Dr. Ernst Steiner

• Born on: 2.5.1886
• Birthplace: Groß-Seelowitz (Židlochovice),
• 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.

Steiner studied law as well as economics and social sciences at the universities in Prague, Munich, and Vienna. In 1910, he received his doctorate in law and political science from the University of Vienna. After World War I, during which he was severely wounded, Steiner worked for many years as a speaker for social policy at the Chamber for Workers and Employees in Vienna. In addition, starting in 1929, he held teaching positions at the University for World Trade. Following his habilitation in 1932, he worked there as a private lecturer in social policy.

In January 1937, Steiner submitted a request at the University for World Trade to expand his teaching authorization to the entire field of economics. In practice, however, he ultimately ended up empty-handed. Although the faculty agreed to the request and wanted to confer upon him the title of an Extraordinary Professor, it initially took a long time before the board of the 'Welthandel' addressed the matter. In December 1937, this body postponed the decision "temporarily"; Rector Bruno Dietrich failed to provide a justification to the faculty. It is not excluded that the National Socialist English professor Kurt Knoll, who had been designated as an expert by Dietrich, expressed negative opinions about the Jewish and union-friendly private lecturer Steiner - thus hindering his professional advancement even before the 'Anschluss' of Austria. On February 22, 1938, the requested extension of Steiner's Venia docendi was formally approved by a letter from the competent Ministry. However, following the subsequent invasion of the German Wehrmacht in Austria, further employment for Steiner in public service was excluded: Due to his Jewish confession, Steiner had to resign in the spring of 1938 both from his position at the Chamber for Workers and Employees and at the University for World Trade. At the same meeting of the faculty, where Rector Dietrich and Knoll, in his capacity as the NS-Dozentenbund's representative, reported "on the completed racial and political cleansing of the faculty and civil service of the university," Steiner was cynically dismissed by Dietrich in the national socialist bureaucratic tone "with thanks for his work at the university." The extension of the Venia legendi proved to be useless, as Steiner was not allowed to be employed at any university in the Greater German Reich due to the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service of April 7, 1933.

In Vienna, Steiner was registered until August 26, 1938, at Universitätsstraße 8/3 (9th district), where he had lived since 1923. At the end of August 1939, he was able to emigrate to Great Britain. Where he had lived in Austria until his departure could not be determined. Like other people fleeing from Germany, he was initially interned in Great Britain. After his release, he initially had to earn his living as a night worker in a business in the optical industry. Starting in 1941, he was employed as a Research Assistant in the British Ministry of Labour. In the meantime, his private library was likely confiscated by the Nazi regime. At least a portion of the books made their way into the holdings of the University for World Trade, which benefited once again from 'Aryanization' - and Steiner became yet again a victim of National Socialist university policy.

On June 10, 1946, Steiner returned to Vienna. He found employment again at the Chamber of Labour Vienna, and he also resumed his teaching position at the University for World Trade. In 1947, he was finally awarded the title of Extraordinary Professor with a delay of more than ten years as part of restitution; later, he was appointed as a regular titular professor. Until 1961, Steiner taught at the 'Welthandel'. Moreover, in 1952, he worked as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia).

After returning from exile, Steiner was initially registered at Schlüsselgasse 8/16 (8th district of Vienna). After he married Rosa Sagaster in December 1953, the couple moved into an apartment at Landstraßer Hauptstraße 4/16 (3rd district of Vienna). In this apartment, Steiner passed away on December 11, 1971. He was buried at the Vienna Central Cemetery. In the same grave (Group 42, Row 13, Grave Number 13), his wife was also laid to rest; she died in 1978 at the age of 80. After the grave use right expired at the end of May 1995, the tombstone was removed in 2015.

The renewal of the award of the doctorate in business sciences, which could have been possible under the University Organization Law 1975 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his doctorate, "if this was justified in view of the special scientific achievements, the outstanding professional work, or the close ties of the graduate with the university" (§ 98), was omitted - similarly to Felix Glattauer - in his case. 

Author: Johannes Koll

Source material

Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, Universitätsarchiv, Personalakt Dr. Ernst Steiner.
Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, Universitätsarchiv, Professorenkollegiumssitzungen 1936-1944, Ordner 9.
Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, Universitätsarchiv, Präsidialakten 1938/53 und 1938/56.
Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, Universitätsarchiv, Präsidial-Protokolle 1934-1938 zu Zl. 17/1937 und Zl. 53/1938, Einträge vom 25. Januar 1937 und vom 12. März 1938.
Meldeauskunft des Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchivs, GZ MA 8 – B-MEW-788052/2013.
Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, Universitätsarchiv, Präsidialakte „Erneuerung akademischer Grade 1980-1984“, vorl. Kart.-Nr. 409.
Sabine Schrödl: Steiner, Ernst, in: Harald Hagemann/Claus-Dieter Krohn (Hrsg.): Biographisches Handbuch zur deutschsprachigen wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Emigration nach 1933, Bd. 2, München 1999, S. 680.
Friedhöfe Wien, Verstorbenensuche, http://www.friedhoefewien.at/eportal/ [26. Juni 2013].
Telefonat von PD Dr. Johannes Koll (WU Wien) vom 7. November 2017 mit der Verwaltung des Wiener Zentralfriedhofs.