a.o. Prof. Dr. Adolf Jolles

• Born on: 9.11.1862
• Birthplace: Warsaw (Warszawa),
• Category: Employee
• Right of domicile: Wien (Wien),

The English version is based on a translation by artificial intelligence. The authentic version is considered to be the German version.

Adolf Jolles was the son of Fabian (Feibisch) Jolles and his wife Pauline (née Fichtenholz).

Studies and Professional Activities until 1938

He studied at the Royal University of the Capital of the Prussian Province of Silesia, Breslau/Wrocław. In 1887 he completed his doctorate in chemistry there. Subsequently, he was employed in Breslau at the municipal health office's laboratory, at the agrarian-chemical laboratory headed by Hugo Weiske, and at the chemical-pharmaceutical university institute headed by Theodor Poleck. In 1889, Jolles moved to Vienna, where he initially found employment at the Hygienic Institute of the local university. On July 1, 1890, he opened a "Chemical-Microscopic Laboratory for Medical, Hygienic, and Technical Investigations" with his older brother, the physician Dr. Maximilian Hector Jolles, which a contemporary specialist journal described as having a "highly practical and rich equipment"; after the death of his brother Max (1914), he managed this private laboratory at Türkenstraße 9 (9th Vienna District) alone. In 1900, the laboratory of the Jolles brothers was authorized by the Austrian Ministry of the Interior to conduct chemical and bacteriological examinations of food and luxury goods as well as consumer goods. For a series of inventions in the field of hygiene and technology, Adolf and Max Jolles were awarded the gold medal at the trade exhibition in Silesian Bielitz/Bielsko in 1890. 

Adolf Jolles was also an expert appointed by the commercial court, an appraiser for food chemistry, and editor of the Pharmaceutical Post and – between 1887 and 1891 or 1892 – of the Journal for Food Investigation and Hygiene. In 1893, he advised the Montenegrin government on the establishment of a modern, hygienic drinking water supply for the then capital Cetinje; for this, he was honored with a medal. In 1896, Jolles became a lecturer in chemistry and microscopy of food and luxury goods at the Technological Trade Museum in Vienna; in 1909, he was awarded the title of "Professor" by the Minister of Public Works. In World War I, he was awarded the Honorary Decoration II Class for Services to the Red Cross . From 1918, Jolles worked as a lecturer for chemical and microscopic exercises in the market-related assessment of major food and consumer goods at the k.k. Export Academy, from which the University for World Trade would emerge the following year. Here he additionally received the teaching authority for technology in 1931, again with special consideration of the market-related examination and assessment of major food and luxury goods. In 1935, he was awarded the title of Extraordinary Professor at the 'University for World Trade' based on a resolution by then Federal President Wilhelm Miklas. In addition to the various functions Jolles held over the decades, he regularly authored publications and reports in his field. Ultimately, he made his high-level expertise available to broader segments of the public. It is documented that he gave lectures on food and luxury goods or the determination of air quality for the General Lower Austrian People’s Education Association.

Marriage and Family Formation

On July 3, 1892, Adolf Jolles married Rosa Geiringer, who was born on July 13, 1868, as the tenth of eleven children of the Viennese textile merchant David Geiringer (died on May 25, 1898, at the age of 74 in Vienna) and his wife Theresia (née Oppenheim, died on April 25, 1912, in Vienna at the age of 77). The wedding took place in the apartment of Rosa's parents in Gloriettegasse (Vienna-Hietzing, 13th District). The Jolles couple had two daughters: Gertrud (born January 22, 1895, in Vienna, died November 9, 1996), who later performed as a renowned concert pianist, and Paula (born July 3, 1901, in Vienna, died 2008 in California), who married Ernest Freund in the main synagogue in Vienna in the 1930s.

Persecution and Murder by the National Socialists

After the 'Anschluss' of Austria (March 1938), the esteemed Jewish scholar was stripped of his teaching authority. In accordance with general legal provisions, Adolf Jolles was forced to carry the additional first name Israel starting in April 1939, and his wife was required to use the first name Sara; along with the obligation to wear the yellow star on clothing, this served to stigmatize the Jewish population.

Furthermore, the Jolles couple had to submit their property declaration to the so-called Property Traffic Office in Vienna, which all Jews were forced to submit by an ordinance from the Nazi regime. This ensured that the Nazi plundering state secured control over houses or apartments that Adolf and Rosa Jolles owned in Weidling, Brunn am Gebirge, and Vienna. Their house in Berlin-Mariendorf (Friedensstraße 6) was seized by the local NSDAP in 1941.

On August 13, 1942, Adolf, along with his wife, was expelled from their apartment at Peregringasse 1/13 (9th Vienna District) and deported to the Theresienstadt/Terezín ghetto. With the deportation, the Greater German Reich confiscated the entire movable and immovable property of the Jolles couple. Shortly after their deportation, Rosa died in Theresienstadt on September 7, and Adolf died there on November 13. The information in the „Death Announcement“, stating that heart failure and old age were the cause of death for the 80-year-old man, downplays the terrible nutritional, hygienic, and other conditions in the Theresienstadt ghetto. The actual cause of death will never be determined.

Gertrud, the daughter who married bank director Dr. Kurt Epler (April 1, 1891, to November 22, 1960) in the Seitenstettentempel on October 10, 1920, and had a daughter named Fernande with him, managed to leave the Greater German Reich with her family. After her husband Kurt, who, like his father Sigmund Epler (born 1859 in Moravská Ostrava), was a Freemason, lost his job at the Austrian Länderbank in July 1938 due to his Jewish background, the family gave up their apartment at Engelsberggasse 5 (3rd Vienna District) and emigrated on December 14, 1938, to the Netherlands. Three months later they moved to England, where Kurt was temporarily interned as an "enemy alien" despite the fact that he was a persecuted individual by the Nazi regime shortly after the start of World War II. In 1940, the Epler family exiled to the USA. Here, Kurt Americanized his first name to Curtis D.

After 1945

After the war, the confiscation of the property belonging to Adolf and Paula Jolles was declared invalid by the financial regional directorate for Vienna, Lower Austria, and Burgenland on September 15, 1949. The properties that the Nazi regime had illegally seized were returned to daughters Paula (then living in Connecticut) and Gertrude (then living in New York).

On the Shoah Memorial Wall, which was inaugurated in November 2021 in Ostarrichi-Park (9th Vienna District), Adolf's name was engraved from the very beginning. Rosa's name was added in 2022.

Author: Johannes Koll

Source material

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Walter Mentzel: Jolles, Maximilian Hector – Mediziner und Inhaber des Chemisch-mikroskopischen Laboratoriums für hygienische, medizin-chemische und technisch-chemische Untersuchungen, in: Medizinische Universität Wien: Aus den medizinhistorischen Beständen der UB MedUni Wien, Nr. 272, Stand: 29.02.2024, https://ub.meduniwien.ac.at/blog/?p=43221 [28. Februar 2025].
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Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, Universitätsarchiv, Protokoll über die Sitzung des Professorenkollegiums vom 21. Mai 1935 und Präsidialakt 56/1938, Schreiben von Rektor Bruno Dietrich an Adolf Jolles vom 3. Mai 1938.
Österreichisches Staatsarchiv, Archiv der Republik, Bundesministerium für Finanzen, Vermögensverkehrsstelle, Vermögensanmeldungen 46836 (Adolf Jolles) und 46835 (Rosa Jolles).
Österreichisches Staatsarchiv, Archiv der Republik, Finanzlandesdirektion 18211.
Yad Vashem: The Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names, http://db.yadvashem.org/names/search.html?language=en [24. Juli 2014], Nr. 1012731 und 1400759 zu Adolf, Nr. 1015460, 1400762 und 4768922 zu Rosa Jolles.
Opferdatenbank des Dokumentationsarchivs des österreichischen Widerstands (http://www.doew.at ) [7. Dezember 2023].
E-Mail von Fernande Epler Ross (Enkelin von Adolf Jolles) an PD Dr. Johannes Koll (WU Wien) vom 5. Januar 2018.
Center for Jewish History: Interview von Stefan Haider mit Fernande Epler Ross vom 7. Juli 2015, Leo Baeck Institute (New York), Nr. 3381971.
Günter K. Kodek: Unsere Bausteine sind die Menschen. Die Mitglieder der Wiener Freimaurerlogen (1869-1938), Wien 2009, S. 80 f.