Guido Holzknecht

Who was Guido Holzknecht?

Guido Holzknecht was an Austrian radiologist who was a native of Vienna.

He studied in Strasbourg, Königsberg, and Vienna, and became the director of the X-ray laboratory at Vienna General Hospital in 1905 . He later established a central radiology department at the hospital, which became known as the Guido Holzknecht Institute. With radiologist Robert Kienböck, he was a co-founder of the Wiener Röntgengesellschaft.

The statue of Holzknecht in Arne Carlsson Park was originally made by Josef Josephu. Damaged during the Second World War, it was later restored incorrectly. The family had commissioned Josephu to show missing fingers that Holzknecht had lost due to radiation poisoning. The restored statue shows all of his fingers intact.

Guido Holzknecht was a pioneer in radiology. In 1902 he devised a color dosimeter for detecting and measuring X-rays. Like a number of other physicians in the early days of radiology, he died from the consequences of radiation poisoning.

He was one of Sigmund Freud's physicians and unsuccessfully adjuvantly irradiated him for an oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma.