Rudolf Allers was born in Vienna in 1883, the son of a physician. He attended the Medical School at the University of Vienna and received his M.D. in 1906. From 1908 onwards, Allers specialized in psychiatry, working as an assistant in the clinics for mental diseases at the German University in Prague and then at Munich. In 1913, he became an instructor in psychiatry in the Medical School of the University of Munich, but his teaching activity was interrupted by World War I. During the war, he served in the surgeons' corps of of the Austrian Army, which enabled him to perfect several surgical proceedures and brought him some decorations.Hitler's policies gradually made Allers' situation in Austria unbearable. Fr. Ignatius Smith, O.P., dean of the School of Philosophy at the Catholic University of America brought Allers and his family to America in 1938. After teaching for a decade as a Professor of Psychology in the School of Philosophy, Allers transferred to Georgetown Universi