Adolf Fischhof

Who was Adolf Fischhof?

Adolf Fischhof was a Hungarian-Austrian writer and politician of Jewish descent.

After studying medicine he was appointed physician at the Vienna hospital. Fischhof was one of the leaders in the revolutionary movement of 1848, commanding the students' legion of Vienna and presiding over the Committee of Public Security. He was especially prominent in the Constitutional Assembly, in which he represented one of the Vienna districts. In the Liberal cabinet of Doblhoff he was attached as counsellor to the Ministry of the Interior. After the dissolution of the Kremsier Parliament, March 7, 1849, Fischhof was arrested, accused of rebellion and high treason, but was acquitted after an imprisonment of 9 months. He devoted himself to the practise of medicine until about 1875, when failing health compelled him to retire.

With Joseph Unger, later a member of the Austrian cabinet, he published in 1861 a pamphlet entitled "Lösung der Ungarischen Frage", in which he pleaded for the division of the empire into Austria and Hungary. After the Austro-Prussian war of 1866 Fischhof wrote "Ein Blick auf Oesterreich's Lage", and strongly advised an alliance with Germany. In his "Oesterreich und die Bürgschaften Seines Bestandes", 1869, he recommended an autonomous constitution for Austria.