David Ernst Oppenheim (20 April 1881 – 18 February 1943) was an Austrian educator and psychologist who collaborated with

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts ...

and

Alfred Adler Alfred Adler ( , ; 7 February 1870 – 28 May 1937) was an Austrian medical doctor, psychotherapist, and founder of the school of individual psychology. His emphasis on the importance of feelings of belonging, family constellation and birth orde ...

Biography

David Ernst Oppenheim was born in

Brünn Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...

Moravia Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The m ...

, in

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

, to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family, and educated at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hist ...

where he studied

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

and

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsca ...

, graduating in 1904. He worked as a professor of Greek and Latin at the Akademisches Gymnasium in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, and was interested in the ancient history and mythology. Around 1909 he contacted Sigmund Freud, and in January 1910 was accepted as a member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Association where he gave talks on the fire as a sexual symbol and on suicides at school age. Together with Freud, he wrote a manuscript entitled “Dreams in Folklore” in 1911 which was only published in 1958, because Oppenheim left the Association and instead joined the school of

Individual Psychology Individual psychology (german: Individualpsychologie) is a psychological method or science founded by the Viennese psychiatrist Alfred Adler. The English edition of Adler's work on the subject (1925) is a collection of papers and lectures given mai ...

of Alfred Adler in 1911. Oppenheim had an important position within the new school, and he wrote several articles in the ''Internationale Zeitschrift für Individualpsychologie''. Oppenheim took part in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

at the Italian front but later became a pacifist and an active member in the Social Democratic Party of Austria. In 1938, when Austria was annexed to

the Third Reich Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

, Oppenheim was expelled from the school in which he had taught for decades, because he was Jewish, and therefore "Untermensch", or inferior. He and his wife intended to emigrate to Australia where their daughters lived, but because of his

diabetes Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ...

they were not able to make the trip. In 1942, he and his wife Amalie were transported to the concentration camp in Terezín where he died in 1943, because he was not given the insulin-based medication that would have kept him alive. Chapter 33–Theresienstadt: According to the author-grandson, his grandfather died of diabetes but also from malnutrition and the lack of will to live. The values in which he believed had been defeated. The highest values of Enlightenment such as freedom, equality, fraternity, as well as education, reason, knowledge at the service of humanity were swept away by men interested just in violence and the

Aryan race The Aryan race is an obsolete historical race concept that emerged in the late-19th century to describe people of Proto-Indo-European heritage as a racial grouping. The terminology derives from the historical usage of Aryan, used by modern I ...

's triumph. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, his widow was able to go and be with their children in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

with a part of his archives.

References

Sources

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

Oppenheim, ''David'' Ernst
in ''Neue Deutsche Biographie''.

by Sigm. Freud & D. E. Oppenheim (in German). {{DEFAULTSORT:Oppenheim, David Ernst 1881 births 1943 deaths 20th-century psychologists Adlerian psychology Austrian Jews who died in the Holocaust Austrian people who died in the Theresienstadt Ghetto Austrian schoolteachers Austrian psychologists Austro-Hungarian military personnel of World War I Deaths from diabetes Health professionals from Brno Historical linguists Jewish military personnel Moravian Jews People from the Margraviate of Moravia