About

Independent journalist, author and archivist. Member of the History of Medicine and Medical/Health Humanities working group of the Commission for History and Philosophy of the Sciences at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW). Member of the British Society for the History of Science (BSHS) and the British Society for the History of Medicine (BSHM). On the advisory board of the Austrian Society for the History of Science (ÖGW).


My present projects:

"Abortion in Austria - 1945 to 1974" is the title of my research project at MUVS. For the years in question there are few studies on the social, legal and medical context of abortions regarding the number, frequency, medical and organisational methods and processes, social environment and acceptance, policies of courts.

 

My book publications:

Das Sanatorium Auerspergstraße in Wien: Glorreicher Beginn, luxuriöser Verlauf, bitteres Ende. "Man" legte sich ins Sanatorium Auerspergstrasse - 1908 erbaut. Die Liste der Promis ist lang. Und wer operierte hier nicht aller: Professoren, Klinikchefs, Chefärzte ... (gemeinsam mit C. Fiala) in: Wr. Geschichtsblätter 3/2023, 153-183.

Last year there have been political negotiations about whether the only European production of penicillin would close down and had made us dependent on China. What a coincidence with my actual writing project! Immediately after the end of WW2, Austria was dependent on international help (UNRRA) while Germany started recycling penicillin.

Medizin und der verbotene Schwangerschaftsabbruch in Österreich: 1945-2004, (S 325-344) in: ‚Medizin in Wien nach 1945 - Strukturen, Aushandlungsprozesse, Reflexionen.' Dieser Sammelband ist im Rahmen der Arbeitsgruppe Geschichte der Medizin und Medical Humanities an der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften entstanden. Mai 2022.

Why does the Nobel Committee never view a topic pertaining to women as one that confers “the greatest benefit to humankind”? Together with C. Fiala, I had the pleasure of investigating this subject (pp. 171–183). Our list of candidates is long: Baulieu, Djerassi, Gräfenberg, Galli Mainini, Haberlandt, Knaus, Ogino, Steinach. Probably not even Semmelweis would have received a Nobel Prize, though, of course, it did not yet exist in his day.

 

My new book has just been published by the publishing house of Alexander Schug, Berlin. Why has it taken so long for the manuscript to be ready? The reason is quite simple: other (book)projects just kept coming up! It is set in the Museum of Contraception and Abortion in Vienna. It is about suspicions, conceits and old pain.

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A different book about olive trees – neither a cookbook nor Greek mythology! A journey through the year with Petra Haider’s atmospheric photographs: interesting facts, useful titbits, the amusing and the bizarre. From luxury cars to houndstooth. From spitting contests to Mighty Mouse. And about olive oil. 170 pages, German. € 30. Published in April 2018. Order here.

 

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The Detective of Fertile Days – The Story of the Gynaecologist Hermann Knaus (1892-1970) (German, 2017, together with C. Fiala). Hermann Knaus' combination of a hunger for scientific knowledge together with profound faith, of abrasive coolness towards sceptics and critics but touching solicitude for his patients fascinates me. The publisher is the MUVS in Vienna. It made it onto the 2018 longlist (category: Medicine/Biology) for the Science Book of the Year. The book can also be read in the Library of Congress.

 

Tracking NS-Lawyer and Rescuer of Jews Helmut Pfeiffer

[‚Spurensuche. Der NS-Anwalt und Judenretter Helmut Pfeiffer’], Dec. 2011, Vergangenheitsverlag Berlin, ISBN: 978-3-86408-003-6.  My research was supported by the Future Fund of the Republic of Austria, the Foundation Dr. Robert & Lina Thyll-Dürr and by Drägerwerk, Lübeck.

 

Die Sonders in Oldesloe – Eine Papiermüllerfamilie zwischen Courantthalern und Tuberculose (A family of papermillers in 19th century Northern Germany), in German, co-authored by Marianne Dräger, Wachholtz publisher, Neumünster (2009), ISBN 978-3529063589