Ernst Spitz

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Ernst Spitz (born June 27, 1902 in Kronstadt in Transylvania , Austria-Hungary ; † June 22, 1940 in Buchenwald concentration camp ) was an Austrian journalist and playwright.

Biographer Andreas Hutter at the grave of Ernst Spitz in Vienna, which he rediscovered in 2005

Life

Ernst Spitz grew up in a bourgeois family in Vienna; his father was a bank manager. As a high school student he joined the communist youth association in Vienna . As a young reporter he worked for the "Rote Fahne", the central organ of the KPÖ . In 1924 he was expelled from the party and gave up its ideology.

In 1923, Spitz was arrested as a reporter at a demonstration in front of the Vienna Parliament, an unprecedented case in domestic press history with an aftermath in the Judicial Committee of the National Council. Ernst Spitz spent two months in prison and, after his release, wrote the sensational series of articles »Kerker« in the left-wing tabloid Der Abend in 1924 about the catastrophic abuses in Austrian prisons. The Malik publishing house brought out its disclosure reports in an anthology in the same year.

In 1925, Spitz worked as an editor for the Viennese tabloid " Die Stunden ", published by the controversial Imre Békessy . According to his report, Spitz 'criticism of the newspaper's corrupt and extortionate behavior expressed by colleagues at the time reached the management of the publishing house through his colleague at the time, Billy Wilder ; Spitz was fired.

In 1926 he made his criticism public in book form. In doing so, he confirmed Karl Kraus' vehement criticism of Békessy in his magazine Die Fackel and gave the Vienna public prosecutor's office an opportunity to initiate investigations, whereupon Békessy never returned to Austria from a stay in France.

In 1930, Spitz switched from journalism to literature. One of his first plays, the melodrama "Am Schwarzen Meer", written together with the Viennese actor, director and author Philipp von Zeska (1896–1977), was won in Hollywood in 1932 under the title "The World and the Flesh" with the Paramount Film stars George Bancroft and Miriam Hopkins . Directed by John Cromwell (1887–1979), the template by Zeska and Spitz was adapted by Oliver HP Garrett , who in 1939 co-wrote the script for the classic film Gone With the Wind . The New York Times praised the 74-minute long Russian revolutionary drama as a "handsomely photographed and ably directed picture" .

According to Hutter (see below), Ernst Spitz was regarded as one of the most colorful coffee house literary figures of the First Republic and a comrade-in-arms of Karl Kraus and Jura Soyfer . In 1933 Spitz went to Paris and there came into contact with the German-speaking exile cabaret . In 1935 he returned to Vienna and worked as a writer on the cabaret stages "ABC" and "Theater für 49". He worked with Jura Soyfer, Leon Askin and the young Fritz Eckhardt for the cellar cabaret "ABC".

Spitz was arrested in Vienna in June 1938 and was imprisoned in the Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps until February 1939 . In June 1939 he was again taken to Buchenwald concentration camp and shot there in 1940 while trying to escape . H. murdered.

Works

  • You pass . Report on the conditions in Austrian prisons. With a reply from the regional prison administration in Vienna. Berlin, Vienna: Malik, 1924
  • Békessy's revolver . Vienna: Saturn, 1926
  • Békessy's revolver . Issue 2. Vienna: Wittenberg, 1927
  • Revolution of the monuments . Comedy in three acts. Vienna, Berlin, 1931
  • On the Black Sea . Revolutionary drama. By Philipp Zeska and Ernst Spitz. Vienna, 1931
  • The big, stupid animal . Comedy in three acts (5 images). By Philipp Zeska and Ernst Spitz. Vienna, 1931
  • The stolen boy . Five funny pictures for small, large and very large children. By Ernst Spitz and Peter Herrmann. Music: Werner Michel. Vienna, undated
  • What a rag! . Five musical pictures from the suburbs. Vienna, undated
  • Misunderstandings . Comedy. Vienna, undated
  • Widow's Coffee . Comedy. Vienna, undated
  • The world in 99 years . By Fritz Eckhardt, Franz Paul and Ernst Spitz. Vienna, 1936. (World premiere: November 10, 1936, ABC, Vienna)
  • Florian is looking for yesterday . Vienna, 1937 (World premiere: February 11, 1937, ABC, Vienna)
  • The boss bows . Three acts from that time. Vienna, 1937. (World premiere: June 1937, Theater für 49, Vienna).

literature

  • A. Hutter:  Spitz Ernst. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 13, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2007–2010, ISBN 978-3-7001-6963-5 , p. 35 f. (Direct links on p. 35 , p. 36 ).
  • Andreas Hutter : Razor blades in your head. Ernst Spitz - man of letters, journalist, educator. Biography and reader. Vienna: Mandelbaum Verlag, 2005. 301 pages. ISBN 3-85476-160-0
  • Andreas Hutter: "Spitz Ernst, journalist and writer" . In: Austrian biographical lexicon 1815-1950 , ed. Austrian Academy of Sciences, 59th delivery, Vienna 2007, p. 35f.
  • Andreas Hutter and Klaus Kamolz . Billie Wilder. A European career . Vienna, Cologne, Weimar: Böhlau Verlag, 1998. 253 pages. ISBN 3-205-98868-X
  • Armin Thurnher : "Out of Vienna with the villain!" Case of Békessy. Extract from the lecture media, local and global , "Karl Kraus Lecture" of the "Wiener Vorlesungen", April 11, 2008, City Hall. In: Falter , No. 16/2008 (April 16, 2008), pp. 21/22.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Website of the Mandelbaumverlag ( Memento of the original from June 21, 2006 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. , Registration 2006. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.mandelbaum.at
  2. ↑ a b ORF website for Ö1 broadcast  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. dated August 2, 2006.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / oe1.orf.at  
  3. ↑ David Axmann, Book Review April 1, 2006 , Wiener Zeitung website (accessed November 11, 2013)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Spitz, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian journalist and publicist
DATE OF BIRTH June 27, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Kronstadt
DATE OF DEATH June 22, 1940
Place of death Buchenwald concentration camp