Rudolf Wlassak

Rudolf Wlassak ( born March 27, 1865 in Brno, † March 10 1930 in Vienna ) was an Austrian physiologist, neurologist and pioneer of the anti- alcohol movement.

Career

Rudolf Wlassak studied at the University of Leipzig, Carl Ludwig and from 1885 to 1887 at the University of Zurich with Richard Avenarius. He was then in Zurich assistant to Justus Gaule (1849-1939) and taught from 1893 to 1898 as a lecturer in physiology.

Wlassak devoted himself particularly to become among the workers at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, a national disease alcoholism. As an institution founded in Vienna in 1899 the Association of abstainers, the magazine was published from 1902 The abstainer, whose editor he was until 1906.

In 1905 he founded, together with the politician Anton Hölzl and physician Richard Cheerful favorites in the workers' abstainer covenant in Austria as the central union of the individual, existing, working-class abstainer clubs. As a tool in the fight against alcohol abuse, the club gained great importance in the Austrian Social Democracy.

As already recognized pioneer in the treatment of alcoholism Wlassak 1922 was head of the newly founded out at the instigation of drinkers sanatorium in Pavilion 2 of the psychiatric hospital Steinhof in Vienna.

Wlassak published work on the construction of the cerebellum, the origin of myelin and basic studies on the physiology of the senses, especially the space-sensations.

In Vienna - Hietzing ( Ober Sankt Veit ) the Wlassakstraße is named after him since 1931.

Works

• Ernst Mach memorial speech. Contents in the sociological society in Vienna on 26 June 1916. Leipzig 1917.
• Floor plan of the alcohol question. Leipzig 1922.
• The alcoholism. In Handbook of hygiene. Leipzig 1923.