His Companions and Teachers

Knaus’s colleagues have much to thank him for – but they do not have it easy with him. At his inaugural address as chairman of the Second University Women’s Hospital of Vienna in 1964, Hugo Husslein summed it up as follows: “I have primarily Knaus to thank for who I am and what I am able to do today. He was my true teacher. It was from him that I learnt how to operate.” Another former student, Paul Schrank, wrote to Knaus: “It will not be news to you that all of us, without exception, occasionally complained and moaned about your tough schooling […].” Yet one is able to rely on him: when Heinz Braitenberg and his wife are arrested, taken away from a wedding breakfast and imprisoned in Prague due to “their belonging to the German nation,” Knaus stands bail for them and is able to get them released from prison after three months.