Dr. Dr. h. c. Emmerich Zederbauer

After graduating from high school, Emmerich Zederbauer began studying botany in Vienna and embarked on a scientific career after completing his doctorate in 1903; in 1912, he habilitated in systematic botany at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna. He taught at the newly established Chair of Fruit and Horticulture in 1921, initially as an associate professor and from 1924 as a full professor. With his "Handbook of Fruit Growing", he laid the foundations for the new subject and contributed greatly to the deepening of this course of study. In 1937, he was made an honorary member of the Nibelungia student association in Vienna.

As rector of the 1937/38 academic year at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, he was arrested immediately after the Anschluss and taken to the concentration camp in Dachau on April 1, 1938 on the Prominent Transport.

"Rector o. Prof. Dr. Emmerich Zederbauer, who was still able to leave the university unhindered on the morning of 12 March 1938, was arrested when he arrived home, taken to the Dachau concentration camp for hard forced labor and only released six months later as a physically and mentally broken man. Prof. Zederbauer still suffers so severely from the consequences of this treatment that he will never again be able to take up his teaching activities as far as humanly possible. " - according to the report by Prorector Anton Steden.

Emmerich Zederbauer was relieved of his duties on March 14, 1938 and permanently retired at the end of May 1938 (dismissal). His family is "provided for" with the minimum subsistence level of 140 Reichsmark. The provisional director of the university, Franz Sekera (1899-1955), replies to a letter of petition from his wife Henriette: "140 RM is too much for traitors to Germanness."

Henriette's wife collects declarations of honor from students, graduates and illegal National Socialists among her acquaintances in order to obtain his release from prison. On July 31, 1938, she submits a request to this effect. In a letter to the Attorney General and Special Representative of the Reich Ministry of Justice Heinrich Welsch (1888-1976) on 10 August, Sekera also advocated his release.

"I hereby advocate a leave of absence for Prof. Dr. Emmerich Zederbauer from prison to give him the opportunity to visit his seriously ill wife in Vienna."

After his release on September 20, 1938, Emmerich Zederbauer continued to be closely monitored by National Socialist officials and had to report to the police once a week. On July 18, 1939, he was questioned again by the Gestapo.