Hans Popper 1903-1988 [antikvár]

PrefaceAs a medical student, I started working at Hans Eppinger's Clinic at the University of Vienna in 1940, just two years after Hans Popper had left the Clinic and moved to America.My first encounter with Hans Popper took place in Chicago in 1954. I had just completed a research fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and was touring the East Coast.The appalling events of the intervening years had done nothing to diminish Hans' sentimental affection for his native Vienna. There were probably several reasons why Hans and I developed a friendship from the very start. I too came from Vienna, had known Eppinger professionally (and visited him only two weeks before his suicide), and shared Popper's interest in liver and hepatic histology. Moreover, I was then running the ward and the histology laboratory where he had worked in Eppinger's department at the University.After our first meeting, we met often at congresses and conferences, and later traveled together and visited each other socially. Whenever Hans Popper introduced me to a colleague, he would refer to me as "my nephew." I also formed a close friendship with Lina Popper, who retained all of her Viennese charm during their years in the United States.When we had time to sit and talk, Hans loved to reminisce about his life in Vienna. After his eightieth year, he recorded his recollections on tape. In preparing this recollection, Lina provided me with a copy of the tapes, which proved invaluable when I came to describe his years in Vienna. I have amended a few inaccuracies in Hans' account. He was, after all, recalling events that occurred more than half a century before. Lina also supplied the photographs, except for the picture provided by Immuno AG (Vienna) of Hans Popper's birthplace in Praterstrasse in Vienna. I wish to thank Dr. Herbert Falk for giving me this opportunity to pay my own tribute to Hans Popper.Heribert ThalerApril 1997