Otto Hirschfeld

Otto Saddler Hirschfeld (1898–1957) was an Australian medical practitioner, academic and university chancellor.

Early life Otto Saddler Hirschfeld was born on 24 March 1898 in Brisbane, Queensland. He was the eldest child of Eugen Hirschfeld, a physician from Prussia and German consul to Brisbane, and his Australian wife Annie. He had three brothers and two sisters. One of his brothers also pursued a medical career – Konrad Hirschfeld. Otto attended the Normal School and Brisbane Grammar School, enduring anti-German sentiment. He won a scholarship to attend the University of Queensland in 1916 and took his B.Sc. in 1919, and a Masters of Science in 1921. He moved to Melbourne to study medicine at the University of Melbourne completing his studies in 1923.

Career Hirschfeld served as a resident medical officer at the (Royal) Melbourne Hospital for eighteen months from 1923 to 1924. In 1924, he returned to Brisbane and entered into private practice. He married Joan Eliott in 1925, who was a nurse. Hirschfeld's father was interned during World War I, and was later deported. While Eugen Hirschfeld was absent from Australia, Otto Hirschfeld assumed responsibility for looking after his extended family. He escorted the Duke of Edinburgh on his royal tour of the university in 1954. The University of Melbourne honoured him with an LL.D. in 1956

Publications Manual for the Nurses and Masseurs’ Registration Board of Queensland