Gerhart Harrer

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Gerhart Harrer (born January 28, 1917 in Innsbruck ; † December 24, 2011 in Salzburg ) was an Austrian psychiatrist and senior professor of the neurological department of the Salzburg State Hospital or today's Christian Doppler Clinic as well as a university professor for forensic psychiatry at the Law Faculty of University of Salzburg .

Life

Harrer was born the son of a ministerial councilor in Innsbruck. He attended the humanistic grammar school in Vienna and graduated in 1935. He then studied medicine at the University of Vienna . In March 1940 he completed his medical studies and received his doctorate in medicine. Harrer began his career as an assistant at the Hygiene Institute and the Psychiatric University Clinic in Vienna. In July 1940 he was drafted into the Luftwaffe medical replacement department in Baden near Vienna. He worked u. a. as an assistant doctor in the neurological-neurosurgical special hospitals of Professors Alfred von Auersberg and Wilhelm Tönnis .

Activity before and in the time of National Socialism

As early as 1932, when he was still in high school, Harrer was involved in the NS student union . At the beginning of his studies he joined the NSD student union . In February 1935 he became a member of the then illegal SS . He was a member of SS-Standarte 89 (with SS-No. 303.067), whose members had previously occupied the Federal Chancellery in Vienna during the July coup in 1934 and murdered the Austrian Federal Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss .

In July 1940 he was admitted to the NSDAP under membership number 8.121.657 . He was a member of the SS study group at the University of Vienna, which a. a. dealt with hereditary biology and racial hygiene , which was particularly promoted by the Nazi ideologues .

Post war career

After 1945, Harrer succeeded in presenting himself as less burdened in the course of denazification . Through the mediation of the Salzburg SPÖ politician Josef Weisskind, he joined the Association of Socialist Academics . In the archives of the BSA Vienna there is a copy of a duplicate of Harrer's membership card, which was issued on September 27, 1955 and which shows that he belonged to the BSA medical association and was a guest member of the professional association of the Vienna BSA university professors.

In 1947 Harrer worked at the Psychiatric Clinic of the University of Innsbruck. In 1951 he received his habilitation for neurology and psychiatry at the University of Innsbruck . In the same year Harrer became Primarius in the neurological department of the Salzburg State Hospital. After his appointment as associate professor in 1960, he became medical director of the Salzburg State Neurological Clinic, a position he held until 1984.

Harrer caused a stir in the 1960s when he applied to succeed Hans Bertha's chair at the Graz Psychiatric University Clinic. The two university lecturers Gerald Grinschgl, head of the laboratory for neurovirus infections at the Graz clinic, and Otto Eichhorn, head of the laboratory for radioisotopes, had dealt critically with Harrer's person. This led to Harrer's announcement that he would fire these two university lecturers; in addition, Harrer started an honor libel lawsuit, which he lost. The Graz neurosurgeon Friedrich Heppner and the Bad Ischl neurologist Kurt Eckel testified in his favor . Harrer did not get a chance to fill the chair in Graz, but in 1971 he was given a full professorship for forensic psychiatry at the law faculty of the University of Salzburg.

The close contacts that Harrer maintained with the euthanasia doctor Heinrich Gross , the right-wing extremist FPÖ politician Otto Scrinzi and the former Nazi public prosecutor Friedrich Nowakowski are well known . Gerhart Harrer was entered in the list of experts at the Salzburg Regional Court for the specialist field of neurology and psychiatry and was continuously consulted by the Salzburg Regional Court as an expert in accommodation matters. In earlier years he was also called in as an expert by the Salzburg Regional Court and the Wels Regional Court. The fact that Harrer was called in as an expert in so-called victim welfare cases under the Victim Welfare Act was seen as very problematic: “From today's perspective, it is more than cynical that it was now up to the discretion and perspective of a former SS doctor and racial hygienist To determine health damage caused by persecution ”. On the other hand, Harrer showed a great deal of understanding in the assessment of SA member and doctor Hans Czermak , who was charged with high treason in 1949 for his involvement in “euthanasia” cases in the Hall sanatorium and nursing home ; He attested this to a "general brain weakness". However, this did not save Czermak from conviction; of the eight years he had to spend only a good year in prison. Another public scandal occurred when an oak tree was dedicated to Gerhart Harrer on the occasion of his 90th birthday in 2007 and a plaque of honor was unveiled on the grounds of the Christian Doppler Clinic.

In 1969, Gerhart Harrer, Walther CM Simon and Wilhelm Revers founded the research institute for experimental music psychology at the Psychological Institute of the University of Salzburg as part of the Herbert von Karajan Foundation - Herbert von Karajan himself was a former NSDAP member.

In 1975 Gerhart Harrer founded the magazine FORENSIA - interdisciplinary magazine for law, neurology, psychiatry and psychology. Joint editors since the foundation were Heinrich Gross , Wilhelm Revers and Udo Jesionek .

Harrer was a member of the Salzburg State Medical Council and had been the first secretary there since 1952. From 1967 he was president of the Van Swieten Society. Harrer was also a member of the International Paracelsus Society, from 1974 deputy president, from 1994 to 1998 president and since 2004 honorary president. The motto of the 2006 conference of the International Paracelsus Society was “Paracelsus and the Reich”.

selected Writings

  • Rolf Frowein and Gerhart Harrer: Vegetative-endocrine diagnostics (test methods). Urban & Schwarzenberg, Munich [a. a.]: 1957.
  • Forensic-psychiatric aspects of sanity. Lectures at the scientific conference of the Austrian Neurologists and Psychiatrists and the Association of Austrian Judges on November 26, 1976 in Salzburg. Facultas-Verlag, Vienna: 1978.
  • Gerhart Harrer: Basics of music therapy and music psychology. Fischer, Stuttgart: 1982.
  • Gerhart Harrer: Sleep and Pharmacon . Symposium 1978. Ettal Abbey / Hotel Eibsee, Upper Bavaria 2. u. Oct. 3, 1978. Ed. "Roche", Basel: 1979.
  • Paracelsus. Salzburg Lectures 1997. Österreichischer Kunst- und Kulturverlag, Vienna: 1998.
  • Music and vegetative. A study from the Research Institute for Experimental Music Psychology of the Herbert von Karajan Foundation at the University of Salzburg. Ciba-Geigy, Basel: 1973.
  • Gerhart Harrer: The organic brain psychosyndrome. Focus on nootropics. Arcis-Verlag, Munich: 1989.
  • Gerhart Harrer: The incapacitation. 1978.
  • Gerhart Harrer: Therapy with Jatrosom. Symposium in Salzburg on March 21, 1969. Thieme, Stuttgart: 1970.
  • Gerhart Harrer (together with Heinrich Gross , Wilhelm Revers and Udo Jesionek): FORENSIA - interdisciplinary journal for psychiatry, psychology, criminology and law. Springer, Berlin.

Literature about Gerhart Harrer

  • Wolfgang Neugebauer , Peter Schwarz: The will to walk upright. Disclosure of the role of the BSA in the social integration of former National Socialists. Published by the Association of Social Democratic Academics, Intellectuals and Artists (BSA).
  • Kürschner's German Scholar's Calendar. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin: 1987.

Honors

  • President of the Van Swieten Society from 1967
  • President of the International Paracelsus Society (1994–1998)
  • Honorary President of the International Paracelsus Society (since 2004)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kürschner's German Scholar's Calendar. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin: 1987.
  2. ↑ a b c Wolfgang Neugebauer, Peter Schwarz: The will to walk upright. Disclosure of the role of the BSA in the social integration of former National Socialists. Published by the Association of Social Democratic Academics, Intellectuals and Artists (BSA).
  3. ↑ Primarius Dr. Gerhart Harrer convicted . Kleine Zeitung, February 18, 1967 issue, p. 15.
  4. ↑ Horst Schreiber, An “Idealist, but Not a Fanatic”? Dr. Hans Czermak and the Nazi euthanasia in Tyrol
  5. ^ Criticism of the roll of honor for the hospital boss . The August 26, 2007 standard
  6. ^ Van Swieten Society
  7. ↑ International Paracelsus Society
personal data
SURNAME Harrer, Gerhart
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian psychiatrist and neurologist
DATE OF BIRTH January 28, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Innsbruck , Austria
DATE OF DEATH December 24, 2011
Place of death Salzburg