Friedrich Heer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Friedrich Heer (born April 10, 1916 in Vienna , † September 18, 1983 in Vienna) was an Austrian cultural historian , writer and publicist and an important left-wing Catholic intellectual of the post-war period.

Friedrich Heer in his apartment (1955)

Life

His parents separated when he was four years old and he continued to live with his mother. For him, this experience was a childlike trauma that shaped him deeply and that probably contributed to the contradicting facets of his life. From 1926 to 1934 Heer attended the renowned Academic Gymnasium in Vienna , which had a major impact on him, and passed his school-leaving examination there on June 18, 1934 . One of his classmates there was the later SPÖ Justice Minister Christian Broda . From autumn 1934 he studied history , art history and German at the University of Vienna and joined the ÖCV association KaV Bajuvaria (from which he was excluded in 1974 after mutual estrangement had set in a few years earlier). In 1938 he was charged with a dissertation on the intellectual history of the Middle Ages to the Doctor of Philosophy PhD . In 1935 Heer was studying in Riga , Königsberg in Prussia and Berlin , and in 1936 he completed the preparatory course at the Institute for Austrian Historical Research .

According to - controversial - own statements, Heer was arrested on March 11, 1938 when Hitler's army marched into Austria and was temporarily detained several times in the following years. Called up for the Wehrmacht on May 1, 1940 , he was first stationed in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia as well as in France and then took part in the beginning of the Russian campaign in the southern section ( Bessarabia ). Later, he was at an air communication unit to the end of the war on a northern German airbase used.

After military service and a short British prisoner-of-war period (return to Vienna on March 24, 1946), Heer lived as a freelance writer from 1946 to 1948 and then worked as editor of the Catholic weekly newspaper Die Furche from January 1, 1948 to June 30, 1961 . On June 30, 1961 he was appointed head of dramaturgy at the Burgtheater and remained in this position from November 1, 1961 to August 31, 1971. From 1971 to 1981 he was "Head of the Burgtheater's Secretariat for Cultural Affairs and International Contacts". On January 31, 1981, he was given permanent retirement at his own request. From February 1, 1981 until his death, he remained “Consultant for cultural affairs and international contacts”.

Heer's university career was eventful in view of the conservative climate in his department and the resistance of Education Minister Heinrich Drimmel . Heer completed his habilitation on November 14, 1950 against considerable opposition in the faculty to become a private lecturer in "Spiritual History of the West " and received the title of "Extraordinary University Professor" on December 22, 1961. His efforts to obtain a full professorship at the University of Vienna were unsuccessful.

Heer was a historian of ideas, religion and culture, which is particularly evident in his journalistic work, which comprises more than 50,000 book pages. As a historian , he was not so much the tireless researcher of details in archives as he was concerned with an interpretive and explanatory, indeed often narrative, overview of specific events, epochs or people. Among other things, he devoted himself to the history of the Holy Roman Empire and its relationship to Europe . After him, Charlemagne was the "father of Europe", whose empire shaped the structures of European history. For him, the 11th and 12th centuries, the time of the Salians and Staufers , were the decision-making and formation epochs for the new Europe. The supranational Holy Roman Empire, in connection with the Habsburg Empire of Charles V , where “the sun never set” , was a Europe of unity in diversity in the small. According to Heer, the “engine of the West is its Christian explosive core” .

A Europe of Enlightenment , openness and tolerance was also decisive for Army . He considered a rapid unification of Europe to be unhistorical and ultimately dangerous, because “Europe only lives in its opposites” . Although he was a staunch European, he inevitably remained stuck in the usual thinking categories of the time, where a development like the one that took place after 1989 remained outside the real world of imagination. His analyzes of the spiritual dimension of Europe can only serve as a stimulus for the current discourse in the EU, but not as suggestions for political solutions. Like no other historian, he analyzed the political culture as well as the historical and socio-political sensitivities of Austria and the Second Republic . Here he is to be seen in line with the representatives of the "Austrian idea", as you can find them with August Maria Knoll , Ernst Karl Winter and Hans Karl Freiherr Zeßner von Spitzenberg and how they were in a certain way one through his friend Ernst Marboe after 1945 Continued. For the Army, the State Treaty and the associated neutrality were an opportunity for Austria to take a new path. He located its identity in an open and internationally oriented patriotism . Heer also dealt with anti-Semitism, which is particularly relevant in Austria . In this context one of his main works can be seen, namely “God's first love. 2000 years of Judaism and Christianity. Genesis of the Austrian Catholic Adolf Hitler ” . When this was published in 1967, the German news magazine " Der Spiegel " published an extensive article on this, which was written by the editor Rudolf Augstein himself. In this work, Heer dealt among other things with the Catholic milieu characterization of Adolf Hitler , which had an impact on the "party liturgy" of the NSDAP , as he was able to prove.

This approach was used in his 1968 work “The Faith of Adolf Hitler. Anatomy of a Political Religiosity ” , which was reprinted in 1998, 30 years later. In the meantime it has become one of the essential standard works of Hitler research . Based on his concern with Christian-inspired anti-Semitism, he traced the beliefs of Adolf Hitler and understood him as an Austrian Catholic. He hated, admired and at the same time imitated the Catholic Church. Heer discovered religious nuances and the use of liturgical formulas in Hitler's speeches (for example at the end of the great campaign speech in the Berlin Sports Palace on February 10, 1933). His frequent recourse to “divine providence” was also part of it. In addition to the topics mentioned, the Catholic Church was a very important point of reference for Heer's reflections. This can already be seen in his first publication after the war, "The Christian's Hour" , where he calls on Christians to help shape society. Here he continued the left- wing Catholicism that Ernst Karl Winter had brought into play before 1938 . The highlight in this regard was his book “Church and Future” , published in 1963 with Wilfried Daim and August Maria Knoll , which earned the three authors strong criticism from traditional circles. The “stair joke” was that the demands and suggestions made there were mostly implemented shortly afterwards by the council and in the further post-conciliar development.

Heer's reform-oriented stance in theological and intra-Catholic questions, in conjunction with his special character orientation in communication , which was difficult to understand or endure for normal bourgeois behavior patterns, ultimately led to "failure in Vienna" , as one of his late novels was called . Heimito von Doderer suggested this novel at Heer. Both had a phenotypic similarity. Such was the case with Reinhold Schneider , with whom the Army was close friends and whose novel "Winter in Vienna" inspired the title formulation.

As a Catholic, Heer took a critical stance, especially towards the links between the Church and its dignitaries and National Socialism .

Heer was one of the few who resolutely opposed the Vienna Brecht boycott . In this context he called Hans Weigel a "little Mac Carthy ", which earned him a conviction for libel.

Grave of Friedrich and Eva Heer

His grave of honor is in the Vienna Central Cemetery (group 33 G, number 69).

Awards

Act

Heer began as a medieval historian: in his dissertation and in his first major work, the rise of Europe from 1949, which was followed in 1952 as the second volume Die Tragödie des Heiligen Reich . ( The Holy Roman Empire was then also the subject and title of a book from 1967.) The title of the book Conversation of the Enemies (1949) was recognized by opponents and friends as the “life motto” of the Army. Heer himself also considered this book to be the “pivot” of his work critical of culture and the church. With his emphatically positive view of the Enlightenment , he encountered opposition from Catholic historians such as Franz Schnabel or Franz Herre and the philosopher Alois Dempf .

The Middle Ages again became the subject of an entire book for Heer as part of Kindler's Cultural History , for which he wrote the volume Middle Ages in 1961 . His works after 1952, however, initially place the Middle Ages in a larger context, for example in the first major synopsis European Intellectual History (1953), which draws an arc from early Christianity to the present day. As (very extensive) additions and expansions to European intellectual history , the books Europa. Mother of the Revolutions (1964), which deals specifically with the intellectual history of the 19th century, and The Third Force (1959), which deals with the 16th century and humanism.

Heer designed introductions to Hegel (1955), Meister Eckhart (1956), Leibniz (1958) and Erasmus von Rotterdam (1962) for the Fischer-Bücherei, each of which contains an introductory text by Heer's and his selection from the works of thinkers.

In some of his most important works, Heer dealt critically with individual church traditions: with anti-Semitism in the two related works God's First Love (1967) and The Faith of Adolf Hitler (1968), which caused a sensation when they were published. The crusades work - yesterday, today, tomorrow? (1969) makes the theology of war its theme, farewell to hells and heavens (1970) the Christian eschatology .

Heer's home country Austria always had a special place in his interpretation of history , for the first time in the collection of essays Land im Strom der Zeit (1958) and then in The Struggle for Austrian Identity (1981), which is one of his main works.

Heer described the risk of creative reason (1977) as his “spiritual testament”. In addition to his main works, he published numerous anthologies of his essays, such. B. Let's talk about reality (1955), source reason of this time (1956) and experiment of life (1957).

In addition to his studies in the humanities, Heer wrote novels ( Aster and the Old Man , Failure in Vienna and The Eighth Day ).

Works

  • 1947: The Christian's Hour. Lecture on May 14, 1946 at the University of Vienna. Amandus Edition, Vienna
  • 1949: Conversation of the Enemies.
  • 1949: rise of Europe. A study of the connections between political religiosity, piety and the development of Europe in the 12th century. Europe, Vienna a. Zurich 1949
  • 1950: Hermann Gohde (pseudonym): The eighth day. Novel. Tyrolia, Innsbruck u. Vienna 1950
  • 1952: The tragedy of the Holy Kingdom. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart
  • 1953: European intellectual history. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart
  • 1953: Foundations of modern European democracy.
  • 1956: Meister Eckhart - sermons and writings. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main
  • 1957: Experiment of Life. About the ways into the future. Glock u. Lutz, Nuremberg
  • 1959: jump over the shadow. Being a Christian is not a hobby. (First published under the title "Young Man Before God")
  • 1960: the third force. European humanism between the fronts of the confessional age. Fischer, Frankfurt
  • 1961: Middle Ages - from 1100 to 1350. in Kindler's cultural history
  • 1964: Europe - mother of the revolutions.
  • 1967: The Holy Roman Empire.
  • 1967: God's first love. 2000 years of Judaism and Christianity. Genesis of the Austrian Catholic Adolf Hitler. Bechtle, 1967, ISBN 3-462-01234-7
  • 1969: Crusades, yesterday, today, tomorrow? Bucher publishing house, Lucerne
  • 1968: The Faith of Adolf Hitler. Anatomy of a political religiosity. ISBN 3-548-34598-0 .
  • 1974: Failure in Vienna (novel)
  • 1977: Why I am a Christian, an atheist, an agnostic. Publishing house Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne
  • 1978: Why is there no intellectual life in Germany?
  • 1981: The King and the Empress (comparison of Friedrich II. And Maria Theresa)
  • 1981: The struggle for Austrian identity
  • 1983: Pronounced. Hermann Böhlaus Nachf., Vienna-Cologne-Graz. ISBN 3-205-07091-7 .
  • Konrad Paul Liessmann (Hrsg.): Selected works in individual volumes 1. The risk of creative reason . Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2003, ISBN 3-205-77124-9 .
  • Johanna Heer (Ed.): Selected works in individual volumes 2. Selected essays: Europe: rebels, heretics and revolutionaries . Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2003, ISBN 3-205-77123-0 .
  • Sigurd Paul Scheichl (ed.): Selected works in individual volumes 3. European intellectual history . Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-205-77266-0 .
  • Alfred Pfabigan (Ed.): Selected works in individual volumes 4. Europe - mother of revolutions . Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-205-77264-4 .

literature

  • Adolf Gaisbauer: Friedrich Heer. A bibliography . Böhlau, Vienna 1990, ISBN 978-3-205-05223-4 .
  • Evelyn Adunka : Friedrich Heer. 1916-1983. An intellectual biography . Tyrolia, Innsbruck / Vienna 1995, ISBN 3-7022-1868-8 .
  • Wolfgang Ferdinand Müller: The vision of the Christian with Friedrich Heer. Tyrolia, Innsbruck / Vienna 2002, ISBN 978-3-7022-2432-5 .
  • Richard Faber , Carl Amery , Reinhard Knoll: Open humanism between the fronts of the cold war. About the universal historian, political journalist and religious essayist Friedrich Heer . Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2005, ISBN 978-3-8260-3037-6 .
  • Richard Faber, Sigurd Paul Scheichl (ed.) The spiritual world of Friedrich Heer , Böhlau, Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-205-77554-6 .
  • “I am a writer, a word maker ...” The many faces of the Friedrich Heer, 1916–1983 . Friedrich Heer special volume of the Viennese magazine " Spurensuche" , vol. 19, issues 1-4. Vienna 2010
  • Anton Pelinka : "Friedrich Heer as the intellectual central figure of the post-war period" . In: Europäische Rundschau 2/06, pp. 17–25.
Lexica entries

Web links

Commons : Friedrich Heer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Friedrich Heer  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Friedrich Heer would be 90 Der Standard , April 5, 2006
  2. ↑ Shameful carnal lust Der Spiegel , 15/1971
  3. ↑ Adolf Gaisbauer: 'Heer-Bilder' or a 'Revocation' with consequences , in Faber / Scheichl (ed.): Die Geistige Welt des Friedrich Heer , pp. 251-312
  4. ↑ http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/rezensions/2009-2-170
  5. ↑ Habilitation files from the Ministry of Education and the university on the habilitation process and the definitive habilitation. Appointment decree of the presidential chancellery of December 22, 1961 with corresponding notification of the ministry and the appointee. Austrian State Archives, Archives of the Republic, holdings of the Federal Ministry of Education , main series 1-19, Philosophy, 4C3, Friedrich Heer, GZ 25.296 / 50 and GZ 108.576-4 / 61; University archive Vienna, habilitation file Friedrich Heer , Zl. 2303 ex 1948/49.
  6. ↑ Manfred Scheuch: With full pants , Der Standard , August 11, 2006
  7. ↑ Johann Baptist Müller lists Hermann Gohde as the actual name of Heer, in: Die Deutschen und Luther, Reclams Universal-Bibliothek No. 7916, page 222 (list of authors)
personal data
SURNAME Army, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian writer, cultural historian and publicist
DATE OF BIRTH April 10, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH September 18, 1983
Place of death Vienna