/1953. After his habilitation in neurology , neuroanatomy and neuropathology in 1954, he was appointed associate professor at the University of Vienna in 1958 and from 1959 director of the Neurological Institute of the University of Vienna ("Obersteiner Institute", today Clinical Institute for Neurology at the Medical University of Vienna) ) ordered. Seitelberger was visiting professor in 1960 and from 1984 to 1986 "Fogarty Scholar" at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda , Maryland , USA. He was appointed full professor in 1964. From 1970 to 1990 he was director of the Institute for Brain Research at the Austrian Academy of Sciences . In 1987 he retired .

From 1974 to 1975 he was dean of the medical faculty, from 1975 to 1977 rector and from 1977 to 1978 prorector of the University of Vienna.

Franz Seitelberger died after a long and serious illness and was buried at the Hietzingen cemetery .

Act

He became known as a scientist through research into degradation processes in the brain, for example through aging processes or alcohol as well as neurodegenerative processes. His work on neurological diseases such as infantile neuroaxonal dystrophy , congenital Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease and Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease (GSS), a variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, were internationally recognized. He has published around 400 scientific publications on topics related to metabolic diseases of the nervous system, brain aging and aging of the brain, inflammatory diseases of the nervous system and multiple sclerosis, brain evolution and medical anthropology. Seitelberger was the founding editor of the scientific journal Acta Neuropathologica in 1961 .

From 1964 he was a corresponding member, from 1970 a full member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences , and since 1966 he was an "External Scientific Member" of the Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry in Munich . He was also a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in Halle (Saale) and a member of the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO). From 1974 to 1978 he was President of the International Society of Neuropathology (ISN). In 1982 he was President of the 9th International Congress for Neuropathology in Vienna.

Seitelberger has received numerous national and international awards, such as the gold medal of the federal capital Vienna . For his commitment to Japanese postdocs and guest researchers, he received the high Japanese award " Order of the Sacred Treasure with Star, Golden and Silver Rays" (2nd grade) in 1989 . In 1987 he was honored with the Erwin Schrödinger Prize of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He was also an honorary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest and the Mexican Medical Academy.

criticism

During his time as rector of the University of Vienna, Seitelberger was criticized by student representatives. The Association of Socialist Students in Austria (VSStÖ) and the Communist Students' Association (KSV) accused him of 'membership in the SS ' and demanded his resignation. Seitelberger justified himself by stating that he had only been to an SS sports community in which he 'only did sport'. According to statements made by then Science Minister Hertha Firnberg on March 3, 1976, after looking through documents, he, Seitelberger, had become a member of the SS unit 'Sturm 1/89' in 1938, but was classified as 'less exposed'.

In its issue 44/2003 of October 27, 2003, Der Spiegel reported in the article "Contemporary History: Deep Idiots" on the burial of brain parts of three euthanasia victims in Brandenburg. The three brothers ("Knaben K."), all with a rare hereditary disease, "died" between 1942 and 1944 in the Görden State Institution in Brandenburg an der Havel . Julius Hallervorden , a physician at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research in Berlin-Buch, had his extensive brain collection moved to Dillenburg in 1944; after the war he continued to work at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research there. Except for the three brains of the "Knaben K." Hallervordens brain slices were all buried in Munich in 1990. From 1952 to 1954 Franz Seitelberger completed his habilitation with Julius Hallervorden on the three brains of the "Knaben K." He diagnosed a special form of " Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease ", which was later called " Seitelberger disease "in specialist circles.

Fonts

• Franz Seitelberger: On the neuropathology of alcoholism , 1962
• Franz Seitelberger, Kurt Jellinger: Basic features of the morphological development of the central nervous system , 1967
• Franz Seitelberger: On the immunopathogenesis of brain tissue lesions in multiple sclerosis , 1969
• Franz Seitelberger: Life stages of the brain , 1978
• Franz Seitelberger: Environment and Brain , 1980
• Franz Seitelberger: How does consciousness happen? , 1987
• Franz Seitelberger, Erhard Oeser : Brain, Consciousness, Knowledge , 1995

swell

1. ^ Jean-Marie Thiébaud: L'Ordre du Trésor sacré (Japon). In: Editions L'Harmattan. L'Harmattan, December 2007, accessed July 27, 2009 (French). 
2. ↑ "Ex-Rector of the University of Vienna died" , Der Standard , November 5, 2007
3. ↑ ^{a b} Jürgen Dahlkamp: Contemporary history: deep idiots . In: Der Spiegel . No. 44 , 2003, p. 62-64 ( Online - Oct. 27, 2003 ).
4. ↑ "Research without scruples" ( Memento of the original from January 4, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , eForum ZeitGeschichte 1/2001 

literature

• Andreas Mettenleiter : Testimonials, memories, diaries and letters from German-speaking doctors. Supplements and supplements III (I – Z). In: Würzburg medical history reports. Volume 22, 2003, pp. 269-305, here: p. 292.

Web links

• Literature by and about Franz Seitelberger in the catalog of the German National Library
• Entry on Franz Seitelberger in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
• Entry on the website of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
• "University of Vienna and the Medical University of Vienna mourn the loss of former Rector Seitelberger"