1861-1919

Ludwig von Bertalanffy was born in the little village Atzgerdorf near Vienna in 1901. He came from a distinguished family which included many scholars and court officials . The roots of the Bertalannffy family goes back to 16th century nobility of Hungary. His paternal grandfather Charles Joseph von Bertalanffy (1833-1912) setteled in Austria, and was a state theater director in Klangenfurt, Graz, and Vienna, an important position in the imperial Austria. His eldest son Gustuv von Bertalanffy (1861-1919), was a prominent railway administrator, and father of Ludwig. His grandfather on his mothers side was imperial counsellor Joseph Vogel was a wealty Vienna publicer. Ludwigs mother Charlotte Vogel was seventeen when she married the thirty-four old Gustuv. They divorsed when Ludwig got ten, and both remarried ousite the Catholic Church in civil ceremonies .
Von Bertalanffy grew up as only child. Educated by private tutors untill he was ten, he went to the gymnasium/grammer school. Already trained in selve study, he like to study on it's own. A neighbor was a famous biologist who was an example for him. In 1918 he started his studies with history of art and philosophy, firstly at the University of Innsbruck and then at the University of Vienna. He had to make a choice between studing philosophy of science and biology, and choose for the last because a philosopher one could always become later, and not a biologist. In 1926 he finished his PhD thesis about physicist and philosopher Gustav Theodor Fechner.
Von Bertalanffy met his Maria in April 1924 in the Austrian Alps. They met the first day and were almost never apart for the next forty-eight years. She wanted to finish studying but never did, instead she would devote her life to Bertalanffy's career. Later in Canada would become his employee for some years and after his death she accompliced two of Bertalanffy's latest works. They got one child, who would step into Bertalanffy's footsteps in the field of cancer research.
Von Bertalanffy was a professor at the University of Vienna from 1934–48, University of London (1948–49), Université de Montréal (1949), University of Ottawa (1950–54), University of Southern California (1955–58), the Menninger Foundation (1958–60), University of Alberta (1961–68), and State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY) (1969-72). In 1972, he died from a sudden heart attack.