Oskar Fehr

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Oskar Fehr (born October 9, 1871 in Braunschweig ; died August 1, 1959 in London ) was a German-British ophthalmologist of the Jewish faith . He is considered a world-renowned eye surgeon. Scientific focus was u. a. Retinal detachments and eye tumors . Fehr was the first to describe swimming pool conjunctivitis and was the first to differentiate between macular , granular and latticed corneal dystrophy . The Fehr's syndrome , a form of dystrophy, was named after him.

life and work

Oskar Fehr was the only son of the Braunschweig horse dealer Salomon Fehr (1838–1919) and his wife Helene, nee. Behrens (1847-1902). Both married on June 15, 1866 in Ebstorf , the birthplace of the wife. In addition to Oskar, his parents had children Sara (1878–1942, suicide before deportation ) and Elisabeth (born 1895). The ancestors on the father's side were well-known horse traders from the town of Peine , located just under 20 km west of Braunschweig , who moved to Braunschweig in 1861 and continued to trade horses there successfully. His grandparents were Jeremias Fehr (1799–1875) and his first wife Henriette, b. Rintels (1815-1899). Oskar Fehr lived with parents and siblings Eiermarkt 3, in the historic precincts of Old Town . His uncle Louis Fehr (1842–1909), who worked in the family business, lived in the same house with his wife Ina, b. Nathan (1852-1920). Their son Curt had died young (1878-1894).

Oskar Fehr attended the Martino-Katharineum , where he graduated from high school in 1892 . He then studied law , then medicine. Among other things, he studied at the Humboldt University in Berlin and the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel . In 1897 he was at the Ruprecht-Karls-University of Heidelberg with summa cum laude doctorate . He received his further training as an ophthalmologist as an assistant to Julius Hirschberg in Berlin . After the death of his wife, the family moved to Berlin together with some other family members in 1903, but they were all buried in Braunschweig in the Old Jewish Cemetery on Hamburger Strasse .

In 1907 Fehr took over the management of the ophthalmological department of the Virchow Clinic . In 1919 he was appointed professor. He also ran a private practice in the western part of Berlin. In 1934, Oskar Fehr was denied access to his clinic as a result of the discrimination against Jewish academics and on the basis of the law enacted by the Nazi regime to restore the civil service . He worked in his practice until 1938. Then, with the Fourth Ordinance on the Reich Citizenship Act and the Ordinance on the Elimination of Jews from German Economic Life, Jewish doctors were banned from treating non-Jews and their license to practice medicine was revoked (they were now only considered " medical practitioners ") . With the help of financial support from former patients, Fehr obtained a visa and was finally able to emigrate to Scotland with his family on August 4, 1939 . However, upon departure, the family was forced to leave all their assets behind in Germany.

Although Jude fled his home country precisely because of the persecution of Jews in the Nazi state , German nationals in Great Britain were initially interned , including Fehr, who was brought to a camp on the Isle of Man on June 25, 1940 . Due to his advanced age, however, he was dismissed in March 1941, but was unemployed because his medical exams from Germany were not recognized in Great Britain. After lectures at the University of Edinburgh , however, he passed all the necessary exams, received another license to practice medicine on April 9, 1943, at the age of 71, and finally opened a practice in London. In 1947 he received British citizenship . Fehr was also a member of the Royal Medical Society .

After a second heart attack , Oskar Fehr stopped working as a doctor in 1955 at the age of 80. In the last years of his life he suffered from macular degeneration .

family

Fehr married Toni, geb. Brieger. With her he had the son Robert, who worked as an engineer in the USA. The marriage was divorced in 1920. Toni Brieger was murdered in 1941 or 1942 . In his second marriage, Fehr was married to the Jew Jeanne Alexandra Harriet Traub (1890-1942) from 1921. With her he had the daughters Ingeborg (born 1922) and Kitty (born 1923).

Fonts (selection)

  • The application of electricity in ophthalmology. In: Handbook of All Medical Applications of Electricity. Leipzig 1911.
  • Balneotherapy and climatic therapy for diseases of the eye. In: Handbook of Balneology, Medical Climatology and Balneography. Leipzig 1926.
  • Gonorrheic diseases of the eye. In: Handbook of skin and venereal diseases. Springer, Berlin 1930.

Honors

In addition to the neurologist and radiologist Siegfried Loewenthal, Fehr is one of the most important Braunschweig doctors of the Jewish faith. In his honor, the Oscar-Fehr-Weg (sic!) In the Braunschweig district of Kanzlerfeld is named after him. On the initiative of ophthalmologist Walter Lisch , the German Ophthalmological Society (DOG) organized the Oskar Fehr Lecture ( Oskar Fehr lecture series ) for the first time in 2013 in cooperation with the US Cornea Society . The first lecture of this alternating series of lectures was titled Prof. Dr. med. Oskar Fehr: The depressing fate of an extraordinary German-Jewish ophthalmologist ( Prof. Dr. med. Oskar Fehr: The shocking fate of an extraordinary German-Jewish ophthalmologist ).

literature

  • M. Amm, K. Holubar: A search for clues that began in Vienna: The Berlin Jewish ophthalmologist Oskar Fehr (1871–1959). In: Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift , (1999) 111 (12): 488-491.
  • Reinhard Bein : Eternal House - Jewish cemeteries in the city and country of Braunschweig. Döring Druck, Braunschweig 2004, ISBN 978-3-925268-24-3 , pp. 164-165.
  • Reinhard Bein: Oskar Fehr. In: Working group other history (ed.): Braunschweiger personalities of the 20th century. Volume 1, 2012, ISBN 978-3-925268-42-7 , pp. 64-67.
  • Reinhard Bein: You lived in Braunschweig. Biographical notes on the Jews buried in Braunschweig (1797 to 1983). (= Messages from the Braunschweig City Archives , No. 1). Döring Druck, Braunschweig 2009, ISBN 978-3-925268-30-4 .
  • Bert Bilzer , Richard Moderhack (eds.): BRUNSVICENSIA JUDAICA. Memorial book for the Jewish fellow citizens of the city of Braunschweig 1933–1945 , In: Braunschweiger Werkstücke , Volume 35, Braunschweig 1966, pp. 116–117.
  • A. Jokl: The life of Oscar Fehr. In: American Journal of Ophthalmology. New York 1962, 54: 1011-1019.
  • Rebecca Schwoch : Jewish doctors as medical practitioners in Berlin between 1938 and 1945. (= habilitation thesis) Mabuse-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2018, ISBN 978-3-86321-322-0 , pp. 259-261.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reinhard Bein: You lived in Braunschweig. Biographical notes on the Jews buried in Braunschweig (1797 to 1983). P. 335.
  2. ↑ Reinhard Bein: You lived in Braunschweig. Biographical notes on the Jews buried in Braunschweig (1797 to 1983). P. 356.
  3. ↑ Reinhard Bein: You lived in Braunschweig. Biographical notes on the Jews buried in Braunschweig (1797 to 1983). P. 304.
  4. ↑ Walter Heinemann: Memories of a Braunschweig Jew after 30 years abroad. In: Bert Bilzer, Richard Moderhack (eds.): BRUNSVICENSIA JUDAICA. Memorial book for the Jewish fellow citizens of the city of Braunschweig 1933–1945. P. 116.
  5. ↑ Reinhard Bein: Eternal House - Jewish cemeteries in the city and country of Braunschweig. P. 164.
  6. ↑ a b Reinhard Bein: Eternal House - Jewish cemeteries in the city and country of Braunschweig. P. 165.
  7. ↑ a b c Rebecca Schwoch: Jewish Doctors as Medical Practitioners in Berlin between 1938 and 1945. P. 260.
  8. ↑ a b Reinhard Bein: Oskar Fehr. In: Working group other history (ed.): Braunschweiger personalities of the 20th century. P. 66.
  9. ↑ Rebecca Schwoch: Jewish Doctors as Medical Practitioners in Berlin between 1938 and 1945. P. 259.
  10. ↑ Reinhard Bein: Eternal House - Jewish cemeteries in the city and country of Braunschweig. P. 77.
  11. ↑ Reinhard Bein: Eternal House - Jewish cemeteries in the city and country of Braunschweig. P. 252.
  12. ↑ Congress newsletter of the DOG of August 21, 2013 on dog.org
personal data
SURNAME Fehr, Oskar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-British ophthalmologist
DATE OF BIRTH October 9, 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH Braunschweig
DATE OF DEATH August 1, 1959
Place of death London