Karl Motesiczky

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Karl Wolfgang Franz Graf Motesiczky ( May 25, 1904 in Vienna - June 25, 1943 in Auschwitz ) was an Austrian psychoanalyst and an active opponent of National Socialism . In 1980 he was honored as Righteous Among the Nations .

Life

Memorial stone on the grounds of the children's village
Stolperstein in the Hinterbrühl
Family grave in Döbling

Karl Motesiczky came from a wealthy Viennese aristocratic family. The family owned the Villa Todesco, an estate in Hinterbrühl on the Kröpfelsteig on the site of today's SOS Children's Village . His childhood was marked by the early death of his father in 1909, his mother, Baroness Henriette von Motesiczky , née von Lieben , raised her son to his democratic outlook.

In Vienna studied Motesiczky cello , later Jus . Since 1925 he was one of the friends of the author Heimito von Doderer and organized readings for him in Vienna and later also in Heidelberg. Doderer's Divertimento No 2 is preceded by the passage “Mote dedicated”. In 1928 Motesiczky went to Heidelberg , then in 1930 to Marburg , where he studied philosophy and theology. Through his involvement in the socialist student movement, he also came into contact with communism.

In 1931 he moved to Berlin , where he met the former Viennese psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich and became his patient, student and collaborator. He followed Reich in 1933 to emigrate via Copenhagen to Oslo .

In Oslo, Reich continued his sexual policy work from 1934. Motesiczky became a collaborator and sponsor of the Zeitschrift für Politische Psychologie und Sexualökonomie , founded by Reich , in which works were published that applied the method of dialectical materialism to sexual economics and mass psychology .

Motesiczky published between 1934 and 1938 under the pseudonym Karl Teschitz some articles and current notes in this journal, in which he dealt with the politics of the exiled left, among other things. In Oslo he began to study medicine and, under the supervision of Reich's patients, treated psychoanalytically and character analytically.

Motesiczky returned to Austria in the winter of 1937/38. Although he was a “ first degree Jewish half-breed ”, he decided to stay in Austria after the Nazis invaded in March 1938. His mother fled to the Netherlands with Karl's sister Marie-Louise and later to London.

His estate in Hinterbrühl became a meeting place for Jewish families and non-Jewish opponents of National Socialism. B. the concert pianists Erna Gál and Isa Strasser as well as Ernst Wildgans, the Przibrams, Dr. Ella and Kurt Lingens . Those who were in danger of being arrested by the Gestapo were given shelter in his house and he helped many to emigrate. In autumn 1939 he founded a resistance group with a few friends (including Ella and Kurt Lingens and Robert Lammer). At the same time he continued his medical studies and went into analysis to the psychoanalyst August Aichhorn, who had stayed in Vienna . Motesiczky was, however, as a "first degree half-breed" not allowed to complete psychotherapeutic training.

In July 1942, two married couples who had escaped from occupied Krakow came to Vienna to flee to Switzerland with Motesiczky's help. Denounced by a middleman, Motesiczky was arrested by the Gestapo Vienna together with Ella Lingens on October 13, 1942 and, after four months in the Gestapo prison in the former Hotel Metropol on Morzinplatz, deported to Auschwitz , where he suffered from typhus on June 25, 1943 passed away.

In 1980 Yad Vashem awarded Karl Motesiczky posthumously in Jerusalem with the Medal of Righteous Among the Nations .

plant

The published work by Karl Motesiczky consists, in addition to a few short articles and notes in the journal for political psychology and sex economy , just one book: Karl Teschitz (pseudonym): Religion, Church, Religionsstreit in Deutschland. This religion-critical book by the former theology student was created for a current occasion back then, in 1935: as a "weapon in the fight against fascism, which, on the whole, will always be a fight against religion." (P. 3) But it is because of the persistence and resurgence of religion in our post-fascist times is still relevant, namely in his theoretical chapters, where Motesiczky presents Reich's approach to criticism of religion that goes beyond Marx and Freud . Because: “Although science has shaken the authority of religion, the clarification of its ... social function has further undermined it. But the interpretative arts of theologians have made scientific propaganda against religion z. T. made harmless. [Added to this] the deep emotional bond of their followers, which is usually stronger than all intellectual considerations. With our anti-religious enlightenment we often talk over the heads of the still religious masses. You will hardly be able to explain how much money the priests receive from the state every year with the catchphrase 'Moses or Darwin'. "(P. 4) Motesiczky states:" We are standing after 90 years of Marxism and 40 years of psychoanalysis only at the beginning of a really materialistic research on religion. ”(p. 7) A continuation of this research into the religious for the purpose of developing effective methods to combat it, as he wished for, has not taken place in the past 70 years.

Others

His estate in Hinterbrühl was acquired by Hermann Gmeiner after the war and an SOS Children's Village was established in 1957 . His mother and sister had a memorial for Karl built there in 1961. Motesiczky's memorial was destroyed in the summer of 2000 and desecrated with swastikas. In 2007 a stumbling block was laid in the children's village .

The still existing Swiss house in the children's village, in which Jewish families were hidden, was awarded the title House of Life by the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation in 2019 as the first house in Austria .

Fonts

  • Religion, church, religious dispute in Germany. Sexpol-Verlag, Copenhagen 1935 (Sexpol series of political and psychological publications, No. 3).
  • Religious Ecstasy as a Substitute for Sexual Triggering: Observations in a Religious Sect. Sexpol-Verlag, Copenhagen 1937 (Sexpol Popular Series No. 2) ( online ).
  • Articles from the journal for political psychology and sex economy (ZPPS) reprinted in: Hans-Peter Gente (ed.): Marxism, Psychoanalysis, Sexpol. Volume 1. Frankfurt / M .: Fischer-TB 1970.
    • On the criticism of communist politics in Germany (ZPPS 3/4, 1934, pp. 256–258), pp. 203–219.
    • From the international sex pole discussion (ZPPS 1/2, 1936, pp. 43–49), pp. 221–228 ( online ).
    • Review: Erich Fromm: Authority and Family. Social psychological part (ZPPS 3/4, 1936, pp. 176–178), pp. 307–309 ( online ).

literature

  • Christiane Rothländer: Karl Motesiczky (1904–1943) . Dissertation at the Institute for Contemporary History at the University of Vienna, Vienna 2005 ( Christiane Rothländer, Karl Motesiczky. (Short version) ).
  • Christiane Rothländer: Karl Motesiczky 1904–1943. A biographical reconstruction. Turia & Kant, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-85132-537-9 (revised dissertation).
  • Helmut Dahmer : Karl Motesiczky. In the footsteps of Reich and Trotsky. In: Helmut Dahmer: The unnatural science: sociological Freud readings. Westfälisches Dampfboot, Münster 2012, pp. 162–178 (review of the book by Rothländer, previously abbreviated in Lucifer-Amor , 2011 and in Junge Welt , 2011).
  • Exhibition catalog: Die Liebens. 150 years of history of a Viennese family. Böhlau-Verlag, Vienna 2004 (exhibition in the Vienna Jewish Museum from November 11, 2004 to April 3, 2005).

Web links

Wikisource: Karl Motesiczky  - Sources and full texts
Commons : Karl Motesiczky  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The magazine was published quarterly from 1934 to 1939 ( online )
  2. ↑ For example, basics of religion
  3. ↑ Karl Motesiczky on the website of Yad Vashem (English)
  4. ↑ Kurt Janetschek: Hinterbrühl in the course of time , 1983
  5. ↑ Stolpersteine ​​in memory of two Hinterbrühl victims from November 2007, accessed on July 29, 2013.
  6. ↑ First "House of Life" awarded on ORF on August 22, 2019, accessed on August 22
personal data
SURNAME Motesiczky, Karl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Motesiczky, Karl Wolfgang Franz Graf (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian psychoanalyst and active opponent of National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH May 25, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH June 25, 1943
Place of death Auschwitz