Dr. Dkfm. Felix Glattauer (später Gladwin)

• Born on: 26.3.1911
• Birthplace: Vienna (Wien),
• Category: Revokation of academic degree
• Right of domicile: Wien (Wien),

The English version is based on a translation by Artificial Intelligence. The authentic version is the German one.

Like his sister Edith (born May 22, 1916 in Vienna), Felix (also Felix Frederick) was the son of Hugo Glattauer (November 5, 1879 in Mikulov/Nikolsburg to October 10, 1949 in Sydney) and Elsa (born April 5, 1889 in Vienna, maiden name Haas), who married on June 26, 1910 in Vienna-Mariahilf.

Following his attendance at the secondary school in the 4th district of Vienna, Felix was enrolled in the diploma program at the University for World Trade from the winter semester 1928/29 until the summer semester 1932. After successfully completing this program within the allotted six semesters, he was awarded a doctorate in commerce at the same university in December 1933. Until the 'Anschluss' of Austria, Felix Glattauer worked as a proxy in his father's company, the Hungarian Wine Trade Co. Nachf. Hugo Glattauer. It was located in the 10th district of Vienna (Vienna-Favoriten) at the then Eastern Railway Station (now the site of the main train station) and was dedicated “to the trade and distribution mainly of Hungarian wines,” when Hugo became the managing director in 1910.

By September 1938, Glattauer was dismissed, and later the family business was liquidated. As a Jew, Glattauer was forced to submit a listing of all assets to the so-called Asset Transfer Office, a looting organization of the Nazi state. On behalf of the Reich Governor's Office Vienna, his father was forced by the Nazi official Friedrich Peichl starting in 1940 to sell property such as real estate and shares. In light of the systematic persecution of the Jewish population after the 'Anschluss,' Felix Glattauer gave up the apartment at Mayerhofgasse 1/11 (4th district of Vienna) in December 1938. It was in the four-story building built in 1907 at the corner of Favoritenstraße, which his father had purchased in 1923.

There are indications that Felix and his family initially fled to Palestine. Ultimately, the Glattauer family managed to emigrate to Australia, one of the Dominions of the British Empire. At least for Hugo, Elsa, and Edith Glattauer, a Richard Tritsch from Sydney had already applied to the Australian Home Office on April 19, 1938 to allow this persecuted family from Vienna into Australia. However, it would not be until July 27, 1939, that the three mentioned individuals arrived by plane in Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory. Felix, on the other hand, arrived in the Australian capital Sydney on May 6, 1939, aboard the British postal ship Niagara.

In their new home Australia, Edith adopted the surname Bowmer following her marriage. In March 1944 and October 1947, she gave birth to two daughters in the Australian capital (Evelyn Rae Charlotte and Robyn Ann). Felix chose Gladwin as his new surname in Australian exile. On September 24, 1950, he married Lucy at the Great Synagogue of Sydney (Elizabeth Street), who was born on May 7, 1928, as the daughter of Wilhelm Fertig (July 3, 1889 to September 29, 1955) and Regina Fertig (1899 to July 4, 1973, maiden name Rosthal) in Borysław (Voivodeship of Łódź) and had a sister Roma Fertig (born April 6, 1922 in Lemberg/Lwow), who later married Henek Herman (Zvi) Stramer (June 1, 1919 in Krakau to August 10, 1988 in Tel Aviv). With Lucy, Felix had three children (Henry, Janet, and Debbie). The couple likely joined the progressive Jewish congregation Temple Beth Israel in Australia; this congregation commemorated Felix and Lucy Gladwin in a book published in 2020. In 1956, Felix Gladwin became president of the Jewish lodge B’nai B’rith in Sydney. In 1953, Edith and Felix managed to sell real estate in Vienna-Favoriten covering over 1,700 m², which they had inherited from their father Hugo, to the city of Vienna.

Felix earned his living as the director of the Sydney company Wilmers & Company, in which he had entered in spring 1940 as one of four owners along with his father Hugo, and which changed its name in 1947 to Wilmers & Gladwin . When this company was acquired in April 1961 by Packaging and Printing Industries Limited , Felix Gladwin became the chairman of its board of directors and one of the managing directors. His residential address in Dover Heights, a suburb of Sydney, was 2a Kippara Road.

The emigration of the Jewish Glattauer family not only – as usual in Nazi Germany – led to Felix, his parents, and his sister losing their German citizenship. The University for World Trade also ensured in 1941 that “the Jew Felix Israel Glattauer” was stripped of his diploma and doctorate, after rector Kurt Knoll (October 29, 1889 in Parschnitz to July 28, 1959 in Vienna) had been informed by the Reich Ministry of Science, Education, and National Culture (Berlin) about Felix’s involuntary departure from the ‘Greater German Reich.’ The legal basis for this was the law on the revocation of academic degrees of June 7, 1939. In its § 4 it stated that an academic degree could be revoked by a German university if it is later established that the holder of such an academic degree is unworthy of it” or has proven “unworthy of holding an academic degree through their later behavior.” From the perspective of the Nazi regime, this was the case as soon as a Jew emigrated.

It was not until after the Second World War that Glattauer was reinstated his doctoral degree. An appropriate resolution was passed by the Faculty of Professors at its meeting on July 28, 1945; it based itself on the regulation 78/1945 of the Austrian Federal Office for Popular Enlightenment, Education, and Cultural Affairs. From August 16, 1945, Glattauer was allowed to officially use the title again.

The renewal of the granting of the doctorate in commerce, which could have been possible after the University Organization Act of 1975 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the doctoral award, “if this was justified in view of the special academic merits, the outstanding professional performance, or the close connection of the graduate with the university” (§ 98), did not take place – similarly to Ernst Steiner – in his case.

Felix Gladwin, also known as Glattauer, died on January 30, 1977. He rests in the same grave at the Rockwood Necropolis in Sydney as his wife Lucy, who passed away on July 8, 2009.

Author: Johannes Koll

Source material

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