Karl Tschuppik

Karl Tschuppik (born July 26, 1876 in Melnik , Bohemia , Austria-Hungary , today the Czech Republic , † July 22, 1937 in Vienna ) was an Austrian journalist , columnist , publicist and editor .

Karl Tschuppik worked for newspapers such as the Prager Tagblatt , of which he was an editor and publisher from 1898 to 1917, and published in numerous newspapers and magazines in Vienna and Berlin, most of which were left-wing intellectuals. He was one of the most important Austrian publicists before 1938. His publications were widely recognized by important contemporary publicists and journalists such as Max Brod , Joseph Roth and Friedrich Funder , and Friedrich Torberg paid tribute to him in his aunt Jolesch .

Tschuppik and his journalistic work, which was marked by the rejection of both National Socialism and German Nationalism as well as Austrofascism , were long forgotten. For National Socialist propaganda, Tschuppik was a frequent target among the publicists; he was not only listed on the first “black list” published in 1933 of the authors disseminating “harmful and undesirable literature”, but also mentioned separately.

Live and act

origin

Karl Tschuppik was born on July 26, 1876 as the son of the engineer of the Austrian Northwest Railway Friedrich Tschuppik in Melnik ( Mělník ) in Bohemia . His mother Ludmilla was the daughter of the Prague doctor Josef Komárek. Tschuppik's ancestors on his father's side served as officers and civil servants in Habsburg Austria for over six generations. His brother was the journalist Walter Tschuppik .

After graduating from high school, he studied technical sciences at the technical universities of Zurich ( Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich ) and Vienna ( Technische Hochschule Wien ). It is not known whether Tschuppik did his military service before or after his studies - he himself stated that he was a private with the Austro-Hungarian high and German champions .

Career in journalism in Prague and Vienna (1898–1923)

After graduating, Tschuppik returned to Prague. There he made his first publications at the bilingual Prague monthly Akademie , where he also met Stefan Großmann . From 1898 or 1899 he was an editor at the Prager Tagblatt , one of the most renowned German-language newspapers of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. In 1909 or 1910 he became its editor-in-chief. Even before the First World War , according to information in obituaries in Austrian newspapers, he published parallel to the Prager Tagblatt in Emil Kuh's Monday newspaper from Böhmen , in the Frankfurter Zeitung , in the Berliner Tageblatt and in the Pariser Le Temps . However, it has not yet been found out exactly which articles he published and when in these newspapers. In general, little is known about Tschuppik's work before 1914. However, several articles could be identified that Tschuppik wrote in 1902 for the Arbeiter-Zeitung and in 1907 for the monthly Deutsche Arbeit .

From 1914, the sources on Tschuppik changed abruptly, as the Prague daily introduced the signing of the leading articles with symbols that could be assigned to the editors. Tschuppik's symbol was an arrow pointing diagonally up to the right. Tschuppik wrote a total of over 500 leading articles for the Prager Tagblatt. In these, Tschuppik's intellectual change from being susceptible to German nationalism and war propaganda to a pacifist advocate of an independent Austria becomes recognizable. Before the beginning of the war and in the first few months afterwards, Tschuppik's leading articles displayed an attitude that was sympathetic to the war and tended to correspond to propaganda. In addition, he advocated the alliance between Austria-Hungary and Germany and approved of the state's influence on the press - at least “up to a certain point”. When this, in his opinion, was exceeded, conflicts arose with the censorship. In the course of the war, the rest of his attitude changed fundamentally. He became a staunch opponent of all nationalism, especially German.

On November 11, 1917, Tschuppik's last leading article for the time being appeared for the Prager Tagblatt. He was fired because the owner, Rudolf Koller, wanted to accommodate the old liberal casino party. This planned to buy the Bohemia newspaper Bohemia , the competitor of the Prager Tagblatt for which Koller had merger plans. He believed that he could dissuade the casino party from their plans by dismissing Tschuppik, who was politically displeasing to them.

Tschuppik moved to Vienna with his partner Bertha, who was ten years his junior, where he asked Stefan Großmann for help in finding work. He was finally offered the editorial management of Benno Karpeles ' pacifist weekly Der Friede as well as an editorial position at the Neue Wiener Tagblatt , which offered him 36,000 kroner. He decided on the daily newspaper, but also published in peace . After the Czech newspaper Bohemia was sold anyway, Koller regretted his decision to fire Tschuppik. Since Tschuppik was now employed in Vienna and the post of editor-in-chief in Prague was filled, it was agreed with Tschuppik to write leading articles for the Prager Tagblatt from Vienna. On December 24, 1917, the first editorial for the Prager Tagblatt appeared after the interruption.

From March 23, 1919 to July 15, 1919 Tschuppik worked for the daily newspaper Der neue Tag , newly founded by Karpeles, as head of the service and as the main political editor. He interrupted his work for the Neue Wiener Tagblatt , but then returned to this newspaper. At New Day he also met Joseph Roth , with whom he had a lifelong friendship. On December 7, 1920 he married his partner Bertha.

Tschuppik was arrested for the first time on January 30, 1922, when he tried to prevent a civilian "moral policeman" from performing an official act. He was trying to arrest a prostitute, forcing her into a house gate, which looked to outsiders like a robbery or a violent argument - that was Tschuppik's justification for not paying the fine. There was a trial in which he was acquitted. However, since he could not verbally restrain himself in the course of the process, he ultimately had to pay a fine for "insulting the guard". A second arrest occurred in the early 1930s (see anecdotes ).

Conflicting time as editor-in-chief of the hour (1923–1926)

On February 2, 1923 Tschuppik became editor-in-chief of the newly founded hour - the first tabloid in Austria, which not only introduced systematic spying on well-known people for the purpose of voyeuristic reporting, but also modernized the Austrian press in the editorial and creative area and brought with it internationally common standards. However, despite its mass-taste design with many pictures and large headlines as well as lurid and slanderous articles, the newspaper had a clear political line: pro-democracy and against left and right-wing extremism. The founder, Emmerich Bekessy, who was wanted as a criminal in Hungary , was unknown to Tschuppik, like most Austrians, and he wanted Tschuppik to be the editor-in-chief of the hour at all costs. Since he missed advancement opportunities and challenges at the Neue Wiener Tagblatt, since its editor-in-chief Emil Löbl did not take up this post until 1917 and therefore did not think about the task of the same, and not least because of the certainly high salary offer at the hour, Tschuppik accepted this post.

However, the three years he worked for this newspaper were also marked by violent arguments with Karl Kraus . He denounced above all the criminal machinations and business practices of the publisher Imre Békessy , but also made Tschuppik responsible as editor-in-chief for “brothel journalism”. Tschuppik remained largely true to his political line even at the hour . So, of all things, he published two extensive articles per hour in which he took a stand against the intertwining of “capital and press”.

For Kraus, Tschuppik was an important target because he saw his "monopoly on criticism of time and morals" in jeopardy, and despite the same political standpoints Tschuppik, among other things, because of his sometimes ironic spelling, which Kraus' accusations opponents , Create sympathy that denied the “moral right” to fight those whom Kraus also fought in his torch . In 1923 he wrote in the torch : “Before I have a disgust in common with Mr. Tschuppik, I prefer to patronize his victims! [...] Because I didn't mean freedom as bacchanically as this Tschuppik. "

Once there was a court case in which Tschuppik was accused of having written the note in the newspaper in which the personal description of an offender allegedly wanted for the sexual abuse of children was given, which apparently referred to the editor-in-chief of the Arbeiter-Zeitung , Friedrich Austerlitz , aimed. Tschuppik denied being responsible and was acquitted.

After Kraus' accusations of commercial blackmail and coercion against Bekéssy were confirmed, Tschuppik turned away from his employer and left the newspaper on July 13, 1926. Since then he has not been employed in any editorial office and has only been a freelance worker.

Cultural journalism and biographical research in Berlin (1926–1933)

In 1926 he moved to Berlin, where he was in contact with Anton Kuh , Valeriu Marcu , Alfred Polgar , Alexander Roda Roda and Joseph Roth . He wrote articles, glosses and historical essays for the important cultural and cultural-political journals Das Tage-Buch by Leopold Schwarzschild , Literary World by Willy Haas and for Der Cross-Section . During his time in Germany he soon became an expert on German conditions, as can be seen from his publications. At the same time he gained distance from Austria and its Habsburg past, for which he found increasingly milder judgments.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s Tschuppik made the recent past and biographies the focus of his occupations. During his research and research he repeatedly published results in magazines and newspapers until his first monograph was finally published in 1928: Franz Joseph I. The Fall of an Empire. This was followed by monographs on Empress Elisabeth (1929), Erich Ludendorff (1931) and Maria Theresia (1934), all of which represented a combination of “unscrupulous scientific diligence and literary intuition”. The "skeleton of historical facts" should be "breathed into life" through "literary intuition", which also included the social and political environment of the people. In these works he made strong reference to letters and memoirs of the people described. As in his essays for newspapers and magazines, he tried to identify and present personal motives and deficits as the mainspring of politics. Consequently, he comes to the conclusion that political catastrophes, for example in the case of Franz Joseph and Ludendorff, are essentially due to their "lack of sensitivity and intelligence", "which declare their own inability to be a state of affairs". Of his monographs , those about Franz Joseph were translated into English in 1933, those about Empress Elisabeth into English, French and Swedish in 1934, and those about Ludendorff into English and Italian.

Tschuppik's anti-fascist, anti-German national sentiments, which are clearly expressed in his essays, articles, and books, as well as his monograph on Ludendorff, in which he also criticizes his “extremely primitive fascism of the Adolf Hitler style”, made him a popular target National Socialist anti-Semitic agitation. As early as 1933, Tschuppik found himself on the National Socialists' first 43-name “Literature Black List”, which indexed “harmful and undesirable literature” that had to be removed immediately from the libraries and fell victim to the 1933 book burning .

Last years in Vienna - journalistic agitation for Austria

Tschuppik had to leave Germany and on March 9, 1933 he moved back into his accommodation in the Vienna Hotel Bristol, where he had been living recently in Vienna. Joseph Roth and Anton Kuh also returned to Vienna in 1933. He was also in contact with Klaus Mann and Ödön von Horváth , whose best man he was in 1933. Tschuppik now wrote for the two pro-Austrian newspapers Der Morgen and Wiener Sonn- und Mondagszeitung . While Josef Roth's biographer, David Bronsen, said in 1974 that Tschuppik shares Roth's transformation from a democratic left to a monarchist, Klaus Amann, after reading Tschuppik's work in the 1930s, considers this view to be unfounded. It is rather the case "that Tschuppik took a position within the political spectrum of the thirties and above all in the discussion about the so-called 'Austria idea' that was more differentiated and determined towards Germany than anything that the official bodies of the ' The fact that Tschuppik saw the monarchy in the 1930s from a different, milder perspective than immediately after its downfall is due to the (at least for him) recognizable approaching “downfall of the West” through National Socialism and its urge to expand as well as Austrofascism.

From 1934 onwards, Austria also had an authoritarian government with the Austro-Fascist corporate state , which also referred to "Germanness" and the German cultural nation and tried to assert Austrian independence by defining itself as "better Germans". But before Tschuppik found such aggressive, critical tones, he certainly aroused sympathy for the authoritarian Austrian state in his articles and comments. Above all, the attacks by National Socialist Germany on Austria caused the pro-Austrian Tschuppik to partly follow the line of Austrian propaganda. It is not known to what extent censorship and government intervention could have played a role here. The absurdity of the Austro-Fascist attempt to “overheat” Germany was ultimately exposed by Tschuppik. In this context Tschuppik wrote in the Wiener Sonn- und Mondagszeitung in 1935 that “there is an abuse of the word 'German'” in Austria, which is suitable “to support the deception spread by National Socialist ideology that Austria is part of Germany be". "After Germanness was completely detached from what was once common civilizational property, it is now impossible for an Austrian to appear as a 'German' in the civilized world."

His income situation was becoming increasingly difficult. The Amsterdam exile publisher Allert de Lange , with which Tschuppik published his books written after 1933, became his main source of income. A temporary improvement resulted from the fact that Maria Theresia was selling very well, as his correspondence with Walter Landauer from the publisher shows. Tschuppik's last work was published in 1937 - his only novel: A son from a good family . This was filmed in 1989 by Karin Brandauer .

In the morning of June 21, 1937, he reported on three infamous people : including a flower woman from Kärntner Strasse, whom he had missed one day - she had died. He commented on this with “God knows who he will eat in time.” One month later, on July 22nd around 2 pm, Tschuppik died unexpectedly in the Bristol. Angina pectoris was given as the cause of death . The wine lover was buried at the Grinzinger Friedhof - accompanied by the song It will be a wine and we will never be , which, as he had decreed in his will, was performed by the harmonica player of his favorite wine tavern . During his lifetime, when somber thoughts about the future came over him, Tschuppik changed the title of the song depressingly: “It won't be wine and we will still be.” - “He was spared that.” Joseph Roth reported in Paris in the new Tage-Buch (exile continuation of the Tage-Buch ) about Tschuppik's funeral and knew in his death "before the time, but also before the Un-time" in anticipation of the effects of National Socialism to recognize something positive: "If he did not die they would have killed him ”.

State of research

So far, only two researchers have dealt with a scientific analysis of Tschuppik's life and work. The Vorarlberg literary historian Klaus Amann published the first analysis of his works in 1982. The second work is a diploma thesis that was submitted in 1995 by Klaus Prokopp at the University of Klagenfurt . He researched numerous official documents such as registration papers and death charts, letters and texts from Tschuppik's environment and examined in particular his positions on political and social issues using newspaper articles, features and essays that can be assigned to Tschuppik.

Anecdotes

• Tschuppik and Anton Kuh were considered "one of the funniest and weirdest pairs of friends" in the coffeehouses, at that time the meeting point of cultural and intellectual life, but also in the Heuriger, which both liked and frequented, whose effect of the impromptu scenes in which they In the coffee house people parodied, mainly revealed by the contrast between the two. For example, Hermann Kesten reported in his book “Dichter im Café” that “Tschuppik in extreme calm, cow in extreme restlessness” played their parodied characters in “unshakable seriousness”, while the “listeners were bursting with laughter”.

• Friedrich Torberg reported to his aunt Jolesch, among other things, about the climax of a dispute between Tschuppik and the Viennese police chief Johann Schober as well as his dream of founding a daily newspaper with a strange name:

“Soon after he started working for the Viennese tabloid 'Die Stunden', Tschuppik got into a personal conflict with the then police chief Johann Schober. For reasons that are irrelevant here, he was unable to express his resentment in the 'hour', and it was difficult for him. The way in which he finally vented is as much a part of his image as it is of the city of Vienna. It happened after a nightly visit to the wine tavern. Tschuppik headed for his domicile in the old Hotel Bristol and crossed the opera junction with an unsteady step when the traffic policeman posted there, whom he considered to be an enemy messenger from Schober, caught his eye with disapproval. Staggering a little, he planted himself in front of him and apostrophized him as follows: 'Go to your President ... and tell him ... the Tschuppik lets him tell ... he should lick his ass ... the rick should lick the Tschuppik in the ass ... Did you understand?' The security organ expressed its understanding by arresting Tschuppik immediately, but after the intervention of some escorts were satisfied with the recording of the personal data and the filing of the complaint. A few days later, Tschuppik received an armored summons to the responsible police station. […] Tschuppik […] apologized with bowed head and was released after some back and forth with the urgent admonition that something like this should never happen again. From that day on, the policemen in the Rayon Opernkreuzung - among whom the incident had naturally got around - used to salute briskly when they saw Tschuppik approaching. A man who was allowed to lick the police chief's ass without harming him had the right to the highest respect. "

- Friedrich Torberg

“Tschuppik dreamed of founding a daily newspaper with the simple title 'Der Arsch' (weekly supplements: 'Der Kinderarsch' and 'Der Frauenarsch'). Again and again he got intoxicated by the vision of how the night colporteur, with a pile of the first edition ready to hand over his arm, stood in front of the opera after the performance was over and the elegantly dressed ladies and gentlemen who were pouring out his tonelessly businesslike 'Der Oasch ... der Oasch ... who called Oasch. It remained a dream. "

- Friedrich Torberg

various

• His biography of Maria Theresia , translated into Dutch in 1934, was read by Anne Frank on June 13, 1944.

Works

Biographies

1928: Franz Joseph I. The fall of an empire. Avalun Verlag, Hellerau near Dresden

1929: Elisabeth. Empress of Austria. Hans Epstein publishing house, Vienna / Leipzig

1931: Ludendorff. The tragedy of the professional. Hans Epstein publishing house, Vienna / Leipzig

1933: François-Joseph et Madame Schratt. D'après les carnets du Comte Lonyay, Chabellan de SM François-Joseph. Paris

1934: Maria Theresia. Allert de Lange Verlag , Amsterdam

novel

1937: A son from a good family. Allert de Lange Verlag, Amsterdam

filming

1989: A son from a good family (Director: Karin Brandauer )

literature

• Th. Venus:  Tschuppik Karl. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 14, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2012–, ISBN 978-3-7001-7312-0 , p. 495 f. (Direct links on p. 495 , p. 496 ).
• Klaus Amann (Ed.): Karl Tschuppik: From Franz Joseph to Adolf Hitler. Polemics, essays and feature sections. Böhlau Verlag, Vienna / Cologne / Graz 1982, ISBN 3-205-07189-1
• Klaus Amann: The poets and politics. Essays on Austrian literature after 1918. Edition Falter / Deuticke, Vienna 1992, ISBN 3-85463-119-7 , pp. 31–48
• Klaus Prokopp: Conformism and Confrontation. The journalist Karl Tschuppik (1876–1938) and his leading articles in the Prager Tagblatt 1914–1918. Diploma thesis, University of Klagenfurt, 1994
• Tschuppik, Karl , in: Werner Röder; Herbert A. Strauss (Ed.): International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Emigrés 1933-1945 . Volume 2.2. Munich: Saur, 1983 ISBN 3-598-10089-2 , p. 1176

Web links

• Literature by and about Karl Tschuppik in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Karl Tschuppik  in the German Digital Library
• Biographical information, sources & literature, texts about and by Karl Tschuppik (PDF; 1.6 MB)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Due to contradicting information from sources and contemporaries, there are discussions in the literature about date of birth, place of birth and religion of the family of origin. However, the state regional archives of Prague put the baptism entry (in Czech, top line) of August 6, 1876 of a church book online, which states that Tschuppik was born on July 26, 1876 at half past four in the morning in Mělník and that all parents and grandparents were Catholic were. Occasional, often contradicted rumors that he came from a Jewish family have been refuted, were also unbelievable beforehand, because his paternal ancestors had been Austrian officials and officers since Maria Theresa , which was only possible for non-Catholic subjects since Joseph II , and finally since the revolution in 1848 , the maternal ancestors had Czech names, which was unusual for Jewish residents of Bohemia in the first half of the 19th century. Cf. Georg B. Deutsch: Materials on Karl Tschuppik (KT). , in: Soma-Morgenstern.at, p. 9 and p. 16.
2. ↑ cf. Amann, 1992, p. 31
3. ↑ Prokopp, 1995, p. 29
4. ↑ Prokopp, 1995, p. 7f
5. ↑ Prokopp, 1995, p. 8
6. ↑ Prokopp, 1995, p. 9
7. ↑ Karl Tschuppik died suddenly. In: Wiener Zeitung , July 23, 1937, p. 5 (quoted from Prokopp, 1995, p. 4)
8. ↑ ^{a b c} Prokopp, 1995, p. 15f
9. ↑ Prokopp, 1995, pp. 17-19
10. ↑ ^{a b} Prokopp, 1995, p. 19f
11. ↑ Prokopp, 1995, p. 4
12. ↑ Prokopp, 1995, p. 19
13. ↑ Prokopp, 1995, p. 20
14. ↑ Prokopp, 1995, p. 22f
15. ↑ Prokopp, 1995, p. 21
16. ↑ ^{a b} Amann, 1992, p. 35
17. ↑ Amann, 1992, p. 46
18. ↑ ^{a b} Amann, 1992, p. 37
19. ↑ Prokopp, 1995, p. 23
20. ↑ Amann, 1992, p. 38
21. ↑ Amann, 1992, p. 40
22. ↑ ^{a b} Amann, 1992, p. 39
23. ^ Karl Tschuppik: Ludendorff. The tragedy of the professional. Verlag Hans Epstein, Vienna / Leipzig 1931, p. 171.
24. ↑ Amann, 1992, p. 40 f.
25. ↑ ^{a b c} Amann, 1992, p. 41
26. ↑ Amann, 1992, p. 41 f.
27. ↑ Amann, 1992, p. 44
28. ↑ Amann, 1992, p. 33
29. ↑ cit. after Anton Staudinger: Christian Social Party and establishment of the 'authoritarian corporate state'. In: Jedlicka, Neck: From the Palace of Justice to Heldenplatz. Österreichische Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1975 (comment is from Neustädter-Stürmer)
30. ↑ Karl Tschuppik: The small difference. In: Wiener Sonn- und Mondagszeitung , April 29, 1935, p. 8; reprinted in: Klaus Amann: Karl Tschuppik: From Franz-Joseph to Adolf Hitler. Polemics, essays, feature sections. Vienna / Cologne / Graz, 1982, pp. 239–245 (quoted from Amann, 1992, p. 43)
31. ↑ Prokopp, 1995, p. 30
32. ↑ His grave is in Group XIII, No. 117, is neglected and without a tombstone (according to Prokopp, 1995, p. 35)
33. ^ Friedrich Torberg : The aunt Jolesch . Verlag LangenMüller, Munich 2008 (first published in 1975), p. 180
34. ↑ Joseph Roth: At Karl Tschuppik's grave. In: Das neue Tage-Buch , July 31, 1937 (also in: Hermann Kesten (Hrsg.): Joseph Roth: Werke. New extended edition. Volume 4, Cologne 1975/1976, pp. 749 and 757; quoted in Amann, 1992, p. 48)
35. ↑ Torberg, LangenMüller 2008, p. 175
36. ↑ Hermann Kesten : Poets in the café. Munich / Vienna / Basel, 1959 p. 378 f.
37. ↑ Torberg, LangenMüller 2008, pp. 177f
38. ↑ Torberg, LangenMüller 2008, p. 179
39. ↑ Hyman Aaron Enzer, Sandra Solotaroff-Enzer: Anne Frank: Reflections on Her Life and Legacy . University of Illinois Press, 2000, ISBN 978-0-252-06823-2 ( google.at [accessed January 10, 2018]).

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on December 11, 2008 .