Mirko Jelusich

Mirko Jelusich / ˈmɪrko ˈjɛlusɪtʃ /, actually Vojmir Jelusich [ Vojmir Jelušić ] (born December 12, 1886 in Podmoklice, town of Semil , Bohemia ; † June 22, 1969 in Vienna ) was an Austrian writer , theater critic and key figure in Nazi cultural policy in Austria . He was best known for his biographical history novels in which he “glorified historical figures as 'leaders'”.

Jelusich (right) and Karl Hans Strobl

Life

Early years

Mirko (actually Vojmir, the Slavic form of Siegfried) Jelusich was born as the son of the Croatian railway official Anselm Jelusich and the Sudeten German Friederike Strasser in Semil in the district of Podmoklitz (Podmoklice) in northern Bohemia (then Austria-Hungary , now the Czech Republic). When he was two years old, the family moved to Vienna. Here he spent his childhood and youth. At the University of Vienna , he tried his hand at law , Slavic , Sanskrit and historical auxiliary sciences before finally studying philosophy with Professor Friedrich Jodl . During this time he made the acquaintance of the anti-Semitic writer Arthur Trebitsch , who had a decisive influence on him and became a member of the Gothia Vienna fraternity. He became Stirner's heir with work in 1912 . A critical consideration of the relationship of the "unique" to individualistic anarchism in Germany to Dr. phil. PhD.

In the First World War Jelusich was an artillery officer and supported the war in literary form with the War-Our Father in 1914.

In November 1923 he married the bank clerk Maria Greil, the daughter of a town councilor.

time of the nationalsocialism

The acquaintance with the writer Arthur Trebitsch strongly influenced his political orientation. From 1923 until its dissolution in June 1933 (ban of the NSDAP in Austria ), Jelusich was editor of the theater and art section for the Deutschösterreichische Tages-Zeitung ( DÖTZ , the main newspaper of the - at that time still legal - Austrian National Socialists). The focus of Jelusich's propaganda was the “ Anschluss ” between Austria and Germany. In 1931 he became second chairman and finally head of the Vienna branch of the illegal Nazi organization Kampfbund für deutsche Kultur , a political and literary organization that led to National Socialism in Austria.

The time of his accession to the NSDAP is controversial . April 20, 1931 was quoted on various questionnaires on Jelusich's political judgment. In 1945, however, Jelusich claimed during his trial that these were forgeries and that he did not join the party until March 1938. It seems certain, however, that he was already a member of the NSDAP in June 1932.

Due to the great success of his novel Caesar , which propagated the rule of the "strong man" and the political goals of fascism, he was able to work as a freelance writer from 1933 .

Together with the Nazi author and dramaturge Otto Emmerich Groh , Jelusich founded the “down-to-earth and Aryan” “German Theater” in Vienna in 1934 , which was directed by Karl Zeman and in which the goal was proclaimed , “a down-to-earth stage free from alien influences to create and at the same time to give many hundreds of members of the Aryan actor class, who are deprived of any activity under the pressure of current conditions, again opportunities for artistic advancement ” .

In October 1935 he founded the magazine Das Werk - monthly books for the care of German literature , which was discontinued after the fourth edition in 1936. In 1936, together with other authors from the national camp, such as Max Mell, he built up the Association of German Writers Austria , which after the Anschluss merged seamlessly into the Reich Chamber of Literature. Also in 1936 he founded the Tieck publishing house under the management of Walther Scheuermann.

After the "Anschluss" of Austria to the German Reich in 1938 , Jelusich contributed to the "Confession Book of Austrian Poets" (published by the Association of German Writers of Austria ), which enthusiastically welcomed the "Anschluss".

On March 12, 1938, the day of the "Anschluss", Jelusich was entrusted with the provisional management of the Burgtheater in Vienna by the National Socialist State Cultural Office under the direction of Hermann Stüppäck in close agreement with the Ministry of Education of the Seyß-Inquart government headed by Oswald Menghin , However, on July 6 of the same year he submitted his application for dismissal to Reich Governor Seyss-Inquart because of differences with Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels - whose approval for Jelusich's appointment had never been obtained.

On July 1, 1939, Jelusich founded the Viennese poets' circle with the approval of the Reich Chamber of Literature . Members of this circle were u. a. Bruno Brehm , Hermann Graedener , Max Mell , Karl Hans Strobl , Josef Weinheber and Josef Wenter .

post war period

On August 16, 1945, Jelusich was arrested by the Soviet occupying forces and charged with holding a higher party function and suspected illegality . In the course of the trial he assured that “[he] r only became a member of the NSDAP in 1938, but his entry was dated back to 1931; he was never influenced by the party, never profited from his membership and always acted freely. ” Pretrial detention lasted eleven months, and on November 25, 1946, Jelusich was acquitted. In December 1946, the proceedings were resumed and Jelusich was arrested again. After attempting to escape, he presented himself to the court on January 3, 1947 and remained in custody until February 1948. At the beginning of December 1949, the proceedings were finally abandoned for lack of a criminal offense.

In 1957, Jelusich founded a General German Cultural Association in Vienna , which, however, was unsuccessful and was incorporated into the Austrian Landsmannschaft .

The Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) made it possible for Jelusich to appear in public for the last time: on November 22, 1957, he gave the celebratory speech at the inaugural summer of the liberal corporation in Innsbruck .

In 1966 he was awarded the poet's stone shield from the Dichterstein Offenhausen association, which was banned in 1999 due to being re- employed by the National Socialists .

Mirko Jelusich died at the age of 82 years at a cancer .

Until his death, Jelusich maintained contact with old and neo-Nazis and even after his death he was or is highly valued in right-wing extremist circles.

Literary work

Jelusich mainly wrote historical novels in which he idealized people like Hannibal , Caesar , Heinrich the Lion , Oliver Cromwell or Gerhard von Scharnhorst and portrayed them as strong leaders. His books thus largely corresponded to the National Socialist ideology, for which Jelusich also advocated in his cultural-political activities.

The number of copies of his main works Caesar and Cromwell are indicative of the political conditions at the time . The novel Caesar , published in 1929, was a worldwide success. Translated into more than a dozen languages, the total print run was already 70,400 by 1938, and it increased further after the outbreak of war. By 1961, 183,000 copies had been printed; Caesar was last published in 1969 by the publishing house Buchgemeinschaft Donauland . His novel Cromwell , which appeared in 1933, had almost 500 pages and how Caesar glorified the Führer principle , had a similarly high circulation. In 1940 the total circulation was 168,000, by 1951 it had increased to 186,000.

Jelusich wrote several plays that are attributed to the Nazi tendency literature. On December 20, 1942 came on Volkstheater his drama "Samurai" in Vienna for the premiere, which as "Most Masculine Song masculinity" should emphasize the military alliance between Germany and Japan (Director: Walter Bruno Iltz , set design: Gustav Manker ).

For the film Condottieri , which premiered in 1937 , he wrote the screenplay with Luis Trenker and Kurt Heuser .

In 1940, the script The Rothschilds , based on his idea, was filmed by CM Köhn and Gerhard T. Buchholz under the direction of Erich Waschneck . It is a Nazi propaganda film that deals in an anti- Semitic manner with the rise of the Jewish bankers Nathan Rothschild (London) and James Rothschild (Paris).

In the Soviet occupation zone , his writings Deutsche Heldendichtung (1934), Caesar (1942), Hannibal (1943), Der Soldat (1943) and The Incomplete Company (1944) were placed on the list of literature to be discarded. He appears with all of his works on the list of blocked authors and books published by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education .

Despite their ideological orientation, his novels were published in Austria and Germany even after the end of the Nazi regime until the 1970s.

Awards and honors

1941 Grillparzer Prize (together with Josef Weinheber )
1966 Dichtersteinschild of the Dichterstein Offenhausen association, which was banned in 1999 because of being re-established by the National Socialists

Works

Novels

Asa from Agder. A Viking novel. Paul Neff, Vienna 1964
Bastion of Europe. FG Speidel'sche, Vienna 1951
Caesar . FG Speidel'sche, Vienna 1929
Cromwell . FG Speidel'sche, Vienna 1933
Der Löwe Tieck, Vienna 1936 & Franz-Eher-Verlag 1937
The Knight. Tieck, Vienna 1937
The soldier . FG Speidel'sche, Vienna 1939
The stone of power. Pilgram, Salzburg 1958
The Thyrsus Staff. Leonhardt, Vienna 1920
The dream of the kingdom. Safari, Berlin 1941
The truth and the life. Pilgram, Linz 1949
Don Juan - The Seven Deadly Sins. FG Speidel'sche, Vienna 1931
Hannibal . , FG Speidel'sche, Vienna 1934
Talleyrand . Paul Neff, Vienna 1954

Plays

Abisag from Sunem: drama in 4 acts . O. Erich Verlag (no year)
Cromwell, acting in 5 acts . FG Speidel'sche Verlagbuchhandlung, Vienna / Leipzig 1934
The glass mountain: a game between two people from different worlds. In a foreplay and 3 acts . Drei Masken-Verlag, Berlin 1917
Samurai: acting in five acts . FG Speidel'sche Verlagbuchhandlung, Vienna / Leipzig 1943

Scripts

Condottieri . D / I 1936/1937, screenplay: Luis Trenker, Kurt Heuser, Mirko Jelusich
The Rothschilds . D 1940, screenplay: CM Köhn, Gerhard T. Buchholz based on an idea by Mirko Jelusich ( Das Haus Rothschild )

Other works

The Big Game: The Man's Tragedy . O. Erich Verlag (no year)
The work: monthly notebooks for the maintenance of German literature . Published by Mirko Jelusich, Österreichische Wirtschaftsverlag KG Payer & Co., Vienna 1935
Toni and the Loidolter . Reich Association of German Savings Banks 1931.
The magic of Vienna . E. Fischer Verlag, Vienna 1931
The Captive Flags: A Poem . (without publisher) 1913
The Incomplete Company: Novella . Wiener Verlag, Vienna 1944
Brazen Harp: Ballads and Poems . FG Speidel'sche Verlagbuchhandlung, Vienna / Leipzig 1942
Replacement culture and culture replacement: a lecture . FG Speidel'sche Verlagbuchhandlung, Vienna / Leipzig 1933
Stories from old Austria: soldiers, artists, people and gentlemen . German Book Association, Vienna 1961
Stories from the Vienna Woods: 100 Austrian Anecdotes . Tieck-Verlag, Vienna 1937
Stories about the Vienna Künstlerhaus: The house and the parties, the owners, the guests . Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1965
Margreth and the stranger . Reclam-Verlag, Leipzig 1942
Sickingen and Karl V. Verlag Deutscher Volksbücher, Stuttgart 1943
Soldiers, artists, people and gentlemen: memories of two old Austrians . Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1961
Dispute about Agnes: story from the Staufer period . Reclam-Verlag, Leipzig 1937
Dream and Action: Poems . Hohenstaufen Verlag, Berg am Starnberger See 1985
Our father 1914: poem . Vaterland Verlag, Berlin a. Hermes Verlag, Vienna (no year)
Wine teller and gift recipient: Praise of the Viennese Heurigen . Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1962
Stirner's legacy: A critical consideration of the relationship between the “unique” and individualistic anarchism in Germany . Verlag Max-Stirner-Archiv, Leipzig 1998 [Reprint of the inaugural dissertation submitted to the University of Vienna in 1911]

literature

Dietmar Goltschnigg: Jelusich, Mirko. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 10, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1974, ISBN 3-428-00191-5 , p. 398 ( digitized version ).
Monique Mense: Mirko Jelusich - the "half" German. In: Rolf Düsterberg (ed.): Poet for the "Third Reich". Biographical studies on the relationship between literature and ideology. Volume 3. Bielefeld: Aisthesis 2015, pp. 155–179.
Johannes Sachslehner : Leader word and leader look: Mirko Jelusich. On the strategy of a bestselling author in the 1930s . Verlag Anton Hain Meisenheim, Königstein / Taunus 1985. (= Literature in History, History in Literature; Volume 11) ISBN 3-445-02350-6
Jürgen Hillesheim and Elisabeth Michael: Lexicon of National Socialist Poets. Biographies - Analyzes - Bibliographies. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1993, section “Mirko Jelusich (1886–1969)”, pp. 254–262.
Angelika Errath: The FG Speidel'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung (1926 - 1962) in the mirror of the times. Diploma thesis, Vienna 2003.

Web links

Individual evidence

^ Ernst Loewy : literature under the swastika. Fischer 1969, p. 299
↑ Johannes Sachslehner: Führer word and Führerblick - Mirko Jelusich - On the strategy of a bestselling author in the thirties. Verlag Anton Hain Meisenheim, Königstein / Taunus 1985, ISBN 3-445-02350-6 , p. 15 .
^ Bruno Jahn: The German-language press . Ed .: Bruno Jahn. tape 1 . KG Sauer Verlag, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-598-11710-8 , pp. 503 .
^ Message from the fraternity
^ Paulus Manker : The theater man Gustav Manker. Search for clues. Brandstätter, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-85033-335-1 .
^ Association of German writers Austria (ed.): Confession book of Austrian poets. Krystall Verlag, Vienna 1938.
↑ Monique Mense: Mirko Jelusich - the "half" German. In: Rolf Düsterberg (Ed.): Poets for the "Third Reich". Biographical studies on the relationship between literature and ideology. Volume 3. Aisthesis, Bielefeld 2015, p. 174.
↑ Monique Mense: Mirko Jelusich - the "half" German. In: Rolf Düsterberg (ed.): Poet for the "Third Reich". Biographical studies on the relationship between literature and ideology. Volume 3. Bielefeld: Aisthesis 2015, p. 175f.
^ Mirko Jelusich: Caesar: Roman . Buchgemeinschaft Donauland Europaring, Vienna Salzburg Bern 1969 ( dnb.de [accessed on August 21, 2020]).
^ Paulus Manker: The theater man Gustav Manker. Search for clues. Brandstätter, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-85033-335-1 .
↑ http://www.polunbi.de/bibliothek/1947-nslit-i.html
^ Austrian Federal Ministry for Education (ed.) (1946). List of blocked authors and books. Relevant for bookshops and libraries . Vienna: Ueberreuter. P. 31.

personal data
SURNAME	Jelusich, Mirko
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Jelusich, Vojmir (real name); Jelušić, Vojmir
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Austrian writer, theater critic and key figure in Nazi cultural policy in Austria
DATE OF BIRTH	December 12, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH	Podmoklice, town of Semil , Bohemia
DATE OF DEATH	June 22, 1969
Place of death	Vienna , Austria

[1] Ernst Loewy : literature under the swastika. Fischer 1969, p. 299

[2] Johannes Sachslehner: Führer word and Führerblick - Mirko Jelusich - On the strategy of a bestselling author in the thirties. Verlag Anton Hain Meisenheim, Königstein / Taunus 1985, ISBN 3-445-02350-6 , p. 15 .

[3] Bruno Jahn: The German-language press . Ed .: Bruno Jahn. tape 1 . KG Sauer Verlag, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-598-11710-8 , pp. 503 .

[4] Message from the fraternity

[5] Paulus Manker : The theater man Gustav Manker. Search for clues. Brandstätter, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-85033-335-1 .

[6] Association of German writers Austria (ed.): Confession book of Austrian poets. Krystall Verlag, Vienna 1938.

[7] Monique Mense: Mirko Jelusich - the "half" German. In: Rolf Düsterberg (Ed.): Poets for the "Third Reich". Biographical studies on the relationship between literature and ideology. Volume 3. Aisthesis, Bielefeld 2015, p. 174.

[8] Monique Mense: Mirko Jelusich - the "half" German. In: Rolf Düsterberg (ed.): Poet for the "Third Reich". Biographical studies on the relationship between literature and ideology. Volume 3. Bielefeld: Aisthesis 2015, p. 175f.

[9] Mirko Jelusich: Caesar: Roman . Buchgemeinschaft Donauland Europaring, Vienna Salzburg Bern 1969 ( dnb.de [accessed on August 21, 2020]).

[10] Paulus Manker: The theater man Gustav Manker. Search for clues. Brandstätter, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-85033-335-1 .

[11] ttp://www.polunbi.de/bibliothek/1947-nslit-i.html

[12] Austrian Federal Ministry for Education (ed.) (1946). List of blocked authors and books. Relevant for bookshops and libraries . Vienna: Ueberreuter. P. 31.