Viktor Pietschmann

Viktor Pietschmann (27 October 1881 – 11 November 1956) was an Austrian ichthyologist at the Vienna Museum of Natural History. He was the curator of the fish collection from 1919 to 1946 and made collecting trips to the Barents Sea, Greenland, Mesopotamia, Armenia, Hawaii, Romania, and Poland. Pietschmann described many new fish, including several species of shark, and had more than 50 publications over his career. He served in the Austrian army in World War I, during which he was stationed in the Ottoman Empire. While there, Pietschmann witnessed the Armenian genocide and took many photographs of the deportees. He joined the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) in 1932 and remained a member until the end of World War II.

His zoological author abbreviation is Pietschmann.

Early life Viktor Pietschmann was born in Vienna, Austria to parents Karl Pietschmann and Ida in 1881. He graduated in 1899 from the Piaristengymnasium in Vienna and furthered his studies at the University of Vienna in zoology.

Career prior to World War I In 1905, Pietschmann befriended zoologist Franz Steindachner and became his assistant in the fish collection of the Museum of Natural History in Vienna. That same year he studied deep-sea fish in the Barents Sea, and in 1909 he participated in an expedition to Greenland. He was part of an expedition to Mesopotamia in 1910 where he collected specimens. Pietschmann then headed an expedition to Armenia in 1914. He served the Turkish Army as an officer, providing ski training for a platoon of Turkish and Kurdish soldiers. In Bayburt, they were stopped by Turkish soldiers and ordered to surrender the Armenian family. In his accounts, he indicates that the first wave of deportees were the more prominent members of the local Armenian community.

Photographs and publications recording the Armenian genocide Throughout his journey out of Erzurum, Pietschmann took numerous photographs of the deportees along their route. The photos were held in the archives of the Deutsche Bank in Vienna until they were discovered in 2007 by Artem Ohandjanyan, an ethnic Armenian resident of Austria. Ohandjanyan donated them to the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute in Yerevan, Armenia.

Pietschmann published two books about his experiences during the genocide. In his first book, published in 1927 entitled Unter Eis und Palmen (Under Ice and Palms), Pietschmann recalls his travels and writes extensively about the violence suffered by the Armenian deportees.

In 1930, Pietschmann married Margarete August Keldorfer. They had four children. though little is known about his activities as a member.

Later life Due to his previous affiliation with the Nazi Party, Pietschmann was forced to retire in 1946. He died on 24 November 1956.

Publications Some of his publications include: Expedition nach Mesopotamien im Jahre 1910. 1911. Bandfische und "Grosse Seeschlange". 1922. Eis und Palmen – Reiseskizzen aus Nord und Süd. Wilhelm Braumüller Verlag, Wien 1927. Durch kurdische Berge und armenische Städte. Adolf Luser Verlag, Wien 1940. Führer durch die Sonderschau "Ostmarkdeutsche als Forscher und Sammler in unseren Kolonien": Ein Anteil der Ostmark an der Erforschung und Erschließung der deutschen Kolonialgebiete. Waldheim-Eberle, Wien 1940. See also ZOBODAT list of his publications