Hofrat University Professor Dr. Anton Neumayr Junior (* December 6, 1920 in Hallein; † March 18, 2017 in Vienna) was a specialist in internal medicine, chamber musician, and researcher.
As a historian, he studied the medical histories of famous musicians. He also hosted the television program “Diagnosis” from 1987 to 1994 and published numerous specialist publications.
Born in 1920 as the son of Mayor Anton Neumayer, he was distinguished from his early youth by his high intelligence and musical talent. His life was shaped by his love of music and his fascination with medicine. After graduating from high school in 1938, he abandoned his first career choice of pianist and began studying medicine, which he completed while stationed as a marine in Berlin in 1944. During his studies, he succeeded in freeing his father, who had been interned in Dachau.
His successful medical career led Neumayer to the Rudolfsstiftung Hospital in Vienna, where he headed the First Medical Clinic from 1975 to 1991. From 1963, Neumayer worked as a university professor specializing in gastroenterology in Vienna. From 1985 to 2000, he headed the Ludwig Boltzmann Research Center for Clinical Geriatrics. His reputation as an internist extended far beyond the borders of Austria.
Anton Neumayer also cultivated his musical talent and became a pianist, trained at the Mozarteum Salzburg, a chamber musician, and a music historian.
Since the 1990s, Prof. Neumayer has also published numerous books linking the worlds of art and medicine. Examples include his three-volume magnum opus “Music and Medicine” and “Literature and Medicine.” In “Dictators in the Mirror of Medicine,” he explored Hitler, Stalin, and Napoleon, among others. In “Hitler – Delusions, Illnesses, Perversions,” he created a biography from the perspective of a physician.
Neumayer always maintained close ties to Salzburg – for example, as president of the “Association of Salzburgers in Vienna.”
His personal biography:
It was advantageous for my life that I was involved with music from my earliest youth. As we only now know, music develops additional neural pathways in the brain even in pre-pubescent years, and such children also fare much better in school. I learned to play music from the age of four and received pianist training at the Mozarteum from the age of seven to seventeen. I still play with the Philharmonic Orchestra today, and this led to many useful social contacts that also helped me in my medical career (among other things, I played for Brezhnev in the Kremlin and at the Music Academy in Albania. This is how many of my contacts were networked). Due to the political circumstances, I was unable to pursue a musical career, so I began studying medicine, which I completed with a doctorate in 1944 at the Charité Hospital in Berlin. I then became a military doctor and in the autumn of 1945 I joined the 2nd Medical University Clinic, where I worked (as a lecturer and professor) until 1964.
In the context of scientific activity, it was important not only at home but also abroad to become known through lectures and scientific publications, which required the ability to present complex issues clearly and understandably. This meant that it was essential to acquire rhetorical skills. As early as the 1950s, I was a founding member of the European Society for Liver Research (EASL), and in 1963, I was the first European to deliver the SEARL Lecture (an event for hepatologists) in Chicago. This distinction immediately made me a household name worldwide. The numerous lectures I gave abroad meant that I was almost better known in Germany than in Vienna. In 1964, I became head of the internal medicine department at the Elisabeth Hospital. In 1965, I also became head of the internal medicine department at the Sophien Hospital. In 1975, I took over the First Medical Clinic in the newly built Rudolfs Hospital, where I remained head of the clinic until 1988.
Since 1980, I have been the director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute (Research Center for Clinical Geriatrics). However, success doesn’t just depend on being a respected physician among one’s (international) colleagues. Much more important is being well-received by patients. This requires behaving appropriately and in a friendly manner toward patients. Word gets around among the patients, and eventually, prominent patients come, and the income automatically follows. I was Kreisky’s personal physician for four and a half years and cared for a number of famous figures from politics (which, as a doctor, you have to stay out of—I cared for bishops as well as the leader of the Communist Party of Austria), business, culture, etc. My most famous patients included Franz Jonas, Curd Jürgens, Hans Albers, Oskar Werner, and Helene Thimig. This reputation also spread abroad, and in addition to Ibn Saud and his family, numerous Arab sheikhs and super-rich Greek clans consulted me.