In the second half of 19th century a large number of people studying at the medical faculty of Vienna University were Jewish, including Jews from Silesia. In the years 1850–1938 medicine at the University of Vienna was studied by 202 people of Jewish origin from Silesia. They came mainly from the territory of Austrian Silesia, less often from Prussian Silesia. In 1938, after the seizure of Austria, the university became an arena of racist and political persecution, which resulted in irreversible losses of the medical faculty’s intellectual potential – both lecturers and students. Approximately one third of Jewish students were forced to stop their studies.
The topic raised in this study is a reference to the seldom discussed issues regarding medical education of Jews on the territory of Silesian borderland in the context of supracultural assimilation, i.e. coexistence of Jews in the academic circles of Vienna as well as the development of professional careers of Jewish people in the German speaking area. This work has been based on archival materials: promotion records prepared for the needs of the rector’s office of Vienna University and requirements records kept for the needs of the medical faculty for the years 1818–1938, which are available at the Archives of Vienna University. They allow establishing the exact number of Jewish students from Silesia who were studying at the medical faculty in the years 1850–1938. Apart from personal data, which include the dates of obligatory and promotion examinations, the archival materials allow analysing such details as the place and date of birth, the place of taking secondary school final examinations, father’s property or job.
