Hilde Koplenig

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Hilde Koplenig (born August 31, 1904 in Prague , Austria-Hungary as Hilde Oppenheim , † April 16, 2002 in Vienna ) was an Austrian journalist , translator and historian . She was married to the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Austria , Johann Koplenig .

Life

Childhood and youth

Hilde Koplenig was born on August 31, 1904 in Prague, in what was then the Austro-Hungarian monarchy . She was the daughter of Helene and Samuel Oppenheim and had a younger brother, Ernstl. The family moved to Vienna in 1911 after the father had received a call to the University of Vienna as a professor of theoretical astronomy.

In 1913 she began to be interested in history, especially Napoleon and the French Revolution . Since her father was against women studying, she went to the Cottage Lyzeum in Döbling , a private school, as there were no public secondary schools for girls at that time. After graduating from high school in sixth grade, she and her classmates moved to the Black Forest School .

Despite her father's resistance, she began studying law and political science after graduating from high school in 1922 . In 1923 she studied for a year in Zurich. Back in Vienna she continued her studies, began to go to the social academy of the municipality of Vienna, where she obtained the welfare diploma. In 1924 she became a member of the KPÖ. In the fall of 1926, Hilde and Johann Koplenig had their first personal contact in the party club in Währing . In 1927 she finished her studies with a doctorate (Dr. rer. Pol) at the University of Vienna with Max Adler and Hans Kelsen . She wrote her thesis on the subject of "On the state settlement of the peasant question in the French Revolution."

Time until 1933

After Koplenig, a graduate of the political science faculty and qualified welfare worker in Vienna, could not find a suitable job, she emigrated to the Soviet Union and began working at the Marx-Engels Institute in Moscow in early November 1927 . The VI World Congress of the Comintern began in Moscow in mid-July 1928 , Johann Koplenig was a member of the Austrian delegation and met with Hilde during this time. When she heard of her father's death, she returned to Vienna. Hilde and Johann Koplenig married in a small circle in Vienna on January 28, 1929, and their daughter Elisabeth was born on April 18, 1929 . Hilde Koplenig tried to earn money as a translator.

In the autumn of 1931 she began to work as a secretary in the "specialist office" of the trade representation of the USSR . The KPÖ was banned on May 26, 1933, Johann Koplenig was arrested and Hilde went into hiding with a friend.

Life in exile

In 1934 the Koplenig couple emigrated to Prague. Since Prague was the hometown of Hilde and the material existence was secured by the party salary, the move made it easier. In Prague, Hilde Koplenig's illegal work for the party began.

In 1938 the Koplenig family emigrated to Paris. Malke Schorr , member of the KPÖ and representative of the International Red Aid, got Hilde Koplenig a job as a secretary in the Thälmann Committee . Their work there consisted in mobilizing international solidarity for the victims of the Nazi terror and, as far as possible, in helping these victims. In 1939 the Koplenigs went to Moscow, where they stayed in the famous Hotel Lux . There Hilde began to translate Albert Mathiez's three volumes, Stories of the French Revolution , which, however, remained unpublished. Her daughter Lisa was returned to a children's home near Moscow, where she became seriously ill with polio . During this time, Hilde began to translate essays, articles, short stories and reports from French and Russian, and occasionally from English. Their son Ernst was born on April 22, 1941.

After the German invasion of the Soviet Union , the family was evacuated from Moscow on July 11, 1941 and taken by train to near Gorky . Since more and more people were evacuated to Gorky, Hilde was allowed to move to the Sacharino manor with the two children. After the Soviet victory in the Battle of Moscow , the family returned to Moscow in late 1942. Hilde wrote articles about Austrian history, translated other reports and reports, among others by Wassili Semjonowitsch Grossman about the battle of Stalingrad or by Olga Fjodorovna Bergholz and Vera Michailowna Inber about the siege of Leningrad . In the spring of 1945 she also worked on the translation of the film Iwan IV by Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein . The German subtitle never appeared in the film. She also began working for the party again.

Return to Vienna

After the end of the war in 1945 , a provisional government was formed in Austria , in which Johann Koplenig became State Secretary without a portfolio. On July 23, 1945, Hilde Koplenig returned to Vienna with the children. The Koplenig family lived in the American sector of Vienna . Hilde Koplenig renewed her membership in the KPÖ, to which she also reported for work again. She continued to work as a journalist until she retired. She was cremated and her ashes were buried in the urn grove of the Simmering fire hall , Section 7, Ring 3, Group 4, No. 13.

Death of her son Ernst

In the winter of 1961/1962 Ernst was operated on for a bone sarcoma on the hip. The operation failed, Ernst died on May 8, 1962 in Vienna.

Political commitment

Early political engagement

Hilde Koplenig showed an early interest in historical political events. She began to be interested in current politics in the winter of 1918/19. Immediately after graduating from high school in 1922, she joined the Socialist Workers' Youth . She initially rejected the communists in Austria sharply.

Time as a member of the KPÖ

During her studies she discussed a lot about politics, especially communism and socialism . When she studied for a year in Zurich in 1923 , she attended the first meetings of the Communist Party there . Back in Vienna, she joined the KPÖ's Währing group. During the factional battles, Hilde Koplenig supported the "middle group" around Johann Koplenig, which meant the break between her and Kurt Landau .

During her stay in Moscow in 1928 she became a full member of the Comintern.

Back in Vienna, at the time when the Heimwehr were advancing and the KPÖ was at the head of the resistance, Hilde Koplenig's apartment served first as a shelter for Johann Koplenig and then for Wilhelm Pieck of the KPD , because the police did not know her apartment .

Under the Austro-Fascist government, the KPÖ was banned on May 26, 1933 and the party had to go into illegality. House searches followed. Hilde Koplening ended her work in the organization after having been less active in the district in previous years.

The civil war in Austria began on February 12, 1934 . Some time after the annulment of the martial law , their departure to Prague was organized.

Distance to the KPÖ

Although women had held leading positions in the communist resistance, after 1945 they were absent from the party leadership of the KPÖ. Hilde Koplenig did not think of taking on a leadership role in the party again. As an intellectual, she deplored the KPÖ's not culture and intellectual friendly attitude. At the end of the 1950s, Hilde Koplenig increasingly distanced herself from the politics of the Soviet Union and the KPÖ. After the political and ideological disputes and as a result of the invasion of the Warsaw Pact troops in Czechoslovakia, Hilde Koplenig was forced out of the party.

Journalistic work

When Hilde Koplenig returned to Moscow at the end of 1942, she worked under the direction of Walter Fischer as an employee of Radio Moscow for Austria. In addition, she was also active as a writer. The party newspaper Volksstimme came out shortly after Hilde Koplenig returned home. Despite increasing distance from the KPÖ, she was a member of the editorial team of the communist daily. Her first job was to proofread articles. Later she worked in the culture department of the Volksstimme. In addition to her work at the party newspaper, she also worked as a journalist for the women's newspaper Voice of the Woman . She stayed there for almost 20 years, until she retired in 1964. After her retirement, she worked on the magazine Wiener Tagebuch under Franz Marek and published on topics related to the French Revolution, such as the study "Birth of Freedom". In 1975 she edited the collection "The Debate about the French Revolution" together with Walter Grab . As early as 1959 Evgenij V. Tarles had translated "Napoleon" from Russian. The processing of the biography of her husband, Johann Koplenig, was also important to her, and she dedicated two articles to him.

Fonts

  • Birth of Freedom: Figures and Events; France 1789–1794. Globus Verlag, Vienna 1964, ISBN.
  • Walter Grab (ed.) With the assistance of Hilde Koplenig: The debate about the French Revolution: 35 contributions. Nymphenburger Verlags-Handlung, Munich 1975, ISBN.
  • Robespierre d'après la "Wiener Zeitung". In: Actes du colloque Robespierre. Congrés International des Sciences historiques, Vienna 1965, pp. 113-131.
  • Revendications agraires dans l'insurrection tyrolienne de 1809. Égalitarisme paysan ou influence Buonarrotiste? In: Babeuf et le babouvisme, OJ, pp. 205-214.
  • Hilde Koplenig: Alfred Klahr (1904–1943). In: Zeitgeschichte, Vol. 3, Heft 4, 1976, pp. 97–111
  • Conrad Dominik Bartsch (1759–1817) Freemason and journalist. In: Wiener Geschichtsblätter, 32nd year 1977, No. 3, pp. 215-230.
  • Johann Koplenig. Captivity and Revolution (1915–1920). In: Zeitgeschichte, Vol. 5, Issue 9/10, June / July 1978, pp. 351–371
  • Germans and which South Tyroleans 1809. In: Schöps, KH / Geise, I. (Ed.): Revolution and democracy in history and literature. 1979 (Duisburg University Contributions, Vol. 12).
  • Johann Koplenig. The beginning (1891–1927). In: Zeitgeschichte, Vol. 8, Heft 8, 1981, pp. 303–322

Translations

  • Lure, Salomon Jakovlevic: Archimedes. "Neues Österreich", newspaper and publishing company, Vienna 1948
  • Nikolskij, Vladimir K / Jakovlev, Nikolaj F .: How people learned to speak. Globus Verlag, Vienna 1950
  • Tarle, Evgenij Viktor: Napoleon. German publisher d. Sciences, Berlin 1969

literature

  • Korotin, Ilse / Nusko, Karin (eds.) (2008): “… experienced enough history.” Hilde Koplenig (1904-2002). biography. New results of women's biography research, Vol. 6. Vienna: Praesens-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7069-0460-5
  • Elisabeth Markstein (2010): Moscow is much more beautiful than Paris. Life between two worlds. Vienna: Milena Verlag.
  • Wurzinger, Claudia (2002): Hilde Koplenig, b. Oppenheim . In: Brigitta Keintzel, Ilse Korotin (ed.): Scientists in and from Austria. Life - work - work. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2002, ISBN 3-205-99467-1 , pp. 400–402.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. P. 7
  2. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. P. 17f.
  3. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. P. 23f
  4. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. P. 35
  5. ↑ a b M. Röwekamp: Koplenig, Hilde; born Oppenheim . In: Institute for Modern and Contemporary History Research (Ed.): Austrian Biographical Lexicon from 1815 . 2. revised 2011 edition ( biographien.ac.at ).
  6. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. Pp. 41-47, 52ff
  7. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. P. 70
  8. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. P. 71
  9. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. Pp. 74, 77
  10. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. P. 90ff
  11. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. Pp. 95-100
  12. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. Pp. 123, 126ff.
  13. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. Pp. 133-136
  14. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. P. 138ff
  15. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. P. 149
  16. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. P. 153
  17. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. P. 157
  18. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. P. 172ff
  19. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. Pp. 177-181
  20. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. P. 186f.
  21. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. P. 201ff.
  22. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. P. 235
  23. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. P. 237ff.
  24. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. Pp. 254-258
  25. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. Pp. 261, 269,270
  26. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. Pp. 272, 275
  27. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. Pp. 279-282
  28. ↑ Hilde Koplenig in the search for the deceased at friedhoefewien.at
  29. ↑ Markstein: Moscow is much more beautiful than Paris. P. 88f
  30. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. Pp. 31, 40
  31. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. Pp. 49, 54
  32. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. P. 69
  33. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. P. 78
  34. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. P. 94f
  35. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. P. 136f
  36. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. P. 147f.
  37. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. P. 11
  38. ↑ Korotin / Nusko: … experienced enough history. Pp. 262, 283f.
personal data
SURNAME Koplenig, Hilde
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Oppenheim, Hilde (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian journalist, translator and historian
DATE OF BIRTH August 31, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Prague
DATE OF DEATH April 16, 2002
Place of death Vienna