Ernst Fischer (writer)

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Ernst Fischer (born July 3, 1899 in Komotau , Bohemia ; † July 31, 1972 in Deutschfeistritz , Styria ) was an Austrian writer and politician ( KPÖ ). As an author he also used the pseudonyms Peter Wieden , F. Ernst , W. Peter and P. (ierre) Vidal . As a politician, he was State Secretary in the provisional Renner government in 1945 (in a position equivalent to a current minister) and until 1959 a member of the National Council.

biography

Youth, school education, First World War (1899–1918)

Ernst Fischer was born as the son of the Austro-Hungarian colonel and teacher of mathematics and descriptive geometry at military schools Josef Fischer and his wife Agnes, nee. Planner von Wildinghof, born and had three siblings: Otto (1901–1980), Walter (1901–1978) and Agnes (1905–1929). He grew up in Graz, where he was expelled from the Realgymnasium in 1914 for “pornographic” poems and completed his training as an external student in 1917 with the “War Matura”. During the First World War , Fischer was deployed on the Italian front; his political career began when he was elected to the soldiers' council in 1918.

Studies, first literary publications, engagement in the Austrian social democracy (1918–1934)

After the war ended, Fischer began studying philosophy, German and history at the University of Graz and also worked as a laborer. Fischer got to know Rudolf Weys and published his first volume of poetry Vogel Sehnsucht in 1920 . In the same year he also published an essay on the Graz artists' association "Freiland", in which he exuberantly praised the new art movement of Expressionism . He then wrote short stories and plays, which are characterized by a strong philosophical component. He later came into contact with Ernst Toller , he had a pen friendship with Stefan Zweig , who also supported the premiere of his play Das Schwert des Attila in 1923 at the Burgtheater . The friendship with Zweig came to an end after the events of July 15, 1927 and Fischer's increasing political radicalization.

Fischer had been a member of the SDAP since 1920 and first worked in Graz for the social democratic newspaper “Arbeiterwille”, later from 1925 also artistic director of the “Arbeiterbühne” association in Graz, which u. a. performed his play The Eternal Rebel .

From 1927 he lived in Vienna, where he worked as a feature section editor of the party newspaper “ Arbeiter-Zeitung ” until 1934 . a. was responsible for the column “interjection left”, in which Jura Soyfer and Fritz Brainin published articles. In 1933 Ernst Fischer became a member of the Association of Socialist Writers . In the period from 1931 to 1934, Fischer was seen as the leader of the left opposition within the party (“Socialist Young Front”) with great influence on the youth of the party, who rejected the SDAP's constant retreat from the political right.

Escape from Austria, conversion to the KPÖ, exile in the Soviet Union (1934–1945)

After the defeat of the Social Democrats in the February uprising in 1934, in whose struggles he was not personally involved, Fischer escaped arrest only by going into hiding with friends. a. with Elias Canetti . With the beginning of the Austrofascist rule in Austria, he fled with his wife Ruth, who was involved in the Schutzbund battles, and forged passports to Prague , where he became a member of the Austrian Communist Party (KPÖ) in April.

In July 1934 he traveled on with the “Schutzbundzug” to Moscow , where he lived with other prominent exiles in the Hotel Lux and increasingly identified himself with the political program of Stalinism . Fischer justified the purges then and also later as a necessary contribution to maintaining the internal unity of the Soviet Union . He was accepted into the central committee of the KPÖ, was from autumn 1935 a representative of the KPÖ to the Comintern and from 1938 to 1943 editor of the German-speaking Comintern organ "The Communist International".

He also worked for a time in the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the USSR as head of the propaganda department for Austria and as a radio commentator for German-language broadcasts and was deployed from 1943 to 1945 for political education work on Austrian prisoners of war.

When the end of the war was already in sight, the Soviet Union planned to support the so-called National Front governments as concentration governments in consideration of the Western Allies in the liberated countries , and not simply to install communist regimes. This also applied to Austria, and so Ernst Fischer declared in Moscow in 1944 that “the Austrian communists were ready to work with Catholics and democratic bourgeois-capitalist forces to establish a democratic-patriotic front”.

Return to Austria, political and intellectual leader of the KPÖ (1945–1963)

Fischer returned to Austria in April 1945 and was a member of the Central Committee of the KPÖ (until 1969) together with Johann Koplenig , Friedl Fürnberg and Franz Honner at the top of the party. In 1945, the KPÖ also supported the provisional Renner state government , in which Ernst Fischer headed the state office for public enlightenment, teaching, upbringing and cultural affairs (comparable to the later Ministry of Education). In addition, he was also editor-in-chief of the first post-war newspaper “ Neues Österreich ”, a paper that was published jointly by the three parties ÖVP, SPÖ and KPÖ. Scoffers said of this newspaper, which was very successful at the time: "a newspaper in which three parties lie, almost tells the truth".

After the first parliamentary elections in Austria in 1945 , in which the KPÖ emerged as a marginal political force, Fischer had to give up his post as State Secretary. Together with Viktor Matejka , he remained one of the most important communist intellectuals in the country. After Stalin's break with Tito ( Kominform conflict), he wrote a true-to-line play against Titoism ( The Great Treason ), which was performed in 1950 in the Scala Theater in Vienna . From 1945 to 1959 he was a member of the National Council.

On May 14, 1946, at a large rally on the South Tyrol issue on Vienna's Rathausplatz , Fischer demanded that South Tyrol be reintegrated into Austria. From 1948 Fischer gave the Austrian diary together with Viktor Matejka and Bruno Frei . Weekly for culture, politics, economy (later diary , from 1969 Vienna diary ) out. In 1956 he was expelled from the PEN Club , of which he was a member, in connection with the conflict over the Hungarian uprising . In 1963 he was an important non-dogmatic participant in the Kafka conference organized by Eduard Goldstücker for the 80th birthday of Franz Kafka , as a result of which the aesthetic doctrine of socialist realism lost its reputation among Marxist intellectuals.

Break with the KPÖ, engagement as an "undogmatic Marxist" (1968–1972)

In 1968, after the events of the Prague Spring , Fischer publicly renounced totalitarianism in his criticism of "tank communism". He was then expelled from the KPÖ in 1969. With Franz Marek, he continued to publish the monthly journal Wiener Tagebuch and played a role in public, especially as an undogmatic Marxist theorist.

Private

Ernst Fischer was married to Ruth von Mayenburg from 1932 and from 1955 he was married to Louise Eisler, formerly the wife of Hanns Eisler . Marina Fischer-Kowalski (born 1946) is his daughter.

Others

It is still controversial today whether the official designation "language of instruction" for the school subject German goes back to a decree by Ernst Fischer during his time as State Secretary for Education, or whether this was only implemented by his ÖVP successor Felix Hurdes . Furthermore, it is unclear whether this was done at the urging of the Allies, or whether one of the two politicians carried out the action independently in order to distance Austria from all associations with Germany. In 2004, the Frankfurter Allgemeine wrote a newspaper article on this open question.

Works

In his literary works he dealt with current politics as well as with the history of Austria and the national and ideological self-image of the country, including an analysis of the works of Franz Grillparzer .

  • Youth crisis . Essay. Hess & Co, Vienna / Leipzig 1931.
  • The Kemerovo Workers Murder . Under the pseudonym P. Wieden. Hartenstein, Leipzig 1932
    The Kemerovo Workers Murder. The criminal activity of the Trotskyists . Issue under his name. Free Switzerland publishing house, Zurich 1937.
  • Freedom and dictatorship . Prometheus, Basel 1934
  • Schutzbund fighters tell of February 1934 . Publishing Cooperative of Foreign Workers in the USSR, Moscow 1936.
  • For or against the united front . Éditions Prométhée, Strasbourg 1937.
  • Destroy Trotskyism . Éditions Promeéthée, Strasbourg 1937
  • The new human rights. The Constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics . Free Switzerland publishing house, Basel 1937.
  • The fascist racial theory . Foreign Language Literature Publishing House, Moscow 1941.
  • About the philosophical foundations of the German state upheaval . Oprecht, Zurich 1943.
  • The bad guy. Political ridicule poems . Foreign Language Literature Publishing House, Moscow 1943.
  • Adolf Hitler - the curse of Germany . Tipografija "Iskra rewolucij" Moscow 1943.
  • Home of Austria . Free Austrian Movement in Great Britain , London around 1944.
  • The Rebirth of my Country. A series of broadcasts on Austria over Moscow Radio . With a foreword by Wilhelm Scholz. Free Austrian Books, London 1944.
  • The Austrian national character . Essay. Free Austrian Books / Free Austrian Movement, London / Zurich 1944
    The emergence of the Austrian folk character . Series of publications "New Austria", Vienna 1945.
  • Problems of Socialist Education , ed. from the Junge Garde, Vienna undated [1945].
  • The year of liberation. From speeches and essays . Stern-Verlag, Vienna 1946.
  • The national mask of the Hitler imperialists . Under the pseudonym Peter Wieden. Publishing house of the Soviet Military Administration, Berlin 1946.
  • Austria 1848. Problems of the democratic revolution in Austria . Stern-Verlag, Vienna 1946.
  • The beacon . The fight of Dimitrov against the arsonists . Verlag "Neues Österreich", newspaper u. Publishing company, Vienna 1946.
  • The year of liberation. From speeches and essays . Stern-Verlag, Vienna 1946.
  • Franz Grillparzer . A great Austrian poet . Globus-Verlag, Vienna 1946 (Tagblatt-Bibliothek, vol. 1265).
  • Freedom and personality. Three lectures on problems in modern philosophy . Publication series “Neues Österreich”, Vienna 1947.
  • Figl Government - Schärf - how much longer ? Stern-Verlag, Vienna 1947 (The current series, No. 3).
  • End of occupation! Our struggle for state treaty and sovereignty . Stern-Verlag, Vienna 1948.
  • Heart and flag . Poems. Erasmus Verlag, Vienna 1949.
  • Art and humanity . Essays. Globus-Verlag, Vienna 1949.
  • Goethe , the great humanist . Globus Verlag, Vienna 1949.
  • The great betrayal . A political drama in five acts. Globus Verlag, Vienna 1950 (Tagblatt-Bibliothek, Vol. 1328/5).
  • Starhemberg . The Story of a Fraud , ed. by Leopold Hornik, Vienna 1952.
  • The bridges of Breisau . A comedy in three acts. Globus Verlag, Vienna 1952 (Tagblatt-Bibliothek, vol. 1338).
  • Because we are lovers. Forty sonnets . Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1952.
  • Poetry and Interpretation. Contributions to the literature review . Globus-Verlag, Vienna 1953.
  • Prince Eugene . A novel in dialogues . Together with Louise Eisler. With an afterword by Lion Feuchtwanger . Schönbrunn-Verlag, Vienna 1955.
  • The atomic danger , ed. from the Communist Party of Austria, Vienna undated [1957].
  • Of the necessity of art . VEB Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1959 ( Fundus series vol. 1).
  • From Grillparzer to Kafka. Six essays . Globus-Verlag, Vienna 1962
    New edition: Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt / M. 1975, ISBN 3-518-06784-2 .
  • Problems of the young generation. Powerlessness or responsibility . Europa Verlag, Vienna 1963.
  • Zeitgeist and literature. Art bondage and freedom . Europa Verlag, Vienna 1964.
  • Art and coexistence. Contribution to a modern Marxist aesthetic . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1966.
  • What Marx really said . With the collaboration of Franz Marek. Molden, Vienna 1968.
  • What Lenin really said . Together with Franz Marek. Molden, Vienna / Munich 1969.
  • The revolution is different. Ernst Fischer asks ten questions from critical students . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1971, ISBN 3-499-11458-5 .
  • Kafka conference . In: Heinz Politzer (Ed.): Franz Kafka . Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1973, ISBN 3-534-05401-6 , pp. 366–377.
  • Memories and reflections. Memories up to 1945 . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1969.
  • The end of an illusion. Memories 1945–1955 . Molden, Vienna 1973, ISBN 3-217-00445-0 (posthumous)
    New edition: Wieser Verlag, Klagenfurt 1988, ISBN 3-85129-180-8 . Both volumes in one work:
  • Memories and reflections . Autobiography 1899–1945, Gutenberg Book Guild, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-7632-4363-1 , with a revised register of names. Published in the Exilliteratur library, edited by Hans-Albert Walter, text editor Karl Krönke.
Works from a work edition begun after Fischer's death, ed. by Karl Markus Gauß and Ludwig Hartinger, which remained unfinished.
  • Culture, literature, politics. Early writings . Sendler, Frankfurt / M. 1984, ISBN 3-88048-067-2 .
  • Of the necessity of art . Sendler, Frankfurt / M. 1985, ISBN 3-88048-073-7 .
  • Origin and essence of romanticism . Sendler, Frankfurt / M. 1986, ISBN 3-88048-076-1 .
  • Praise the imagination. Late writings on culture and art . Sendler, Frankfurt / M. 1986, ISBN 3-88048-081-8 .
  • Memories and reflections . Sendler, Frankfurt / M. 1987, ISBN 3-88048-088-5 .
  • The end of an illusion. Memories 1945–1955 . Vervuert, Frankfurt / M. 1988, ISBN 3-89354-505-0 .
  • Revolt of Reality, Literary Studies and Portraits . Vervuert, Frankfurt / M. 1989, ISBN 3-89354-506-9
  • From Grillparzer to Kafka. From Canetti to Fried . Vervuert, Frankfurt / M. 1991, ISBN 3-89354-507-7 .
Talk
  • For freedom and reason. Address at the University of Vienna for the opening of the popular university courses . Series of publications "New Austria", Vienna 1945.
  • Education for Democracy . Speech to the Styrian teaching staff on June 27, 1945, ed. from the Provincial Administration for Styria, School and Art Department. Graz 1945.
  • How do we communists view the Nazi question? Ernst Fischer answers the Nazi question . Communist Party of Austria, district organization Favoriten, Vienna 1945.
  • National Councilor Ernst Fischer on the Russian command over German property in Austria . Speech at the session of the National Council on July 10, 1946. Globus-Verlag, Vienna 1946.
  • A clear no to the past. A big yes to Austria's democratic future . Speech at the session of the National Council on July 24, 1946 on the National Socialist Act . Globus-Verlag, Vienna 1946.
  • The communists and the Nazi question . Speech on July 24, 1946 on the National Socialist Act. Verlag Wagner, Innsbruck 1946.
  • What do the Austrian communists want? The programmatic guiding principles of the Communist Party of Austria . Globus-Verlag, Vienna 1946.
  • The way to Austria's sovereignty . Speech on the occasion of the rally of the Communist Party on May 1st in the Salzburg Festival Hall. Kiesel, Salzburg 1946.
  • The Soviet Union and Peace . Stern-Verlag, Vienna 1948 (The current series, No. 12).
  • Alexander Petofi . Lecture held on January 29, 1950. Edited by the Austro-Hungarian Association for Culture and Economy. Globus Verlag, Vienna 1950.
  • The Austrian cultural crisis . Stern-Verlag, Vienna 1951 [speech during the budget debate in the Austrian National Council in 1951].
  • Nikolaj Gogol . Ceremonial speech on the 100th anniversary of his death on March 11, 1952. Self-published by the Austro-Soviet Society, Vienna 1952.
Translations and forewords
  • The black flame . Poems by Charles Baudelaire and Paul Verlaine . Translation into German by Ernst Fischer. Erasmus-Verlag, Vienna 1947.
  • Fritz Jensen : victim and winner . Re-seals. Poems and reports. With a foreword by Ernst Fischer. Dietz, Berlin 1955.
Radio plays

literature

  • Alfred Kosing : Ernst Fischer - a modern Marxist? VEB Deutscher Verlag, Berlin 1969.
  • Ruth von Mayenburg: Hotel Lux. With Dimitroff, Ernst Fischer, Ho Tschi Minh, Pieck, Rakosi, Slansky, Dr. Sorge, Tito, Togliatti, Tschou En-lai, Ulbricht and Wehner in the Moscow quarter of the Communist International . C. Bertelsmann, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-570-02271-4 .
  • Helmuth A. Niederle (Ed.): Ernst Fischer. A Marxist Aristotle? Sandler, St. Pölten 1980. (= The desk . Special issue)
  • Jürgen Egyptien: Ernst Fischer's Grazer Years or the eroticization of literature, politics and life . In: Zwischenwelt , 3, pp. 155–174.
  • Karl Kröhnke: Ernst Fischer or the art of coexistence. Life and opinions of an Austrian communist. An essay . Book guild Gutenberg, Frankfurt am Main / Vienna 1994.
  • Bernhard Fetz (Ed.): Ernst Fischer. Texts and materials. Special number, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-85449-161-1 .
  • Sebastian Baryli: Between Stalin and Kafka. Ernst Fischer from 1945 to 1972 , Pahl-Rugenstein, Bonn 2008, ISBN 978-3-89144-400-9

Lexica entries

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Jungle World 51/1999: Gerhard Scheit: Weg ohne Ziel - About the contradicting work of the Austrian writer, essayist and KPÖ politician Ernst Fischer ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / jungle-world.com
  2. ^ Wolfgang Müller: Soviet Austria Planning 1938–1945 . In: Ernst Bruckmüller: Reconstruction in Austria. 1945–1955, reconstruction or a new beginning? Page 43 and 44 , Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-486-57864-5
  3. "New Austria". In: dasrotewien.at - Web dictionary of the Viennese social democracy. SPÖ Vienna (Ed.)
  4. Neues Österreich , edition of May 15, 1946, p. 1, quoted from Winfried R. Garscha : Südtirol und das Wien des “Herr Karl” . In: Georg Grote , Hannes Obermair , Günther Rautz (eds.): “Un mondo senza stati è un mondo senza guerre”. Politically motivated violence in a regional context (Eurac book 60). Eurac.research : Bozen 2013. ISBN 978-88-88906-82-9 . Pp. 167-180, here 169-170.
  5. Frankfurter Allgemeine February 11, 2004: Lessons in Hurdestan ( Memento of the original from October 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hrb.at
  6. also as a camouflage of 24 pages: When a torero is in love , in the holdings of the IISG Amsterdam , archive no. Bro 5459/1, by Heinz Gittig, Illegale ... Tarnschriften, edition 1972, No. 111