21 August 2018-Project Update: Western Canadian German-speaking Émigré Neuroscientists (1930s-1940s)

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/)

By: Anzo Nguyen (http://emigreucalgary.blogspot.ca)

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.