Burghard Breitner was born on June 16, 1884, in Mattsee near Salzburg as the son of the writer Anton Breitner († March 28, 1956). He studied in Graz, Kiel, and Vienna, receiving his medical doctorate in 1908. After serving in the military hospital in Trieste, he worked as a ship’s doctor (North Africa, North America, Scandinavia) and later became an assistant at the First Surgical Clinic in Vienna under Professor von Eiselsberg.

He later recalled:
After the first lecture I heard from Eiselsberg, I could no longer resist the desire to become a surgeon. Only much later did I realize that the deepest reason for this attraction was not the technical aspects of surgery, but rather his way of presenting patients, his human integrity, and his strong emphasis on medical ethics.”

In 1912, during the First Balkan War, he worked in hospitals at the Bulgarian headquarters. In 1914, he was among the first to be drafted with a cavalry division to Russia, where he was soon taken prisoner. After the end of the war in 1918, he voluntarily remained in Siberia to assist fellow soldiers. It was not until 1920 that he returned to Vienna with the last group of prisoners—already known as the “Angel of Siberia”—and resumed his position at the First Surgical Clinic.

In 1922 he obtained the venia legendi, and in 1927 he became Associate Professor.
In 1928, the American Society for the Study of Goiter invited him on a lecture and surgical demonstration tour. In 1930 he was made an honorary member. In 1929 he became head of the surgical department at the Rudolfsstiftung in Vienna, and in 1932 he was appointed head of the Surgical University Clinic in Innsbruck, where he remained until his retirement in 1955.

He published more than 200 scientific papers across all branches of surgery, as well as numerous books—among them works on diseases of the thyroid gland and on sports injuries. His scholarly achievements culminated in his editing of the renowned Breitner’s Operative Surgery, continuously updated to this day, including by his successors.

Alongside his scientific work, the Red Cross was one of his lifelong commitments. He trained generations of paramedics and became President of the Austrian Red Cross in 1950. He once said:
“During a continuing education lecture for rescue personnel, I came to Innsbruck for the first time. The impression was extraordinary, and the wish to work here became great.”

Breitner was known not only as a surgeon but also as an author of plays and dramas, travel books (A Look at Japan, Mormons and Medicine Men), war memoirs (Captured Unwounded), and works related to the medical profession (Medical Ethics, Rebellion Against the Biological Law, The Problem of Bisexuality). His best‑known book, completed just two years before his death, was Hand on Two Ploughs, a volume of memoirs still highly engaging today.

For the medical students of his time, Breitner’s lectures were unforgettable. Prof. Blum of Feldkirch, who served as his lecture assistant for two years, collected a delightful series of anecdotes, commissioned accompanying drawings, and published them privately.

The bust of Professor Breitner in front of the main lecture hall of the Department of Surgery commemorates this gifted and multifaceted man.

Recent research by the Institute of Contemporary History has shown that between 1940 and 1945, Burghard Breitner, in his position as head of the Innsbruck University Clinic, was officially authorized to oversee the forced sterilizations carried out there under the National Socialist regime, and was thus responsible for these procedures. Further information