Dr. med. Fritz Siegmund Schlesinger
- Bleicherode, County of Nordhausen, 12.10.1885
- Berlin, 16.10.1966
- Member since 1926
- Escaped to Argentina in 1938
- Berlin
- Specialist in gastrointestinal and metabolic diseases in private practice
Fritz Schlesinger was born in Bleicherode in the district of Nordhausen, Thuringia, in 1885 as the son of Emil Schlesinger and his wife Betty, née Herz.
Education and Places of Work
After graduating from the royal grammar school in Nordhausen on Easter 1906, Schlesinger studied medicine in Munich, Göttingen, Berlin, and then again in Göttingen. He passed the state examination in Göttingen in May 1911, and received his doctorate from the University of Göttingen in 1912 with the thesis “Über das ‘Frühaufstehen’ der Wöchnerinnen in der königlichen Universitäts-Frauenklinik zu Göttingen”. He received his licence to practise medicine the same year. He actively participated in the First World War. Schlesinger worked as an assistant physician and senior physician in the medical clinic at the municipal hospital in Stettin under Ernst Neisser.
Schlesinger settled as an internist in private practice in Szczecin in 1919. His focus was on gastroenterology. The practice grew rapidly thanks to his specialisation and a large catchment area. Schlesinger moved to Berlin in 1933, where he worked in private practice located at Pariser Strasse 45.
Escape to Argentina via France in 1938
Schlesinger fled to Buenos Aires, Argentina, from Germany via Paris and Marseille in 1938. He lived in the Flores suburb of Buenos Aires.
Fritz “Frederico” Schlesinger was initially not granted a licence to have his own practice in Argentina and thus ran a small cosmetics company together with his wife. He later received a 12-year contract as medical director of the polyclinic/outpatient department at the Hospital de Gastroenterologia Dr. Carlos Bonorino Udaondo in Buenos Aires. The clinic had been founded in 1938 and was a special hospital for digestive diseases. He also ran a private practice as an internist and gastroenterologist until the age of 75. He returned to Berlin in 1963. In doing so, he complied with his wife’s request, who had relatives in Germany.
Fritz Schlesinger died in Berlin in October 1966 at the age of 81.
Acknowledgements
We are extremely grateful to Susana Gluck, Fritz Schlesinger’s granddaughter, for providing important information on her grandfather’s biography and the portrait photograph.
Sources and Further Reading
Sources
