Univ.-Prof. Dr. Alexander Pilcz

Alexander Pilcz attended the grammar school in Vienna-Alsergrund (Wasagasse) and, after graduating from high school in 1889, began his studies at the Medical Faculty of the University of Vienna (Dr. med. 1895). After completing his studies, he first worked as an assistant at the Medical Clinic and then at the Neurological Institute. From 1896, he was an assistant at the Lower Austrian State Mental Hospital in Vienna-Steinhof, as it was called at the time. From 1898, he was an assistant and student of Julius Wagner-Jauregg at the First Psychiatric Clinic in Vienna. When the latter took over the management of the Second Psychiatric Clinic in 1902, Alexander Pilcz was the provisional head of the First Clinic until 1907.

In 1902, Alexander Pilcz habilitated in psychiatry and neurology under Wagner-Jauregg and was awarded the title of associate university professor in 1907. At the same time, he was the head physician at Steinhof until the end of 1909. During the First World War, he worked as a senior staff physician (equivalent to the rank of lieutenant colonel) at the psychiatric-neurological department in Garrison Hospital No. 1 in Vienna and was also a consultant to the Military Medical Committee in Vienna.

Finally, he was appointed associate university professor of psychiatry and neurology on August 12, 1921. He also worked at the sanatorium for head-injured, nervous and mental patients (former "Döblinger Privatirrenanstalt").

As Alexander Pilcz was a member of the "Vaterländische Front", the St. Luke's Guild (Catholic doctors' association), the Leo Society and was anchored in political Catholicism, he was suspended as a university professor after the Anschluss on April 22, 1938. In 1938, he was also considered a "half-Jew" or "Jew" by the Nazi authorities and listed as a "2nd degree half-breed" ("quarter-Jew") in an assessment from 1942. He was finally dismissed at the end of March 1940 through forced retirement.

Alexander Pilcz was very productive as a scientist and published numerous works. His studies on periodic insanity and myxematous insanity were particularly important. His textbook on special psychiatry was a standard work in the German-speaking world for many years. He was a member of several scientific societies (Neurological Association Philadelphia, Medico-psychological Association of Great Britain, Neurology Tokyo, Société de médico-psycholigique Paris, Society of German Physicians and Psychiatrists) and was awarded the Wagner-Jauregg Medal.