Despite intensified research efforts on the history of anatomy during National Socialism (NS), many aspects of this story still need further investigation. This study explores the life, work and politics of Alfred Pischinger, Chairman of the Institute for Embryology and Histology in Graz from 1936 to 1945, and in Vienna from 1958 to 1970, and is an addition to previous reports on careers in anatomy continuing through the Third Reich to the postwar period. Pischinger was an illegal NSDAP member in Austria, joined the SA in 1938, served as expert in racial hygiene, and as judge on the Genetic Health High Court of Graz. His research focus was histochemistry, but he became part of a scientific network at the University of Graz, which from 1939 on experimented on the bodies of pregnant women and their fetuses under the leadership of gynecologist Karl Ehrhardt. The researchers were among the many who took actively part in the complete exploitation and physical destruction of those considered to be "the enemy" by the NS regime. After the war, Pischinger received publicity for his work on the "scientific basis" of alternative and holistic approaches of medicine. His NS past and fetal experiments seem to have vanished from public knowledge. As systematic studies of the influence of the NS period on postwar medical education and the science of anatomy itself are still missing, this critical investigation of Alfred Pischinger's life within the relevant historic background aims to contribute to this body of knowledge.
Keywords: Alfred Pischinger; Anatomy in National Socialism; Bodies of the executed; Ethics of anatomy; Human experimentation; Karl Ehrhardt; University of Graz.
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