Josef Popper-Lynkeus

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Josef Popper-Lynkeus (born February 21, 1838 in Kolín , Bohemia, † December 22, 1921 in Vienna ) was an Austrian social philosopher , inventor and writer . His birth name was Josef Popper .

Josef Popper-Lynkeus (1917)
Grave of Josef Popper-Lynkeus in the Vienna Central Cemetery

Life

Josef Popper was born the fifth son of a Jewish family; the writer Friedrich Nork was a brother of his mother. Josef Popper was also an uncle of the Austro-British philosopher Karl Popper . He studied mathematics , physics and technology at the German Polytechnic in Prague , due to the state and church regulations, which practically excluded Jews as scientists in public operations in Austria and Germany , he was never able to work in the scientific field according to his skills and his excellent certificates.

He worked for a few years in the railroad service and, quite unsuccessfully, as a private teacher and editor of a newspaper. Besides, he studied at the Vienna University of Economics , cultural history and aesthetics .

During his professional engineering career , he applied for a number of patents and published general scientific papers. He got to know personally the German mechanic Siegfried Marcus , who became known as an automobile pioneer and inventor and who lived in Vienna for a long time, and praised his electrical engineering work in his memoirs .

However, he became known for his work on social reformist issues, which resulted in his "general nutritional duty". He formulated this basic idea in three stages, first in 1887 in The Right to Live and the Duty to Die , then in The Individual and the Assessment of Human Existence, and finally in 1912 in: General Nurturing Duty as a Solution to the Social Question .

The central concern of this Austrian social reformer and ethicist is not just to alleviate hardship and poverty, but to prevent it at all. In his writings on the state, law, ethics, religion and social policy, he advocates the personal and political freedom of the individual, condemns war and conscription, criticizes intolerance, sexual hypocrisy and all religious beliefs. Outstanding among many other reform ideas of that time is his mathematically feasible model of a “general nutritional obligation”, through which an unconditional, material basic security for everyone could be possible.

The basis of his program is his conception of justice, human dignity and the organization of society, which is expressed in many places in his work General Nourishing Duty . As part of his "general nutritional obligation", the minimum subsistence level is given out to every citizen in kind. B. Food in public dining houses, clothing and other items in state magazines; Apartments are assigned. Everyone has to do compulsory labor for several years in the “compulsory nutritional army”, but then receives their basic needs until the end of their life without further conditions and can do what they want. An extraordinarily powerful authority (minimum institution, authority for standard of living) is supposed to coordinate and regulate everything.

Parallel to this, the free economy still exists, but the basic necessities (housing, food, clothing, medical help, education) that are necessary to satisfy a “comfortable existence” can no longer be used to profit. Anyone can work in the free economy after their service in the nutritional institution (comparable to a social service, but as a kind of insurance for life), earn money and buy the goods that are not absolutely necessary (“luxury goods”). A kind of "pocket money" is available at all times.

His socio-philosophical considerations initially appeared under the pseudonym Lynkeus . Only in the course of time did the author's identity with the engineer Popper become publicly known. Since then, the author's name Popper-Lynkeus has become common.

Bust of Lynkeus by the sculptor Hugo Taglang in Vienna's Rathauspark

Josef Popper-Lynkeus was buried in the Vienna Central Cemetery in a grave of honor (Gate 1, Group 52 a, Row 1, No. 20) belonging to the Jewish Community of Vienna .

In 1924 a traffic area in Vienna- Hietzing was named after him, Lynkeusgasse .

reception

Popper-Lynkeus' book "Fantasies of a Realist" (published in 1899 under the pseudonym Lynkeus ), a collection of 80 anecdotes and stories, caused a sensation . In Austria-Hungary and Russia, the book was finally confiscated “for reasons of morality” and was banned until 1922. Individual pacifist stories from the book, especially “Auf dem Schlachtfeld” and “After the Battle of Austerlitz”, were translated into most cultural languages ​​and made their author so well known that visitors from all over the world came to Vienna.

Albert Einstein had a high opinion of Joseph Popper-Lynkeus; In Einstein's words, he was one of the “few prominent personalities who embodied the conscience of the generation. [...] The community or the state was not a fetish for him; His right to demand sacrifices from the individual was based solely on his duty to enable the individual, the individual personality, to develop harmoniously. "

Josef Popper Compulsory Nutrition Foundation and Prize

On November 26, 1986, the Josef Popper Nutritional Compulsory Foundation was founded at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main.

The Josef Popper Nutrition Compulsory Research Prize is awarded to research results that deal with the problem of poverty or the problem of general social security in the Federal Republic of Germany, in other industrialized countries or in the Third World. The work should contribute to a “society free from poverty and need”. The foundation also rewards work that deals with Popper's work. The winners include Wolfgang Strengmann-Kuhn , member of the Bundestag , the philosopher Friedrich F. Brezina (University of Vienna) and the professor of modern history and contemporary history Marcus Gräser .

Fonts

  • The right to live and the duty to die. Social-philosophical considerations, following on from Voltaire's importance for modern times. On the 100th anniversary of his death (May 30, 1878). Koschny, Leipzig 1878. (Fourth, unchanged edition. Löwit, Vienna 1924). - Full text online (3rd edition, 1903) .
  • Aviation studies. About some basic aeronautical questions, following on from a review of the book: "The laws of air resistance, the fall through the air and the flight of birds" by Mr. Fr. R. v. Loessl , presented on February 4 and March 3, 1896 in the Vienna Aviation Technical Association . Mayer & Müller, Berlin 1896. - Full text online .
  • Fantasies of a realist. Carl Reissner, Dresden 1899. Full text online = 2nd unv. Edition 1900
  • Voltaire . A character analysis, in connection with studies of aesthetics, morals and politics . Reisser, Dresden 1905
    • 3rd un. Edition. Edited by Margit Ornstein on behalf of the author. Löwit, Vienna 1925
  • The individual and the evaluation of human existences . Reissner, Dresden 1910. Full text online = 2. Rev. edition 1920
  • The general nutritional obligation as a solution to the social question, processed in detail and statistically calculated. With proof of the theoretical and practical worthlessness of economics . Reissner, Dresden 1912. Full text online .
    • 2nd edition, edited by Margit Ornstein on behalf of the author after his death. Rikola, Vienna 1923
  • Autobiography. Verlag Unesma, Leipzig 1917. (In the appendix three letters from Julius Robert Mayer ; Popper's work on JR Mayer's “Mechanics of Heat”; historical facts about electrical power transmission; some reviews of the “Fantasies of a Realist” and a chronological list of the author's writings, etc.) - Full text online .
  • War, conscription and the state constitution. Rikola-Verlag, Vienna 1921
  • About religion. Edited by Margit Ornstein from his literary estate on behalf of the author. R. Löwit Verlag, Vienna 1924
  • Prince Bismarck and anti-Semitism . R. Löwit Verlag, Vienna 1925
  • Conversations, communicated by Margit Ornstein and Heinrich Löwy, foreword by Julius Ofner . R. Löwit Verlag, Vienna 1925

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Brezina 2013.
  2. ↑ Friedrich Eckstein : Old unnameable days. Vienna 1988, p. 22.
  3. ^ Ingrid Belke:  Popper-Lynkeus, Josef. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 20, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-428-00201-6 , p. 628 f. ( Digitized version )., Section "Portraits"
  4. ↑ Hedwig Abraham: Josef Popper , accessed on July 14, 2013.
  5. ↑ Albert Einstein: My worldview. ed. by Carl Seelig . Europa-Verlag, Zurich / Stuttgart / Vienna 1953, p. 242 (there as an explanation by the editor Carl Seelig).
  6. ↑ Albert Einstein: My worldview. ed. by Carl Seelig , Europa-Verlag, Zurich 1953, p. 39.
  7. ↑ August Schorsch - the founder. A suitcase full of Karl Kraus and Popper. ( Memento from August 22, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) at: gesellschaftswwissenschaften.uni-frankfurt.de .
  8. ↑ The research award of the Josef Popper Nutrition Foundation. ( Memento from August 22, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) at: gesellschaftswwissenschaften.uni-frankfurt.de .
  9. ↑ The research award of the Josef Popper Nutrition Foundation. ( Memento from August 22, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) at: gesellschaftswwissenschaften.uni-frankfurt.de .
  10. ↑ JPN Research Award 2007/2008. ( Memento from August 22, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) at: gesellschaftswwissenschaften.uni-frankfurt.de .
  11. ↑ first udT Der Türmer , 1971. The title from 2017 was edited.
personal data
SURNAME Popper-Lynkeus, Josef
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Popper, Josef (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian writer and social reformer
DATE OF BIRTH February 21, 1838
PLACE OF BIRTH Kolín , Bohemia
DATE OF DEATH December 22, 1921
Place of death Vienna