Maria Simon (sociologist)

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Maria Simon
Maria Dorothea Simon.jpg
Simon in August 2018
Born (1918-08-06) 6 August 1918 (age 103)
Vienna, Austria-Hungary
Spouse(s)
Josef
​
(m. 1944)​
Academic background
EducationUniversity of London
University of Vienna
Academic work
DisciplineSociology
Sub-disciplineSocial work
InstitutionsAkademie für Sozialarbeit der Stadt Wien

Maria Dorothea Simon (née Pollatschek; born (1918-08-06)6 August 1918) is an Austrian sociologist, psychologist, and scholar of social work. She is best known for her tenure as the director of the Akademie für Sozialarbeit der Stadt Wien (academy for social work of the city of Vienna) from 1970 to 1983. After her retirement, she has been a Senior Representative at the World Federation for Mental Health.

Born into a family of Austrian Jews in Vienna, she studied social work in Prague but was forced to finish her education in the United Kingdom when Germany annexed Czechoslovakia. After the end of the Second World War, she gained a doctorate in psychology from the University of Vienna and began an academic career in the United States, where she lectured at the University of Arkansas.

In 1963, Simon returned to Austria and joined the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna. During her time at the institute, she published interdisciplinary research including on family pathology, the living conditions of unmarried mothers, and suicide. From 1970 to 1983, she directed the Akademie für Sozialarbeit der Stadt Wien (academy for social work of the city of Vienna). Her tenure was dedicated to improving the standard of Austrian care institutions and to the professionalisation of social work.

Early life and education in the United Kingdom[]

Maria Dorothea Pollatschek was born into a Jewish family in Vienna on 6 August 1918, the day of the conclusion of the Second Battle of the Marne.[1] Her father Rudolf was a Bohemian engineer from Mnichovo Hradiště while her mother Juliane was born in Vienna. As a student, she joined the socialist Zionist youth movement Hashomer Hatzair where, in 1934,[1] she met an Austrian named Josef Simon.[2] She completed her training as a preschool teacher in 1936 but did not find employment. Because of her father's Bohemian origins, Simon held Czechoslovak citizenship and was able to move to Prague,[1] where she continued her education at the Masarykschule für Sozial- und Gesundheitsfürsorge, an institute for social work supported by the Rockefeller Foundation.[3]

In 1939, Czechoslovakia was annexed by Germany and Simon emigrated to the United Kingdom where she worked at one of the war nurseries,[3] in Hampstead, run by Viennese-trained psychoanalysts Dorothy Burlingham and Anna Freud (Sigmund Freud's daughter). Anna Freud had founded the Hampstead Nurseries where she developed new techniques for studying child psychology.[4] In 1941 Simon enrolled at the University of Oxford to study for a diploma in social work. In 1944, she completed the course and married Josef Simon who was now an Austrian exile.[3] She joined the British Army, working as a teacher while studying economics and politics at the University of London via distance learning.[3]

Academic career in the United States and Vienna[]

Following brief spells in Copenhagen and Seattle, Simon and her husband returned to their native Austria in 1947. She began working on a doctorate in psychology at the University of Vienna, which she completed in 1952.[3] While living in Vienna, she worked for the American occupation forces.[1] Simon then embarked on an academic career in the United States; from 1957 to 1961 she held an assistant professorship at the University of Arkansas, taught courses at the University of Chicago, and was a guest lecturer at Hofstra University.[3] Although she had better career prospects in the United States, Simon moved back to Austria in 1963 and joined the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna. During her time at the institute, she published interdisciplinary research including on family pathology,[3] the living conditions of unmarried mothers,[1] and suicide.[3]

In 1970, Simon was appointed director of the Akademie für Sozialarbeit der Stadt Wien (academy for social work of the city of Vienna), which, in 2001, was merged into the University of Applied Sciences Campus Vienna.[3] She directed the institute until she reached the mandatory retirement age in 1983; according to a 2013 interview with Wiener Zeitung, she felt that she should not have left the position at that time and would have preferred to continue for another decade. Her tenure was dedicated to improving the standard of Austrian care institutions and to the professionalisation of social work.[1]

Retirement[]

In her retirement, Simon has remained active as a researcher and as a volunteer and founder of HPE, a charity for the mentally ill and their families.[1] She has also been a Senior Representative at the World Federation for Mental Health.[3] As of 2018, she has spent more than a third of her lifetime in retirement.[1]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h "Masal tow bis 120!". Jüdische Allgemeine (in German). 4 September 2018. Retrieved 19 June 2021.
  2. ^ Louis 2018, p. 796.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j "Maria Simon (b. 1918)". Transatlantic Perspectives. Retrieved 19 June 2021.
  4. ^ Midgley 2007.

Bibliography[]

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