1919
Annie Pariser was a cousin of Hedy, whom she introduced once to me. Hedy was beautiful and made a great impression on me. I told Annie that I would like to meet her again, and she came with her to one of the next balls in the Sophiensaal, a very big dance hall. There I had an opportunity to take a better look at her, and I fell in love with her. From then on it was only Hedy and no other girl anymore. At night, I was dreaming about her. I felt about her as never before in my life. To me she looked like a madonna, behaved nicely, and had a fine smile. I met also her mother [Regina Ziegler], since she was her chaperon at the ball. She also made a great impression on me, and I loved her also right away.
Hedy had just finished 5 years as a student of the Beamtentoechter Lyceum, and had started as a student of chemistry at the University. I then met Hedy more often. I often picked her up in the afternoon at the chemical institute, and accompanied her home. Soon I was invited to visit her at her home and met her father, Dr. [Benjamin] Ziegler, her sister Lisa, who was about 15 years old and very pretty, and her brother Erich, who was about 10 years old and a lovely boy. They all were very nice to me, and I, in return liked them very much.
Picking Hedy up from the chemical institute and accompanying her home became soon routine, although I did not go upstairs with her each time. But I was often invited for meals, and it did not take long that I became an almost daily guest for dinner. On weekends, we often went ice-skating, later in spring on excursions in the Wienerwald, often together with Lisa and Erich. Hedy took at that time English lessons with a Miss Butterworth, a lovely English lady, and soon I became her pupil also. I loved Hedy’s mother very much, also liked her father very much, who was extremely friendly towards me and introduced me to others, doctors and patients, as doctorandus, which meant future doctor (in Latin).
I should mention here that Sidy Berler, my former girlfriend from Czernowitz, was quite upset that I had never written to her since I had left Czernowitz. She had visited my mother a few times, but she was unable to explain to her what had happened. She must have made inquiries about me and must have found out that I often went in the late afternoon to the Cafe Siller, a big coffeehouse on the Franz Josef’s Kai. One day, she was standing there, looking at me. I got up and showed surprise that she had made the trip to Vienna, asked her how she liked Vienna, and how her parents were. It was a short conversation, and I went back to my table, where my friends were. She had made that trip just to see me, perhaps had expected to hear more from me. But I had to play it this way and she must have been very disappointed. I could not help her. She wanted to get married, and the moment she spoke about it, it was the end of our relationship, because I was far from ready for it, very far. Anyway, it was not a catastrophe for her, because I had heard soon afterwards that she had married another boy, a former classmate of mine.
Now back to more important things, my studies. I took them seriously and spent many evenings and nights over my books. My first examination of biology I took on March 16, 1920, and passed it with the Mark genuegend, which means satisfactory. On the same day I took the examination of physics and passed it with the mark ausgezeichnet, which means excellent. I was glad that these two examinations were over. Now I had to start to study for my examination of chemistry, which I intended to take in December.
I had now more time for other more pleasant things. I met Hedy now daily at the chemical institute and accompanied her home. We went quite often to shows and also to operas and became great opera enthusiasts, always sitting high up in the gallery in the last row, or on the stairs behind the gallery, with the libretto in our hands, without seeing the stage. I especially was at that time a great Wagner enthusiast. We also went often to concerts. On weekends, we often went on excursions, usually for one day, into the beautiful Wienerwald (woods of Vienna), easily accessible by streetcar, walking long distances through the woods, and returning home again by streetcar. Often the Kahlenberg and the adjacent Leopoldsberg were the objects of our trip, sometimes the Alte Donau or the Lobau, where we rented a boat and rowed all day long.
Once Hedy and her English teacher, Miss Butterworth, had planned a bigger excursion to Langenwang in Styria for about 3 days. This was the area where the famous Austrian poet Peter Hosegger once lived. Hedy’s mother proposed that I should join them, and I gladly accepted. I was perhaps an intruder, and they may have liked it better to go without me. But anyway, it was a nice trip.
I should also mention that this was the time when the tone [sound] movies started. Till then, there were only silent movies. I remember that we once went to the Urania, our observatory in Vienna, where they showed a movie of a farmhouse and we could see and hear dogs barking, ducks gackle, roosters crow, etc. We were quite astonished. Hedy had to prepare herself for an examination, and once she asked me to give her questions to answer out of a very heavy book of inorganic chemistry by Treadwell. I asked her a great many questions at random, and she answered all of them correctly. She was quite a good student.
Now the summer started and I went for a 2 months vacation to Czernowitz. I took a book of organic chemistry (by Vannino) along and studied every day for a few hours. It was nice to be at home again. I often went with my mother and little Walter, who was by now 10 years old, to the river Pruth, where there was a nice sand beach. We usually met their friends of my mother. I was not a good swimmer, since I did not learn it when I was young, and once almost drowned.
My stepfather had enlarged his mineral water business very much, and was doing quite well. I spent two very pleasant months there, and when the time to leave came, my stepfather gave me again the money for the whole year.
In Vienna I found a nice furnished room in the Florianigasse in the 8th district, quite near the medical institutes. I had to study hard, since my next examination of chemistry was a very difficult subject. I signed up for December 13, 1920, and passed the examination with the mark excellent. Life in general was as before, attending lectures at the University, now mostly in the 3 last subjects of the first rigorosum, anatomy, histology, and physiology, which meant also attending special courses of sections of cadavers, also in histology preparation of parts of organs for microscopic examination, also special courses in physiology.
But there were many evenings for more pleasant things, visiting Hedy almost daily and staying there till late at night. There were shows, operas, concerts, and, when spring came, excursions. But in the meantime, I had to study hard, and I took the examination of anatomy on July 12, 1921, and passed it with the mark satisfactory. The examiner was the famous professor Tandler. Then I left again for my vacation in Czernowitz for 2 or 3 months. It was always very pleasant.
When I returned to Vienna, I rented a furnished room in Belvederegasse No. 36, in the 4th district. I stayed from then on for 7 years there. The landlady, Mrs. Wagner, was very nice and next to her apartment lived her sister, about 75 years old, whom we called aunt Fanny. She was quite lively for her age, and she liked me very much. When I came home late at night and saw that there was light in her room, I knocked and entered and sat then with her and she made coffee for me.
I had to prepare myself for the next examination of histology, which I took on December 13, 1921, and passed it with the mark satisfactory. I should mention that the examiner, professor Schaffer, was known as an anti-Semite, like many others of the medical faculty. I really deserved the mark excellent, but that mark only people got who had a certain button in their lapel. A great many professors of the Vienna University were anti-Semites and that was known all over the world. Not only students were the victims, but also people of the teaching staff, who, if they were Jewish, had to do really outstanding work to get the title Privatdozent. Great many of them got stuck there forever, others had to wait very long, among them the famous Siegmund Freud, till they advanced to get the title professor. It did not bother me that I got the mark “satisfactory” in histology, as a matter of fact, I did not expect a better mark from that professor Schaffer. But histology was one of my favored subjects, I was very well prepared for the examination, and I answered all of the many, many questions correctly. The main thing was that I passed the examination.
Life in general was pleasant and it became routine that I spent every evening with Hedy at her home till late at night. I am trying to remember specific experiences, but after more than 50 years this becomes difficult. I have 7 albums with pictures, most of which I had taken myself, the majority of which are portraits of Hedy or the members of her family.
We made often excursions on weekends, sometimes for two or three days, mostly into the Alps, south of Vienna. I have one picture of an excursion to the Hohe Wand (high wall), which required much walking on steep pathways, and it shows 5 people sitting around a table in a tourist house, my father-in-law, Hedy, myself, Lisa, and a young man, whose name I don’t know anymore. My father-in-law was 60 years old at that time, but he liked to come along on our tours.
Lisa was 18 years old at that time and there were quite a number of young men who adored her and swarmed around her, also often came to the house, went to shows with her, also came along on excursions.
At that time, my sister Else was in Vienna and lived in the 8th district on Hamerlingplatz in a studio apartment. I remember that she attended the Kunstgewerbe-Schule, which was on the Ringstrasse, and studied painting under professor Mueller-Hoffmann. I often visited her and was amazed about the paintings which she had produced. I found each and all of them beautiful. She had a wonderful hand and knew how to express herself, and a great sense for beauty. She had a special style, which I never had seen in works of other artists. That was probably the reason why she had often conflicts with her teacher Mueller Hoffmann. She told me that he wanted her to paint the way he painted. I not only admired her, but also loved her and she must have felt it.
Once I brought Hedy up to her studio, but Hedy did not seem to like her, did not like the way she lived. She used to get up late in the morning, since she went out every evening to a certain coffeehouse, the Opern Cafe, which was in the Operngasse at the corner of the Carlsplatz, where she met many artists, and probably came home late at night. So, she had to sleep longer in the morning. She knew many of the great artists who came to that coffeehouse. I myself saw once the great composer Franz Lehar in that coffeehouse, but it was in daytime. My mother supported her, since she never could make a living with painting.
I had to study again hard and took the examination of physiology on April 1st, 1922, and received the mark “satisfactory.” With that 6th examination I had passed the first rigorosum.
Till now I did not say much about Hedy’s mother [Regina Ziegler], who became later my mother-in-law. She was a wonderful woman and I loved her. She was beautiful, had a good sense of humor, and a heart of gold. There was harmony in the family and she tried to please everybody. Although there was a maid in the house, Mitzi, for many years, who cleaned and cooked, and was treated like a member of the family, Hedy’s mother was working hard with shopping, cooking, baking, and taking care of the telephone and making appointments, as the office was in the same apartment. She had it very difficult, since they had to give up one room, the office room, to a neighbor, and had to manage with one room less, I should mention now also Erich, a lovely boy, highly intelligent, good natured, and friendly. I will have to tell a lot more later about all these fine people, brought up by great, high-minded parents. I loved them all and it is unnecessary to say that I loved Hedy dearly. There came the summer and I went again to Czernowitz for my vacation.
