Dr. Johann (Hanns) Porias

• Born on: 2.4.1903
• Birthplace: Graz
• Category: Diploma program
• 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.

Hanns Porias was the son of Dr. Ernst Porias (August 31, 1871 to February 15, 1954), President of the Senate at the Higher Regional Court of Graz, and his wife Margarethe (August 1, 1879 to November 10, 1943).

After attending a primary school and the Academic Gymnasium in Graz, Hanns took the high school diploma course at the Graz Business Academy. At the University of Graz, he earned his Doctorate in Law. As he emphasized after the Second World War, he worked during the semester breaks in the office of a coal company (CV from September 9, 1946).

In October 1925, Porias entered the judicial service. A year later, he passed the judge's examination with distinction. Since early 1929, he initially worked in Graz as a judge, and the following year he was transferred to Bruck a.d. Mur. Since 1935, he worked as a public prosecutor: initially in Graz, from July 1935 in Vienna; here he was "mainly involved in economic criminal cases" (CV from September 9, 1946).

Since his father's family was of Jewish faith, his professional activity in the public service came to an abrupt end with the "Anschluss" of Austria to the "Third Reich" and the Nazification of Austria. Initially, he was put on leave, and in mid-April 1939, he was forced into retirement.

In this problematic situation, he enrolled in the winter semester of 1938/39 at the University for World Trade. He attended their diploma program for six semesters until the autumn trimester of 1940; during this time, three semesters of his Graz Law studies were credited to him. After passing the diploma examination with good success, the diploma certificate was issued to him on January 29, 1940.

Due to his Jewish descent, he experienced discrimination in three ways during the Nazi era, despite his affiliation with the Roman Catholic Church: First, his studies at the "University for World Trade" were considered "conditional". Second, he was forced to sign a declaration acknowledging that, like all individuals classified as "Mischlinge" under the Nuremberg Race Laws (1935), the diploma certificate "did not entitle him to hold a public office in the territories of the German Reich". Thus, Porias was effectively subject to a professional ban due to the fundamentally racist legislation of the "Greater German Reich". Third, the Reich Ministry for Education, Science, and Popular Education (Berlin) prohibited him from continuing his studies in chemistry during the second semester, which he had started at the University of Vienna in 1940.

The effective professional ban in public service, which posed an existential problem for a trained lawyer, forced Porias into the private sector. From May 1940 onwards, he earned his living in a wholesale company and worked part-time as a legal clerk in a patent attorney's office (CV from September 9, 1946).

Right after the war, he re-enrolled at the "University for World Trade". In the summer semester of 1945 and the winter semester of 1945/46, he completed two more semesters, but did not finish with a doctorate. Presumably, his professional obligations did not allow him the time to earn the degree of Doctor of Commercial Sciences. Because already in April 1945, even before the total surrender of the German armed forces, he was appointed to the Public Prosecutor's Office in Vienna, and from July 1945, he was active in the Austrian Patent Office. Additionally, he co-founded the Alpenländische Hotel- und Kuranstalt AG together with his wife Vera Clementine Porias (May 15, 1910 to April 26, 1996, née Pichler) and three other people, based at the then Stalinplatz 4 (today Schwarzenbergplatz) in the third district of Vienna (Wiener Zeitung from March 2, 1948, p. 5).  

Hanns Porias passed away on December 22, 1992, at the age of 89. Eight days later, he was buried in Hietzing Cemetery. In the same grave rest his father Ernst, his mother Margarethe, his wife Vera, as well as her parents Franz Pihler (March 30, 1879 to March 14, 1971) and Franja Pihler (May 12, 1881 to November 11, 1970) and her brother Dr. Franz Pichler (July 31, 1906 to October 7, 1974).

Not only Hanns Porias himself was affected by the consequences of the "Anschluss". His later wife Vera was not allowed to spend more than two semesters as a special listener at the University for World Trade during the Nazi era, as she could not provide proof of Aryan ancestry. And two family members, whom Hanns declared dead in 1946, became victims of the Holocaust: Carl Porias (born March 18, 1870, in Lukawec) was deported on July 28, 1942, with his wife Elisabeth (born October 18, 1881 in Vienna, maiden name Schuloff) from their shared apartment in Porzellangasse 45/20 (9th district of Vienna) with Transport 34 to the Theresienstadt ghetto. There, Hanns Porias's relatives died on March 21, 1943, and December 9, 1942, respectively. According to the death notice of the camp administration, Elisabeth had been housed in Building Q 309 (Badgasse 9), but she actually died in the psychiatric department of the ghetto (Building E VI), allegedly due to persecution mania and pneumonia.

Author: Johannes Koll

Source material

Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, Universitätsarchiv, Studierendenkarteikarte, Protokoll über die erste (allgemeine) Prüfung an der Hochschule für Welthandel, Bd. 4, Bl. 82 und Diplomprüfungsliste Hanns Porias.
Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, Universitätsarchiv, Studierendenkarteikarte Vera Porias (geborene Pichler).
Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, Universitätsarchiv, Präsidialakten 1946/183, Lebenslauf von Hanns Porias vom 9. September 1946.
Neues Wiener Tagblatt, 64. Jg., Nr. 333 und Reichspost. Unabhängiges Tagblatt für das christliche Volk, 37. Jg., Nr. 335, beide vom 4. Dezember 1930.
Herbert Posch: Hanns Porias, in: Gedenkbuch für die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus an der Universität Wien 1938, https://gedenkbuch.univie.ac.at/index.php?id=435&person_single_id=41063 [1. August 2019].
Wiener Zeitung, 241. Jg., Nr. 52 vom 2. März 1948.
Friedhöfe Wien, Verstorbenensuche: http://www.friedhoefewien.at/eportal/ [1. August 2019].
Wiener Zeitung, 239. Jg., Nr. 76 vom 30. März 1946.
Yad Vashem: The Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names (http://db.yadvashem.org/names/search.html?language=de ) [1. August 2019], ID 4938044 (Carl Porias) und ID 4771872 (Elisabeth Porias).
Institut Terezínské iniciativy: Todesfallanzeige Elisabeth Porias vom 9. Dezember 1942, http://www.holocaust.cz/de/datenbank-der-digitalisierten-dokumenten/dokument/89698-porias-elisabeth-todesfallanzeige-ghetto-theresienstadt/ [13. Juni 2025].