biographies

Bettinger, Hans Frederick (1897 - 1975)

Born
14 June 1897
Breslau (now Wrocław), Lower Silesia, Germany (now Poland)
Died
20 September 1975
Melbourne, Tasmania, Australia
Occupation
Pathologist

Details

Transcription of item written by John Nattrass, Honorary Historian of the Royal Women’s Hospital, Melbourne, and Harold Attwood, Professor of Pathology in the University of Melbourne at the Austin Hospital and published in the "Book of Remembrance", Royal Women's Hospital, 1975.


HANS FREDERICK BETTINGER

(1939 - 1975)

Hans Frederick Bettinger was born on 14th June 1897 in Breslau, his father a businessman. In the Napoleonic wars the family had moved from Alsace-Lorraine; a recent relation was Archbishop of Munich.

Schooling bgan in 1903 at the Real Gymnasium am Zwinger, with a science emphasis; at the end of 1914 he began his medical course. Late in 1917 he was called up for garrison duty, serving as Surgeon Sub-Lieutenant until he could resume his studies after the war. In 1920 he qualified with honours and joined the University on Halle Pathology Department under the Professor Beneke who devised the modern baby-necropsy technique of skull opening. Professor of Medicine was Volhard, with Fahr to pioneer kidney pathology, whose patients underwent single nephrectomy immediately post-mortem, usually in a ward bathroom. Experience with such material was to prove useful in Melbourne in fatal cases of abortal clostridium Welchii infection.

His MD thesis written he returned to Breslau in 1921, his father having died, and commenced 14 years on the University of Breslau pathology staff, his chief the likeable Henke co-author with Lubarsch (Berlin) of the first of the special pathology handbooks still bearing their names, the atmosphere extremely pleasant. Here he gained his first experience of Department administration, building and re-building. In 1930 he married Vera Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. Justice Fuchs. Later he remembered these early years as very happy, with facility in learning and many friends, all interested in philosophy, the arts music and theatre. By the time their daughter was born the clouds of Nazism already loomed; soon it was obvious that they must leave the country, so in 1935 he became Professor of Pathology at the new Military Medical Academy in Canton. Here, out in the country, was a 1200 bed military hospital, with adjacent medical school buildings under construction. Arriving before their completion he could advise on laboratory lay-out and equipment. Soon, the department was stocking its museum and establishing slide collections. Lectures were given in German, a Chinese interpreter intervening after each sentence. With the start of the Sino-Japanese war a nearby railway was bombed increasingly by carrier-based planes. In October 1938 Japanese invasion directed towards Canton caused the medical school to disband and the Bettingers to embark for Hong Kong.

While in Hong Kong he was appointed senior lecturer in pathology by the University of Sydney, to begin in February 1939. In the meantime he enjoyed work in the Hong Kong University Pathology Department where, he wrote, "I taught the students some pathology and they in turn taught me to teach in English".

Entry to Australia was smoothed by Professor Inglis who also saw him comfortably installed in a Harbour-side flat. With the start of the academic year he was surprised to receive a belated summons to the Women’s Hospital, Melbourne, the upshot of which, in a master-stroke of Sydney-Melbourne co-operation, was release by Sydney and commencement as first Director of Pathology in April 1939 in a new Department already containing Vera Kreiger (DSc) as biochemist and Hildred Butler (DSc) as bacteriologist. Previously morbid anatomy work had been in the hands of the legendary CH Mollison, Government pathologist, using his unique freezing microtome. Later the new Department added Haematology and Clinical Photography, became one of the first in the world to begin routine testing of the Rh factor (not long after its discovery in 1941), separated serology from biochemistry and added a cytology section, so that by February 1964 an enlarged remodelled building had had to be opened, doubling the space.

As Director of Pathology at the Royal Women’s Hospital he became Senior Associate in Pathology at the University of Melbourne and was in charge of the practical classes in histopathology for many years. He continued to teach medical students until some four months before he died and it was only illness that made him give up his regular tutorial class.

After earlier forced wandering the Bettingers found peach and self-respect in Australia. Professionally Hans Bettinger was held in high regard. In 1951 the Federal German Government conferred upon him the title of Professor of Pathology, in recognition of his former status. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in 1955, a Member of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australia (of which he was one of the Founders) in 1956, received the honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine from the University of Melbourne in 1963, was elected a Fellow (ad eundem) of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists, England, both in 1964 and became an Honorary Fellow of the International Academy of Cytology in 1966. He was President of the Victorian Society of Pathology and Experimental Medicine in 1945 and 1960 and President of the Section of Clinical Pathology of the British Medical Association in Victoria in 1950.

After 26 years, having had great impact on teaching and practice of pathology in Victoria and indeed Australia, he retired in 1965 and his successor as Director was Harold Attwood, who had been his assistant for 4 years.

After attending the Second World Congress of the International Academy of Cytology in Paris, a journey marred by respiratory illness and a car accident, he became Consultant Pathologist and Curator of the Museum, posts he held until ill-health supervened, only a few months before his death.

Unlike many pathologists his interests extended beyond the confines of the laboratory and he made valuable contributions to the humane management of sexual anomalies. Through him, the Pathology Department of the Women’s became a place frequented by clinicians who wanted to discuss real problems in living patients.

As a man he remained quite untouched by past misfortunes even though he did not escape human prejudice on coming to Melbourne - it was not easy to be a German in Melbourne in the early 1940s. Widely read in more than one language his English vocabulary was unusually large and his understanding of English grammar shamed many of us when he reviewed our papers. Despite these accomplishments he retained a heavy German accent which blunted communication in lectures to undergraduates. His technological colleagues were made fully aware of the pallor of the haematoxylin and eosin sections when the Director asked them "Vy is this so Vishy-Vashy?" He also not infrequently would assign something or somebody to "Voop-Voop".

Gifted with absolute pitch his joy in music was deep and his criticism often penetrating. He and his wife frequently attended concerts in Melbourne; it could be a revelation for the uninitiated to accompany them. In his early years he played the organ and told how he once did so after having performed a post-mortem on a member of the minor royalty of Germany. He had an eye for beauty wherever it was to be found and the discrimination of a gourmet. No-one else could develop a violent urticaria on eating fish but yet relish, without a rash, oysters and crayfish.

Most people who got to know him will remember him not merely as an excellent pathologist, but also as a very good friend always ready to help no matter whether the problem was trivial or serious. Mischievously he had often said when surprise was expressed at the rapidity with which he solved a problem "It’s not what you know, it’s who you know that counts".

Hans Bettinger died of prostatic carcinomatosis on 20th September 1975, in his 79th year. He is survived by his wife, his daughter Renate, his son-in-law Chris and two grandsons. At the funeral service in Toorak Presbyterian Church Professor Attwood spoke movingly and the cortege moved off to Bach’s "Great" Prelude in C, a choice he would have approved.

In his presidential address to the Australian Society of Cytology, Robert Barter recently wrote "He was a man of great intellectual attainment with a highly developed appreciation of music, and unexpected fondness for ... the Australian bush and an unflagging respect for accuracy in the use of the spoken and written word. Indeed, he spoke only when he had something worthwhile to say and always gave careful consideration as to how he would say it. He was in all of his ways and appearance a very distinguished man".

Archival/Heritage Resources

Royal Women's Hospital Archives

  • Book of Remembrance, 1956 - 1975; Royal Women's Hospital Archives [ Details... ].

Prepared by: Robyn Waymouth

Created: 22 September 2006, Last modified: 26 November 2006