Robert Stigler

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Robert Stigler (born April 18, 1878 in Steyr , Austria ; † August 9, 1975 in Kirchberg in Tirol , Austria) was an Austrian physician and university professor . In the time of National Socialism he supported the Nazi racial hygiene , participated u. a. in research on racial physiology and held on to National Socialist and racist ideas even after the end of the Nazi era .

Life

Robert Stigler was the son of a pharmacist. He went to Vienna to school and graduated from the University of Vienna, Kiel and Bern from 1897 to 1903, a medical degree . He was a member of the Moldavia Vienna fraternity . After receiving his doctorate , he worked as a secondary doctor in hospitals in Vienna and Bern . He then worked as a university assistant at the Physiological Institutes of the Universities of Vienna and Graz . In 1911 he completed his habilitation in the physiology of the eye and became a lecturer in physiology at the University of Vienna . From 1915 Stigler was an associate professor and from 1921 a full professor of anatomy and physiology for pets at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna. He also taught at the Vienna nursing school from 1914 to 1919 .

Stigler made numerous trips, mainly for research purposes. In the period from 1908 to 1914 he traveled several times to the Mediterranean countries, including as a ship's doctor at the Austrian branch of the commercial shipping company Lloyd . From 1911 to 1912 he participated in the Uganda - Expedition of Rudolf Kmunke part and was u. a. involved in the first ascents of Mount Elgon and Mount Moroto . In the interwar period he traveled to Asia Minor , North Africa , Italy and the Balkans .

He committed to National Socialism early on . In 1931 Stigler headed the medical group of the department for race and race hygiene of the Gauleitung of the NSDAP in Vienna and in 1932 became a member of the party. The party-affiliated German Research Foundation saw him as an “old, tried and tested National Socialist fighter in Austria”. During the period of Austrofascism , Stigler was dismissed from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in 1934 for political reasons because he was a declared party supporter of the NSDAP. In the course of the annexation of Austria to the National Socialist German Reich , he returned to the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in 1938, where he was director of the Institute for Anatomy and Physiology for Pets from 1938 to 1945 . From 1938 to 1941 he held lectures on racial hygiene at the University of Vienna and taught there from 1941 as a professor of physiology.

During the Second World War , after the campaign in the West , Stigler and several other scientists carried out race-physiological research on “ colored ” prisoners of war from Africa and Asia in the Kaisersteinbruch prisoner-of-war camp in Burgenland in July 1940 . From 1941 to 1944 Stigler worked at the Marine Medical Research Institute for Submarine Medicine in Carnac in Brittany , where he was temporarily head of the institute.

After the end of the war, Stigler was dismissed from all offices in the course of denazification in 1945 . He retired in 1947. As a retiree, Stigler remained scientifically active. a. he published the results of previous research, dealt with cancer research and took part in numerous medical congresses. In addition, he devoted himself to popular education ; he lectured and wrote articles for popular science magazines. He dealt with general physiological topics, but also with racial physiology and racial hygiene .

Robert Stigler was married and had four children. He spent his last years in Going am Wilden Kaiser in Tyrol.

Awards and honors, later withdrawals

  • 1972: Award of the academic award "Ring of Honor" by the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU)
    • In May 2014 the Senate of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, posthumously revoked the Robert Stigler award. The decision was based on the fact that after research there was no doubt "that Prof. Stigler was spreading National Socialist and racist ideas in his research and teaching."
  • until 2010: Honored by naming Robert-Stigler-Straße in Stigler's place of birth, Steyr
    • In the spring of 2010, the Steyr municipal council decided to revoke the honor of a street name from the “racial researcher and former Nazi camp doctor” Robert Stigler and rename Robert-Stigler-Straße .

Publications

  • Textbook of physiology for nursing schools (=  textbooks for nursing schools ). Hölder, Vienna / Leipzig 1917; 2nd improved edition 1921.
  • Draft a new medical curriculum. M. Perles, Vienna 1918.
  • Professors - private lecturers - medical classes. M Perles, Vienna 1919 (from: Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift , 1919, No. 15).
  • Physiological leaflet for mountaineers. Published by the Vienna Teachers' Section of the German and Austrian Alpine Association (DuÖAV), self-published by the DuÖAV, Vienna 1921.
  • Textbook of physiology in a simple representation. 3rd revised edition. Urban & Schwarzenberg, Berlin / Vienna 1927.
  • Racial physiological results of my research trip to Uganda 1911/1912 (=  memoranda , volume 109, essay 3). Österreichische Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1952 (also at: Springer, Vienna 1952).
  • Normal and high blood pressure and cardiovascular mortality in different peoples. Epidemiology and Etiology (=  circulation library , volume 22). D. Steinkopff, Darmstadt 1964; Online edition: ISBN 978-3-642-87659-2 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Directory of the old men of the German fraternity. Überlingen am Bodensee 1920, p. 251.
  2. ↑ See short biography of Robert Stigler in: Deutsche Biographische Enzyklopädie , Volume 9, Schlumberger – Thiersch. 2nd, revised and expanded edition. KG Saur Verlag , Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-598-25039-2 , p. 706.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Birgit Pack: Robert Stigler. Physician, racial physiologist, traveler to Africa . On the online database The History of African Studies in Austria , www.afrikanistik.at, from 2010; Retrieved November 19, 2014.
  4. ↑ Revocation of the ring of honor from Robert Stigler . Press release of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU), www.boku.ac.at, from June 2, 2014; Retrieved November 18, 2014.
  5. ↑ Hannes Fehringer: Nazi doctor Robert Stigler is stripped of the honor of a street name . In: Oberösterreichische Nachrichten of March 3, 2010; Retrieved November 18, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Stigler, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian physician, university professor and representative of Nazi racial hygiene
DATE OF BIRTH April 18, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Steyr , Austria
DATE OF DEATH August 9, 1975
Place of death Kirchberg in Tirol , Austria