The roots of the von Bertalanffy family tree '-ffy' means"son of," and 'von' signifies nobility could be traced back fourcenturies to the nobility of Hungary. The Austrian branch of the familywas founded by Karl-Joseph von Bertalanffy (1833-1912) who adoptedthe name Josef von Bertalan to pursue a career as a director ofclassical theater and operetta. His eldest son, Gustav von Bertalanffy(1861-1919), a prominent railway administrator, when he wasthirty-four, married Charlotte Vogel, a beautiful girl of seventeen,the daughter of a wealthy Vienna publisher, who had been raised inupper class Catholic schools subsequent to the death of her motherthirteen years earlier.
Charlotte bore a son who survivedonly one week, then a daughter who died of complications of a throatinfection at the age of two. Understandably, Charlotte became anunusually protective mother with the birth of her next and last child,born September 19, 1901, and christened Karl Ludwig von Bertalanffy,who was educated by private tutors at home until he was ten becauseCharlotte was fearful that Ludwig might succumb to disease if he wereto attend public school. Perhaps in part because of his privatetutoring, Ludwig began school with so many academic advantages that hewas able to pass his examinations with honors despite a poor classattendance record. At about the time he began school, his parentsdivorce and both remarried. Apparently the divorce was not traumaticfor Ludwig.
When he was seventeen Austria suffered a seriouseconomic decline, but in spite of it and the postwar inflation thatcaused the money to be drastically devalued, Ludwig pursuit ofknowledge was undisturbed and undiminished. At the Gymnasium, hestudied Homer, Plato, Virgil and Ovid in their original languages. Hebecame familiar with the works of Lamark, Darwing, Marx and Spengler.He mastered calculus. On his own he wrote poetry, a play about CesareBorgia, and a novel he called 'The New Tristan.' In a small homelaboratory, he became adept with a microscope. Paul Kammerer, thefamous 'Prater Vivarium' biologist and neighbor of the Bertalanffys,introduced him in dissection and animal and plant anatomy. Meanwhile,increasingly bored by classes he attended school only for examinations.After a period a the University of Innsbruck from 1920 to 1924,Bertalanffy enrolled at the University of Vienna, where he was equallyattracted to science and philosophy.
In 1926, withphysicist-philosopher Moritz Schlick (1882-1936) as his supervisor, hereceived his Ph. D. with a thesis about the pioneering psychophysics ofphysicist-philosopher Gustav Fechner (1801-1887). The title of histhesis was: "Fechner und das Problem der Integration höherer Ordnung"(Fechner and the problem of integration of higher order).
