Project
Update: On the Subject of German-speaking Émigré Neuroscientists,
Psychologists, and Psychiatrists in Western Canada (1930s-1940s)
(See
also soon at:
https://www.ucalgary.ca/hic/)
This
post is a part of the regular U of C Émigré Project Updates
(http://emigreucalgary.blogspot.ca/2018)
The
story of German-speaking émigré academics and intellectuals to the United
Kingdom, North America, and beyond in the 1930s-1940s has thus far been a
well-documented and studied plight (see, for example, the book publications by Ash and Soellner, 1996; Marks, Weindling, and Wintour, 2011;
or more recently by Stahnisch and Russell, 2016; as
well as Daum,
Lehmann, and Sheehan, 2018) .
Indeed, with regards to the case of émigré neuroscientists, psychologists, and
psychiatrists to Canada after 1933, an ample body of literature has been written
on these individuals who escaped National Socialist oppression to begin anew in
this strange, foreign, and frozen dominion (a new Special Issue of History of Intellectual Culture will
delve into latest research and provide an overview regarding the available
historiography in fall 2018). In addition,
some of these émigrés have written memoirs or autobiographical works
themselves, such as Karl Stern’s (1906-1975) Pillar of Fire (1951), adding to the repertoire of historical
literature on this group of academics during difficult historical times.
However, it comes to light that the vast majority of said literature focuses on
individuals who settled and built their careers in Eastern Canada: Ontario,
Quebec, and the Atlantic. In particular, the University of Toronto, McGill
University, and Dalhousie University attracted a significant number of these
émigrés, with well-established medical faculties and deep connections with
other research institutions in North America (for an overview, see Stortz’s
article in the Journal of the Canadian
Historical Association, 2013).
What of the
West? Little has been written academically of émigrés who settled west of
Ontario. Indeed, the number of German-speaking neuroscientists who ended up in
Western Canada (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba) appears
to be rather small. It is noteworthy, of course, that at the time, only four
universities had been established, one for each province, and medical faculties
were either in their respective infancy, or non-existent. Because of this,
opportunities for academic work for these scientist émigrés were scant, but
several found employment as physicians, teachers, or semi-academic
psychologists, etc. As a consequence, certain individuals – such as Hugh Lytton
(1921-2002), Rudolf Altschul (1901-1963), and Josef Schubert (1925-) – made the Canadian West their home, and made
invaluable contributions to the early development of these institutions’ medical,
neurological, and psychological departments. For instance, historian Erna
Kurbegovic’s upcoming article in History
of Intellectual Culture on Dr. Hugh Lytton (1921-2002) and his work in
educational psychology at the fledgling University of Calgary in the
1970s-2000s, after a distinguished career in Britain, sheds light on one such
individual. It details how for many émigrés the social “opening of the Canadian
universities” and the vast expansion of the postsecondary teaching and research
sector offered many opportunities for academic work and to share their cultural
experiences from other contexts and their migratory transition through other
countries, such as the United Kingdom, with a new generation of Canadian
students and research colleagues.
In summary,
the story of the émigré neuroscientists who lived in Western Canada remains
largely “uncharted territory”. Because of this, there is much room for
developing a historical perspective on the lives and contributions of these
individuals. Of particular interest would be an examination of their
acclimatization to life in the West, as the region at the time was perceived to
be a frontier, with the potential for greater cultural barriers to be overcome
than in the East. This is a project that Mr. Anzo Nguyen has taken on in his
ongoing exploration of German-speaking émigrés who settled in Canada after
fleeing National Socialist oppression in this time period. The overarching goal
of this exploration is to determine how these individuals shaped the
development of Canadian biomedical, neurological, and psychological institutes,
and the level of success they experienced in integrating to the professional,
social, and cultural fabric of their new homes. In addition to contextualizing
individual experiences within the larger mass migration of intellectuals, along
with exploring émigré interactions with the established scientific community in
Canada, new insights can be revealed as to the impact of the émigrés on
Canadian neuroscience.
