With the passing of Fritz Sterz on 5 August 2024, the Department of Emergency Medicine and the entire field of emergency medicine has lost a personality who left his mark on many people.
Fritz Sterz grew up in Graz and Klagenfurt, completed his medical studies in Graz and finally qualified as a specialist in internal medicine at Graz University Hospital in 1987. His heart has always beaten for emergency medicine, starting with the management of the medical corps in Graz.
A particularly formative period for his further career was his stay as a research fellow with Peter Safar, the father of modern resuscitation research, in Pittsburgh, USA, from 1987 to 1990. True to Peter Safar's thought: "Do it by the book, but be the author", Fritz Sterz has left a big mark - not only in his main place of work in Vienna, where he moved to today's Department of Emergency Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna/University Hospital Vienna in 1991. He completed his habilitation in internal medicine in 1992 and was appointed Associate Professor and Deputy Head of the Department of Emergency Medicine in 1996.
Fritz Sterz shaped emergency medical research and, in particular, resuscitation research worldwide. He was a visionary. With great commitment and passion, he built up and led a large research group over many years. He was the doctoral supervisor and habilitation supervisor of numerous employees of the Medical University of Vienna. Outside of the university, Fritz Sterz was also a source of ideas, a spark and a pacemaker for projects in civil society to improve survival in cardiac arrest. His work has not only changed international guidelines and helped the Medical University of Vienna gain a great reputation in the field of emergency medicine, but has also given many people a second life.
Even his retirement in 2021 was only on paper. In recent years, curiosity drove him in new directions. As the doctor in charge of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, he opened up a completely new field of research for himself - performing arts medicine.
It was always about the cause, always about the patients, never about fame, recognition or honor. He selflessly devoted a great deal of energy and time to this - he built up, achieved and supported truly great things. In addition to all his outstanding scientific achievements, Fritz Sterz was above all a very special person with an extraordinary, almost unique ability: for many years, he was a boss, driver and motivator, but also a mentor, father figure, friend and confidant. A person with a rough exterior but a super-soft core.
Fritz, you shaped us in such a way that we carry on your spirit!
The staff of the Department of Emergency Medicine