Anton cow

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Photo by Max Fenichel (1932)

Anton Kuh (born July 12, 1890 in Vienna , † January 18, 1941 in New York ) was an Austrian- Jewish journalist , essayist , narrator and speaker .

family

Anton Kuh came from a Prague family with a literary disposition. His father Emil Kuh (1856–1912) was editor and later editor-in-chief of the Neue Wiener Tagblatt . His grandfather David Kuh (1819–1879) was a journalist in Prague.

The father Emil Kuh had married Auguste Perlsee. In addition to Anton Kuh, the marriage resulted in two other sons and three daughters, including Marianne Kuh (1893–1948). She was friends with the psychoanalyst and anarchist Otto Gross ; the illegitimate daughter Sophie Templer-Kuh comes from the relationship .

Life

Drawing by Emil Orlik (1926)

Under his own name and under the pseudonym Yorick , Anton Kuh published satires and numerous short prose pieces in which he dealt critically, wittily and clairvoyantly with his time in the sense of pacifism and democracy . Kuh recognized Franz Kafka's paramount importance early on and, as early as the 1920s, issued a prophetic warning against the emerging right zeitgeist. During his lifetime Kuh was best known as a lecturer. Kurt Tucholsky therefore called him - despite Kuh's quite extensive published oeuvre - a "speaker". His biographer Walter Schübler also sees Anton Kuh's impromptu speeches as his “main work”, which “must be considered lost forever”. In 1919 he was engaged to Liliana Amon , but the marriage did not take place.

One of the best-known of these speeches, given on October 25, 1925 in the Vienna Konzerthaus , has only survived in shorthand notes: The monkey Zarathustra , a polemic against Karl Kraus . In it, Kuh not only attacked the theatrical vanity and the public contempt of the writer and reciter Kraus, but above all the elitist, apolitical "Krausianism" of his followers:

“ You walk in the labyrinth of its dark, winding turns like alumni under monastery cloisters. How cool it is there, how far away from Moscow and Berlin "

- To a Kraus-Jünger, Werke, Vol. 6, p. 184

Kuh first lived in Prague and Vienna, then moved to Berlin in 1928 because he

"Preferred to live 'in Berlin among Viennese than in Vienna under Kremsern ' "

- The immortal Austrian, preface, works, vol. 5, p. 10

Reviled as a " cultural Bolshevik " by the National Socialists and had to leave Germany in 1933 because of his Jewish origins. After the “ Anschluss of Austria ” he had to continue his emigration to the USA in 1938 . Kuh died of a heart attack in New York in 1941.

statement

“ Just don't be factual! It can also be done personally. "

- Physiognomik, Werke, Vol. 5, p. 269

Anton Kuh was a master at obtaining advances for essays and glosses, which he managed to lure out of the editors with a few brilliant sentences. He never intended to deliver the promised items. On the contrary: he despised colleagues who processed advances. Once he said about Friedrich Torberg :

“ This is also such an unfriendly colleague. He takes an advance and delivers on time. I've caught him doing it a few times. "

- Géza von Cziffra : The cow in the coffee house, Knaur TB 1049, page 20

Anton Kuh didn't love his last name. In vain did he introduce himself with the words:

“ Cow - all jokes already made. "

- Friedrich Torberg : Even non-smokers must die, Ullstein TB 20864, ​​page 264

On the accusation of a friend "Why are you always so aggressive, Anton" he revealed his philosophy:

“ If a cow is called and wants to be taken seriously, he has to pretend he is a bull. "

- Géza von Cziffra : The cow in the coffee house, Knaur TB 1049, page 21

Aftermath

His works were rediscovered in the 1960s. In 2002 the Anton-Kuh-Weg in Vienna- Landstrasse (3rd district) was named after him. In 2016 a seven-volume edition of works by the Viennese literary scholar Walter Schübler was published , and in 2018 an extensive biography:

  • Walter Schübler: Anton Kuh , Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2018
  • Review: Fabian Wolff: Zwickel gegen Monokel , in: Süddeutsche Zeitung , Munich, No. 273, November 27, 2018, supplement "SZ Spezial - Literatur Belletristik", p. 5
  • Review: Thomas Miessgang: Dandy und Lästermaul , in: Die Zeit , Hamburg, No. 52, December 13, 2018, Austria edition, p. 11 f.

Works (selection)

First editions

  • Jews and Germans , Berlin 1921 ( digitized version )
  • From Goethe downwards. Essays in Aussprüche , Leipzig 1922, online
  • Börne the contemporary. A selection, introduced and edited by Anton Kuh . Leipzig 1922, online
  • The monkey of Zoroaster , 1925, online
  • The Immortal Austrian , Munich 1931, online

Work edition

  • Anton Kuh: Works. Edited by Walter Schübler. Wallstein, Göttingen 2016 (seven volumes), ISBN 978-3-8353-1617-1 .

Collective editions

  • Air lines. Features, essays and journalism. Edited by Ruth Greuner , Volk und Welt Verlag, Berlin 1981. Also: Löcker Verlag, Vienna 1981. ISBN 3-85409-022-6 . Also udT: metaphysics and sausages. Features, essays and journalism. Diogenes Verlag, Zurich 1987 (= Diogenes-Taschenbuch 21455). ISBN 3-257-21455-3 .
  • Zeitgeist in the literature cafe. Features, essays and journalism , new collection, ed. by Ulrike Lehner, Löcker Verlag, Vienna 1985. ISBN 3-85409-081-1 .
  • Jews and Germans , ed. And with an introduction by Andreas B. Kilcher . Löcker Verlag Vienna 2003. ISBN 3-85409-369-1 .
  • Now we can go to sleep! Between Vienna and Berlin. Edited and with an afterword by Walter Schübler. Metro-Verlag, Vienna 2012 ISBN 978-3-99300-069-1 ( four dozen previously unpublished texts , Gregor Auenhammer in: Der Standard , May 26, 2012, supplement album , page A11)

Audio books

  • Helmut Qualtinger : Austrian Reading Book - Helmut Qualtinger reads Anton Kuh , Preiser Records, Vienna, LP 1962 / CD 1988
  • Helmut Qualtinger: Helmut Qualtinger reads Anton Kuh episode 2 , Preiser Records, Vienna, LP 1981 / CD 1999
  • Stephan Paryla-Raky reads Anton Kuh: The Immortal Austrian AstorMedia, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-900277-19-2 .
  • Helmut Lohner reads Anton Kuh: Second triumph and Katzenjammer , Radio Österreich1, Edition Radio Literatur, CD ORF 1995.

Overviews and lexicon articles

literature

  • Oliver Bentz: Anton Kuh. In: German-language exile literature since 1933. Volume 3: USA, ed. by John M. Spalek , Konrad Feilchenfeldt and Sandra H. Hawrylchak, Part 3, Bern and Munich 2002, pp. 95–113.
  • Oliver Bentz: Anton Kuh. Coffee house literary work between Prague, Vienna and Berlin. Verlag Hentrich & Hentrich, Berlin 2017 (Jewish miniatures series)
  • Oliver Bentz: Anton Kuh - a brain gypsy of Lukian blood . Artist's book with a biographical essay about Anton Kuh by Oliver Bentz and three portraits as well as a bronze medal with the portrait of Anton Kuh from the hand of the artist Thomas Duttenhoefer. Vienna / Speyer 2010.
  • Franz Blei : The impromptu speaker. In: Prager Tagblatt, January 12, 1929
  • Max Brod : The Nietzsche Liberal . In: Jüdische Rundschau, vol. 26, 1921, no. 23/24, pp. 163–164.
  • Franziska Geiser: The Age of Infantilism. On Anton Kuh's cultural and social criticism. Wallstein, Göttingen 2020, ISBN 978-3-8353-3760-2 .
  • Karena Lütge and Walter Schübler: the filth of honesty. The journalist and lecturer Anton Kuh. Radio feature, Deutschlandfunk, Friday, June 22, 2012, 8:10 p.m. (Production: DLF 2012, length: 50 minutes). Taken over from DRadio Wissen on July 14, 2012 and from Ö1 on February 18, 2013 ("Tonspuren") and on February 21, 2013 ("Da capo: Tonspuren")
  • Elisabeth Nürnberger: Anton Kuh. An Austrian, Jewish journalist and his political reporting in the interwar period and in exile . Dissertation, University of Vienna 1989
  • Walter Schübler: Anton Kuh. Biography. Göttingen, Wallstein 2018, ISBN 978-3-8353-3189-1 ( publisher presentation ) and digitized version
  • Walter Schübler: Weandorf. Anton Kuh and the provincialization of the metropolis . In: Wolfgang Kos (ed.): Battle for the city. Politics, art and everyday life around 1930 [catalog for the 361st special exhibition at the Wien Museum, November 19, 2009 to March 28, 2010]. Vienna 2009, pp. 108–113.
  • Walter Schübler: AEIOU? - LMIA! Anton Kuh's "Immortal Austrian" - and his mortal descendant. In: Wasp's Nest. Journal for Useful Texts and Pictures, No. 161, November 2011, pp. 81–85.
  • Walter Schübler: About community workers and bustling people: Anton Kuh on “Vienna-Berlin”. In: Walter Schübler (ed.): Anton Kuh: Now we can go to sleep! Between Vienna and Berlin. Vienna 2012, pp. 7–25.
  • Walter Schübler: A Viennese "local giant"? - Not at all! Anton Kuh: a correction. In: Walter Schübler (ed.): Anton Kuh: Now we can go to sleep! Between Vienna and Berlin . Vienna 2012, pp. 218–224.
  • Walter Schübler: Before editing or: In the mine with Anton Kuh (1890–1941). In: Journal for German Studies, New Series, 22nd year, issue 3/2012 [focus on feuilleton research], pp. 648–652.
  • Walter Schübler: Youthism & Operetta Dismissing. About Anton Kuh's distorted perception. In: Research. Newspaper for Science, No. 2/2012, pp. 4–5.
  • Walter Schübler: “The stock exchange Jew as a superman” or Anton Kuh's anamnesis of Jewish modernism and its reception in Prague. In: bridges. Germanistic Yearbook Czech Republic – Slovakia. New episode 23 / 1–2 (2015), pp. 53–64.

Web links

Wikisource: Anton Kuh  - Sources and full texts

swell

  1. ↑ Birth register. Retrieved October 16, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Subsequent birth entry. Retrieved October 18, 2016 .
  3. ^ Jiri Bernas: Conscriptions. In: digi.nacr.cz. Retrieved October 24, 2016 .
  4. ↑ Strangely, born as Perlsee, without mentioning the father. Birth announcement
  5. ↑ Walter Schübler, Anton Kuh. Biography , Göttingen 2018, p. 43
  6. ↑ Word unleashers with a keen eye in FAZ from January 6, 2017, page 10
  7. ↑ Filth of sincerity . In: Deutschlandfunk . ( deutschlandfunk.de [accessed on May 2, 2018]).
personal data
SURNAME Cow, Anton
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Yorick (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian journalist, writer and lecturer
DATE OF BIRTH July 12, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH January 18, 1941
Place of death new York