Maria Nowak-Vogl (9 April 1922 – 23 November 1998) was an Austrian child and adolescent psychiatrist who directed the Kinderbeobachtungsstation in

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; ) is the capital of Tyrol (federal state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the Wipptal, Wipp Valley, which provides access to the ...

. A 2013 expert commission condemned her authoritarian and abusive methods, which included the experimental use of

epiphysan Epiphysan is an extract derived from the pineal glands of cattle, historically used by veterinarians for rut suppression in mares and cows. Between 1954 and 1987 it was notoriously used in child research at the Kinderbeobachtungsstation in Inns ...

and enforced silence, as part of a state-supported system that inflicted psychological and physical harm on disadvantaged children.

Biography

Maria Vogl was one of four children of Alfred Vogl and Maria Dohnal. Alfred Vogl was a juvenile judge at the special court in

Bolzano Bolzano ( ; ; or ) is the capital city of South Tyrol (officially the province of Bolzano), Northern Italy. With a population of 108,245, Bolzano is also by far the largest city in South Tyrol and the third largest in historical Tyrol. The ...

during the

German occupation German-occupied Europe, or Nazi-occupied Europe, refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly militarily occupied and civil-occupied, including puppet states, by the (armed forces) and the government of Nazi Germany at ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

in 1943/44. In 1940 Vogl graduated from the Upper Secondary School for Girls and one year later from the Teacher Training College in Innsbruck. From 1941 she studied medicine at the

University of Innsbruck The University of Innsbruck (; ) is a public research university in Innsbruck, the capital of the Austrian federal state of Tyrol (state), Tyrol, founded on October 15, 1669. It is the largest education facility in the Austrian States of Austria, ...

, received her doctorate in 1947 and initially worked as an assistant physician at the University Clinic for Psychiatry headed by Hubert Urban. In 1949 she took a Public Medical Officer exam. Accompanying this, she studied philosophy, education and psychology at the University of Innsbruck and was awarded a second doctorate in 1952 with a dissertation entitled ''Die Bedeutung der kurzfristigen Umweltsveränderung in der Erziehung'' (The importance of short-term environmental change in education). In 1953 Vogl passed the examination to become a specialist in neurological and mental disorders. She habilitated in curative education at the University of Innsbruck in 1959 with a paper entitled ''Eine Studie über die Gemeinschaftsunfähigkeit'' (A Study of Community Incapacity) and held teaching positions at the Faculty of Philosophy and the Faculty of Medicine. In 1967, Vogl married the psychiatrist Johannes Heinz Nowak and henceforth used the surname Nowak-Vogl. The couple did not have children. In 1972 she was appointed associate professor.Günther Sperk, Elisabeth Dietrich-Daum, Horst Schreiber, Patricia Gerstraggser, Anna Katharina Purtscher-Penz, Ernst Berger
''Bericht der Medizin-Historischen ExpertInnenkommission: Die Innsbrucker Kinderbeobachtungsstation von Maria Nowak-Vogl''
11. November 2013 Nowak-Vogl was admitted to the service of the state of Tyrol as a welfare physician and headed the Kinderbeobachtungsstation (child psychiatric observation ward) of the state of Tyrol from 1954 to 1987. In addition, she taught at the College for Social Work of Caritas Innsbruck and was an expert witness for child and adolescent psychiatry at the regional courts of Innsbruck and Feldkirch as well as at the ecclesiastical marriage courts of the diocese of Innsbruck and the diocese of Salzburg.

Supervision of the children's observation ward (1954-1987)

Maria Nowak-Vogl's treatment methods led to the first critical inquiries in the 1980s. Since 2010, Nowak-Vogl's work in the observation ward has increasingly been called into question. In November 2013, a commission of experts set up by the

Medical University of Innsbruck The Medical University of Innsbruck () is a university in Innsbruck, Austria. It used to be one of the four historical Faculty (university), faculties of the Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck and became an independent university in 2004. Hi ...

submitted a report in which the administration of medication and the physical violence used in Nowak-Vogl's treatment of the children were highlighted. The commission recommended a further scientific investigation. This was completed in an interdisciplinary research project of the Departments of Education, History and European Ethnology as well as the Department of Contemporary History at the University of Innsbruck. In the years 1954-1987 Nowak-Vogl managed the so-called Kinderbeobachtungsstation (children's observation ward) at Sonnenstraße 44 in Innsbruck, which had been founded in 1954 as a "psychiatric children's ward." During that period, 3650 documented patients were housed there for an average of six to eight weeks. Many of the former residents of the home experienced their stay in the children's observation ward as a traumatic experience, with negative consequences for the rest of their lives. The former residents as well as some former employees of the child observation ward testify of an authoritarian and uncaring home atmosphere, in which the patients were not treated like children in need of attention, but like "inferior human beings." In interviews, those involved described the director, Maria Nowak-Vogl, as an "unmoved and cold person, an uncaring and unemotional as well as frightening supervisor, who despised and scorned them, at times coldly punishing them, at other times screaming hysterically, at times also a penalizer, who did not shy away from physical violence. In unison, those affected reported a climate of threat - of punishment, adverse consequences, or transfer to a reformatory." Maria Nowak-Vogl also injected children with the hormone drug ''

Epiphysan Epiphysan is an extract derived from the pineal glands of cattle, historically used by veterinarians for rut suppression in mares and cows. Between 1954 and 1987 it was notoriously used in child research at the Kinderbeobachtungsstation in Inns ...

'' in order to test its suitability for the treatment of "hypersexuality." These injections took place within the framework of studies, the methods of which are considered unscientific by today's standards. The children concerned and their legal guardians were neither asked for their consent to participate in the studies, nor were they informed about the studies at all. The life story of a former patient of Maria Nowak-Vogl, Evy Mages, a photojournalist in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

in the United States, has been narrated in 2023 by Margaret Talbot for

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

Published works

* Maria Nowak-Vogl: ''Die Bedeutung der kurzfristigen Umweltsveränderung in der Erziehung''. Innsbruck: Dissertation, 1951. * Maria Nowak-Vogl: ''Begabung fällt nicht vom Himmel. Wie man durch Erziehung Lücken füllt''. Wien:

Herder A herder is a pastoralism, pastoral worker responsible for the care and management of a herd or flock of domestic animals, usually on extensive management, open pasture. It is particularly associated with nomadic pastoralism, nomadic or transhuma ...

, 1979.

Awards

* In 1997 Nowak-Vogl was honoured with the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Sylvester

References

External links

University of Innsbruck: Research project "Kinderbeobachtungsstation Nowak-Vogl"

Website of Johannes Heinz Nowak
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nowak-Vogl, Maria 1922 births Child psychiatrists Austrian psychiatrists Austrian women psychiatrists University of Innsbruck alumni Academic staff of the University of Innsbruck 1998 deaths