Fuerth Sanatorium

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Building Schmidgasse 12-14

The sanatorium Fürth is a 1887 in Vienna District Josefstadt to plans by the Swiss architect Hans Auer built Grade II listed ( list entry ) building, as until 1938 the sanatorium was used.

construction

The four-storey building in the neo-Renaissance style was the imperial council Albin Eder, who had bought the previous building in 1886, 1887 in the Schmid Gasse 12 in Vienna District Josefstadt built according to plans by Hans Auer and in 1892 expanded.

Tower-like protruding side risalites with strong console cornices are striking . The ground floor is rusticated , the upper floors have plaster ashlars and arched windows with frames in neo-Renaissance style. The portal window group has lateral volutes and blown gables . The extension to Buchfeldgasse has a pronounced side elevation. A gallery with iron grating runs around the polygonal foyer and rests on pillars and arcades.

After the expansion, the building had 54 rooms, two operating theaters and an X-ray institute. The property had an area of ​​2850 m², of which 1142 m² were built over, and had courtyards and gardens.

history

The building was initially used as a private institution by the imperial councilor Dr. Albin Eder used. Over 1200 patients were treated each year. The building was later named after the doctor Julius Fürth (1859–1923), a friend of Sigmund Freud, who bought it in 1895, expanded it and operated it as a sanatorium for surgery, gynecology, obstetrics and internal medicine . The sanatorium became Vienna's most important private maternity clinic for the Jewish bourgeoisie . After Julius Fürth's death in 1926, the sanatorium passed to his son Lothar.

On April 2, 1938, after the annexation of Austria , the latter was forced to clean the sidewalk in front of his sanatorium as part of a friction section . Fürth could not bear this humiliation and committed suicide together with his wife on April 3, 1938. He left a will, according to which his in -laws Ida and Emil Constant should be called to heirs. However, these did not take over the inheritance, so that the legal succession came into effect. However, all possible heirs were considered Jews under the Nuremberg Race Laws and did not inherit either.

Less than a month after Fürth's death, the Wehrmacht claimed the property for their purposes on May 1, 1938, so that the sanatorium, which was initially continued under the direction of Franz Neuhauser, closed on July 7, 1938, and the Vienna Military Replacement Inspection closed the building on August 25, 1938 related. An estate administrator appointed by the National Socialists sold the sanatorium to the German Reich on March 27, 1939 for 310,000  Reichsmarks .

Renovation work in 2011

In 1945 the building was initially confiscated by the American occupation authorities and transferred to the Republic of Austria on the basis of the Austrian State Treaty in 1948 . This leased the building to the United States Department of State until 2007 . In the course of a settlement between it and the Republic of Austria and the payment of an amount of 700,000  Schilling as compensation in 1966, the collection center for heireless assets withdrew its application for restitution of the property made in 1960.

The heirs of Lothar Fürth were excluded from the restitution laws of the post-war period, as only direct relatives were allowed to submit applications and the executor appointed by Fürth was not recognized as Lothar Fürth's legal successor. Only the General Settlement Fund Act passed by the Republic in 2001 allows the heirs to submit an application. The journalist Stephan Templ , who lives in Prague and comes from the Fürth family, did this on behalf of his mother. The restitution case Sanatorium Fürth made headlines around the world when Templ was sentenced to an unconditional three-year prison sentence. The court accused him of not naming an aunt in the application for restitution and thus harming the Republic of Austria. Even after Templ's completed restitution applications, in which he named his aunt six times, surfaced, the court rejected Templ's release from prison as well as the reversal of the verdict. It was not until November 15, 2005 that the Arbitration Panel of the Austrian General Settlement Fund recommended in rem restitution , which in 2009 and 2010 led to a transfer of ownership to a community of heirs consisting of 39 members. The latter sold the property in 2010 to the development company "Schmidgasse 14", which had the building converted into a residential building.

A stumbling block , the one with the inscription In memory of Susanne and Lothar Fürth. Representing everyone who has been driven to suicide by humiliation and despair. to commemorate the fate of the couple Fürth, was moved from the entrance of the house to a hidden, almost secluded corner.

literature

Web links

Commons : Schmidgasse 12-14  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b The Fürth family. At: nordbayern.de. May 19, 2009.
  2. ↑ a b c d Tina Walzer: From the Bohemian Forest into the world: Insights into the history of the Fürth family. At: David.Juden.at. Jewish culture magazine.
  3. ↑ Kate Connolly: Jewish author remains in Austrian jail despite discovery of key papers. At: TheGuardian.com. February 13, 2016.
  4. ↑ Frequently asked questions about the restitution case Sanatorium Fürth / Stephan Templ. At: indemedigungsfonds.org. June 4, 2014. General Compensation Fund for Victims of National Socialism in the case of the Fürth Sanatorium.

Coordinates: 48 ° 12 ′ 38.6 ″  N , 16 ° 21 ′ 10.1 ″  E