Josef Hlade
Abstract This text describes the founding phase of the Vienna Institute for the History of Medicine, the various conflicts that accompanied its establishment, and its international reputation. Its founder, Max Neuburger, succeeded in establishing in Vienna one of the world’s first institutes for the history of medicine. Along with Karl Sudhoff, he is regarded as the leading representative of the history of medicine during the interwar period. His work was of central importance for the establishment of modern medical historiography, as he pioneered an understanding of the history of medicine as a theory of science, an approach that was later adopted in English-speaking countries in particular. The first decades of medical history in Vienna were characterized by conflicts: There was great rivalry between Neuburger and the other leading Viennese medical historian of the time, Isidor Fischer. While Neuburger and Sudhoff had their own professional rivalry, it was not just controversies and struggles for prestige that shaped the history of medicine during this period. Neuburger and Fischer were both of Jewish heritage, and this had a massive impact on their academic careers against a backdrop of growing anti-Semitism. This paper can serve as a case study for the slow decline of the Vienna Medical School long before the 1938 Nazi takeover and the factors at its roots: Anti-Semitism, clientelism, and the activities of secret cliques and networks.