Dr. med.
Max Joseph Buxbaum
1870 - 1941

Max Joseph Buxbaum was born on September 25, 1870, in St. Johann an der March in the former Austrohungarian Empire, which is now Morasvský Svätý Ján in western Slovakia. His father, Leopold Buxbaum, was a teacher and, his mother was Harmina Buxbaum, née Glück. The Buxbaum family were practicing Jews.

Education and Places of Work

Max J. Buxbaum attended the Leopoldstadt Community High School (Communal Real and Obergymnasium) in Kleine Sperlgasse in Vienna’s 2nd district (now Sperlgymnasium) and passed his qualifications in July 1890.

From the winter semester of 1890/91 until the summer semester of 1895, Max Buxbaum studied at the Medical Faculty of the University of Vienna. He completed his studies with the final board examinations in January 1896. He received his doctorate on February 28, 1896. During his studies, Buxbaum received a Bernhard Freiherr von Eskeles scholarship in the summer semester of 1895.

Starting in 1897, Max Joseph Buxbaum worked as a general practitioner in Hütteldorf in Vienna’s 14th district

He continued his job at the same medical practice (Linzer Strasse 410, 14^th District Vienna) for four decades until 1938. In addition to his private practice, Dr. Buxbaum worked as a family doctor until his retirement in 1938 at the “Kaiser Franz-Joseph Rekonvaleszentenheim für arme Frauen” (Emperor Franz Joseph Convalescent Home for Poor Women), an institution founded in 1892 in Vienna-Hütteldorf at Rosentalgasse 11. During his work at the Emperor Franz Joseph Convalescent Home for Poor Women, Dr. Buxbaum gathered data and published his experiences with the “nutritional and tonic” Fersan for the treatment of anemia.

Following World War I, the Red Cross took over the responsibility of the Emperor Franz Joseph Convalescent Home for Poor Women Buxbaum’s plans to establish his own clinic for patients with tumor diseases were thwarted by World War I. Buxbaum temporarily volunteered as a military doctor during the war. Furthermore, Dr. Buxbaum established the “Militär-Rekonvaleszenten-Haus-Hüttelberg” (Hüttelberg Military Convalescent Home) to provide free medical care for wounded soldiers.

In 1907, at the age of 37 years old, Max J. Buxbaum converted from Judaism to Roman Catholicism. In 1924, he married Johanna Kisiel. During the time span between 1907 and 1916, Max J. Buxbaum acquired the houses at Hüttelbergstrasse 49, 55, 59, and 61 in Vienna-Hütteldorf. It is interesting to note that Leo Trotsky temporarily lived in one of the houses in 1907/08.

1933 – 1941

Dr. Buxbaum, who was considered a “full Jew” according to Nazi terminology and the Nuremberg Laws, was subjected to persecution by the Nazis after the German Wehrmacht marched into Austria in March 1938. He was forced to submit a declaration of assets to the Nazi authorities (Nazi “Ordinance on the Registration of Jewish Assets” of April 26, 1938). His position as family doctor at the convalescent home in Hütteldorf was terminated on April 30, 1938, effective September 30, 1938. In the same year, the 68-year-old was forced to give up his medical practice at Linzer Strasse 410, where he had worked for 41 years, to the local NSDAP organization. From then onwards, he lived at Hüttelbergstrasse 49.

Max Joseph Buxbaum died on September 23, 1941, at the age of 70 in Vienna-Hütteldorf. No documentation to his grave exists. Buxbaum’s wife was still living at Hüttelbergstrasse 49 in 1955, after which she moved to Vienna’s 3rd district. The date of her death remains unclear.