18 Facts About Eduard Pernkopf

Eduard Pernkopf was an Austrian professor of anatomy who later served as rector of the University of Vienna, his alma mater.

Eduard Pernkopf is best known for his seven-volume anatomical atlas, Topographische Anatomie des Menschen, prepared by Pernkopf and four artists over a 20-year period.

Eduard Pernkopf was born in 1888 in the Lower Austria village of Rappottenstein.

Eduard Pernkopf began his studies at the University of Vienna's medical school in 1907.

Eduard Pernkopf served in the military as a physician for a year during World War I In 1920 he returned to Vienna to work as one of Hochstetter's assistants, lecturing to first- and second-year students about the cardiovascular and peripheral nervous systems.

Eduard Pernkopf required medical faculty to declare their ethnic lineage as either "Aryan" or "non-Aryan" and swear loyalty to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

Eduard Pernkopf forwarded a list of those who refused the latter to the university administration, who dismissed them from their jobs.

Eduard Pernkopf kept expanding it, and it became popular with the rest of the university instructors and the Austrian medical community.

Eduard Pernkopf worked 18-hour days dissecting corpses, teaching classes and discharging his administrative responsibilities while a team of artists created the images that would eventually be in the atlas.

Lepier, Eduard Pernkopf's first hire, had largely learned on his own after having to cut short his architectural studies at what is Vienna University of Technology due to the death of his father, a circumstance similar to that which had shaped Eduard Pernkopf's career choice.

Eduard Pernkopf instructed them to paint the organs they saw in as much detail as possible, to make them look like living tissue in print.

The only deviation from this high level of realism was the use of color, where Eduard Pernkopf instructed them to use brighter hues than those found in real cadavers so that a reader would better learn to recognize and distinguish key anatomical landmarks.

In 1943, Eduard Pernkopf reached the pinnacle of the academic career ladder when he was named the University of Vienna's rector, its highest official.

Eduard Pernkopf continued to serve in those positions until World War II ended two years later, with the surrender of Germany, including Austria.

Eduard Pernkopf was held at the Allied prisoner of war camp in Glasenbach for three years.

Eduard Pernkopf was reunited with his original artists, some of whom had been held in POW camps, as well as some new ones, and resumed his earlier demanding schedule.

Eduard Pernkopf worked by himself while Pernkopf resumed his prewar schedule despite the privations he had endured.

At the time of his death, Eduard Pernkopf was hard at work on the fourth volume.