Univ.-Prof. Mag. DDr. Gustav Sauser

Gustav Sauser, father of DDr. Ekkart Sauser, attended the Humanistic Grammar School in Wels and, at the age of seventeen, volunteered for the Imperial Rifle Regiment No. I during the First World War and was deployed to the Tyrolean front (last rank Lieutenant d. R.).

He returned from the war severely wounded and passed his school-leaving examination in November 1918. He then went to Innsbruck to study pharmacy. In 1920, he became a member of Austria Innsbruck. Gustav Sauser graduated as a Master of Pharmacy in 1922. However, this was not enough for the working student; he continued his studies in Innsbruck, first with chemistry, which he completed with a Dr. phil. in 1926, and then with medicine, where he was awarded a doctorate in 1930. His studies also took him to Erlangen, Tübingen, Wiesbaden and back to Innsbruck as an assistant at the Institute of Anatomy. In 1935 he habilitated in anatomy, histology and embryology. In 1936, he moved to the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Vienna, where he was appointed associate university professor of anatomy.

After the Anschluss, Gustav Sauser was dismissed from his academic posts and, as a "declared political opponent" according to the National Socialists, was taken into police custody in Vienna for several weeks. While in custody, he met Albert Niedermeyer. His pension was revoked with effect from March 31, 1939. He was released as "unworthy of military service" and returned to his home town of Wels, where he set up as a pharmacist and general practitioner.

Immediately after the end of the war, Gustav Sauser was rehabilitated at the Medical Faculty of the University of Vienna, and on October 12, 1945, he was appointed to the University of Innsbruck as a university professor and head of the University Institute for Histology and Embryology and later for Anatomy.