Hans Bertha

Johann Karl Anton "Hans" Bertha , (born April 14, 1901 in Bruck ad Mur ; † January 3, 1964 in Graz ) was an Austrian National Socialist , psychiatrist and university professor who was instrumental in the killing of patients during the National Socialist era Has involved sanatoriums and nursing homes.

His life until 1938

Bertha graduated from the University of Graz to study medicine and received his doctorate in 1926 , Dr. med. From 1923 to 1924 he worked at the Institute for Pathological Anatomy , and then until 1926 at the Psychiatric-Neurological Clinic in Graz. From 1926 to 1929 he served as an assistant in physiological institutions in Tübingen and Berlin , and in 1929 he returned to the Graz Psychiatric-Neurological Clinic as an assistant. Since 1932 he belonged to the anti-Semitic Styrian Homeland Security . In 1933 he joined the NSDAP ( membership number 1.521.286) and in 1937 the SS (membership number 304.193), in which he was promoted to SS-Obersturmführer .

His participation in the Nazi euthanasia

In 1938, Bertha received his habilitation in psychiatry and neuropathology or neurology. From 1938 to 1945 Bertha held the teaching post for “Human Hereditary Doctrine as the Basis of Racial Hygiene” at the University of Graz, from 1938 to 1940 he was acting head of the psychiatric-neurological clinic. He was also a member of the Nazi Lecturer Association .

From 1940 Bertha worked as a T4 appraiser for Aktion T4 , whereby as part of the so-called euthanasia in killing centers, such as the NS killing center in Hartheim , were brought in and murdered. From January 1, 1942, Bertha acted as the medical director of the Viennese youth welfare institution Am Spiegelgrund , to which a so-called children's department also belonged.

Bertha also used the patient murders for his "scientific" advancement: According to the statements of the Hartheim killing doctor Georg Renno , Bertha was particularly interested in the brains of demented epileptics . When patients arrived in Hartheim with the appropriate diagnosis, their brains were taken and kept for Bertha, who came to the institution in person a few times to pick them up.

With the appointment of the staunch National Socialist, there was a qualitative change in the “Wild Euthanasia” carried out in Steinhof since the end of 1941 as part of Aktion Brandt , during which patients were murdered directly in nursing homes by doctors with food withdrawal or medication. In the Steinhof nursing home there was an explosion in the number of deaths. Bertha also took part in discussions of leading psychiatrists during the National Socialist era on the subject of euthanasia. Some scientists therefore assume that Bertha, together with Rudolf Lonauer, is one of the main organizers of “Aktion T4” in Austria.

post war period

Bertha was never convicted or punished for his involvement in the National Socialist mass murder. Not even a procedure was initiated against him, in the people's court proceedings in 1948 he was acquitted, although incriminating documents (e.g. index cards) were available to him.

In 1945 Bertha was appointed adjunct professor at the University of Graz, his teaching license was returned in 1953, and three years later he was made titular associate professor. In 1960 he was appointed associate professor and in 1962 full professor. From 1960 to 1964 he headed the Graz mental hospital.

In 1960 Bertha founded the “Salzburg Working Group for Cerebral Blood Flow Disorders”, which resulted in the “Salzburg Conferences”, which took place every two years from 1962 onwards. In the first congress volume ( The brain circulation in research and clinic; congress volume of the I. International Salzburg Symposium 1962. without location, no publisher, 1962) Bertha appeared at the University of Graz as editor alongside his colleagues Helmut Lechner and Otto Eichhorn. After Bertha's death in 1964, the two organized the congresses and acted as editors of the congress reports.

Bertha is also considered one of the founding fathers of the neuro-psychiatry conferences that have been taking place in Pula (Croatia) since 1961 (“International Neuropsychiatric Pula Symposia”, since 2005: “International Neuropsychiatric Pula Congresses”). The “Kuratorium der Neuropsychiatric Symposien” even issued its own coin, which was apparently received from the 5th participation in these conferences. The face of Bertha can be seen on the coin.

See also

List of Nazi doctors and those involved in Nazi medical crimes

Publications

• Hans Bertha (ed.): Natural science and civilization . Report on the Carinthian University Weeks at the Karl-Franzens-University in Graz 1956., Graz 1957.
• Hans Bertha, Otto Eichhorn, Helmut Lechner (Hrsg.): The brain circulation in research and clinic . Congress ribbon of the 1st Internat. Salzburg Symposium 1962, Graz 1963.

literature

• D. Angette:  Bertha, Hans . In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 . 2nd revised edition (online only).
• Kurt Wolfgang Leininger: Ordered dying - repressed memories. Nazi euthanasia in Hartheim . Verlagshaus der Ärzte, Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-901488-82-0 . with photo of the testimony of the police chief in Graz, 1939, to Dr. Bertha Johann (!), With photo of the 1st page of a curriculum vitae of private lecturer Dr. Hans Bertha, page 64ff

Web links

• eforum contemporary history

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Second updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, pp. 43–44.
2. ^ ^{A b} University of Graz, University Archives : Bertha . Retrieved November 24, 2019.
3. ^ DÖW: Exhibition of the DÖW: From racial hygiene to mass murder. See all chapters (sitemap left) as well as the organizational scheme ( via link, below)
4. ↑ Eberhard Gabriel, Wolfgang Neubauer: On the history of Nazi euthanasia in Vienna: From forced sterilization to murder . Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-205-99325-X , p. 82 ( Google preview ).
5. ↑ The war against the "inferior". Reopening of the permanent exhibition on the history of Nazi medicine in the Otto Wagner Hospital in Vienna. (PDF) In: DÖW-Mitteilungen, Episode 188, September 2008. P. 1 , accessed on February 7, 2014 . 
6. ↑ Peter Schwarz 2001. Murder through hunger - “Wilde Euthanasia” and “Aktion Brandt” at the Steinhof during the Nazi era, http://www.eforum-zeitgeschichte.at/frameseta1.htm
7. ↑ Michael Hubenstorf. Medicine without humanity, part 2, in: Wiener Arzt, 6, June 1995, p. 24
8. ↑ Wolfgang Neugebauer. On dealing with Nazi euthanasia in Vienna after 1945, archived copy ( memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
9. ^ Annegret Lucie Henning: Klaus Joachim Zülch: his life; his work; Catalog raisonné. University of Lübeck, 2004 (dissertation), urn : nbn: de: gbv: 841-20061214374 , p. 65f.
10. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from October 22, 2013 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. 
11. ↑ http://www.austriancoins.com/medalsassorted.html