Oskar Benda (Germanist)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Oskar Benda (born May 24, 1886 in Rakaca ; † January 2, 1954 in Mödling ) was an Austrian German scholar , literary scholar and educator .

Life

Oskar Benda was a son of Ilona Benda and the economic administrator Robert Benda. He attended elementary school in Kolleschowitz , the grammar school in Smichow and the state high school in Brüx , where he graduated in 1905 .

Benda then studied modern German language and literature as well as English philology and philosophy, initially for a semester at the University of Vienna , then from 1906 at the Karl Ferdinand University in Prague. He did his doctorate in 1909 under August Sauer and Adolf Hauffen in Prague on the theory, technology and history of the development novel . He then traveled to Berlin , Leipzig , Munich and Oxford , where he briefly visited the universities, as well as to London and Paris . In October 1910 he passed the teaching examination in Prague .

After working as a teacher in the state secondary schools in Prague, Trieste and Aussig , Benda became a teacher at the Astgasse state secondary school in Vienna in 1913 . Erwin Chvojka , who later became a literary scholar, was one of his students . Oskar Benda took part in the First World War as a volunteer from 1915 . After the war he was close to the social democratic community college system . In 1919 he was one of the founders of the Association of German-Austrian Middle School Teachers in Vienna.

Benda worked from 1925 to 1938 as a state school inspector for Vienna. From 1925 to 1934 he also published the journal Science and School . Benda tried to reform schools and renew teacher training . A hallmark of his scientific publications since the 1920s was the merging of empirical results from literary, cultural and economic history. His work The present state of German literary studies from 1928 was of lasting importance . His Nazi- critical book The Education of the Third Reich , published in 1931, later earned him persecution by the National Socialists.

Oskar Benda married Friederike Nadermann in 1934. The Germanist Josef Nadler sued him in 1935 when Benda had accused him of advocating a race theory . The legal process ended with an out-of-court settlement . In his work The Austrian Culture Idea in State and Education from 1936, Benda dealt in a systematic and novel way with the Austrian identity in contrast to other German-speaking population groups. Before 1937 he was also the Austrian representative in the cultural committee of the League of Nations .

After the “Anschluss” of Austria , Benda was dismissed from civil service in 1938 for political reasons. He fled to avoid being sent to a concentration camp. At first he received no earnings at all, later a pension that was cut by half, and he moved to the country.

After the Second World War , Oskar Benda became a full professor for Austrian literary history and general literary studies at the University of Vienna on December 17, 1945 . He held this position until his death in 1954. He was one of the staunch advocates of denazification of Viennese German studies. His main research interests included the Renaissance , which he taught alongside methodology and Austrian literary history. The Germanists Robert Mühlher and Joseph P. Strelka studied with him . Oskar Benda is one of the most important Austrian German scholars.

Fonts

  • Wilhelm Waiblinger. A character image . In: 58th Annual Report of the Reading and Speech Hall of German Students in Prague . Prague 1907, p. 5-20 .
  • The art form of the educational novel . In: 42nd annual report of the German state secondary school in Trieste . Trieste 1912, p. 2-51 .
  • The basic law of epic gestalt expression . In: 8th annual report of the kk Staatsrealschule in Vienna, XIII. District, Astgasse No. 3 . Vienna 1914, p. 2-27 .
  • The new middle school. A word of enlightenment to thinking parents . Zellmayer, Vienna 1926.
  • The forms of life in high school . German publishing house for youth and people, Berlin 1926.
  • The poetry of the present. From the art of reality to the art of expression. An introduction . Austrian Federal Publishing House for Education, Science and Art, Vienna 1926.
  • The current state of German literary studies. A first introduction to your problem . Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky, Vienna 1928.
  • German cultural unit . In: Felix Behrend (Ed.): The larger Germany. German future . Quelle & Meyer, Leipzig 1929.
  • The German cultural problem . Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky, Vienna / Leipzig 1929.
  • The formation of the Third Reich. Marginal notes on the socio-historical change of meaning of German humanism . 2nd Edition. German publishing house for youth and people, Vienna / Leipzig 1945 (first edition: 1931).
  • Cultural introduction . In: Robert Lohan , Walther Maria Neuwirth, Viktor Trautzl (eds.): The heart of Europe. An Austrian lecture book . Saturn, Vienna 1935. (= The Austrian cultural idea in state and education . Saturn, Vienna 1936. )
  • Upbringing and education in the Austrian spirit . German publishing house for youth and people, Vienna / Leipzig 1936.
  • Ethnicity and ideal of education. To the core problem of patriotic upbringing . German publishing house for youth and people, Vienna / Leipzig 1936.

Honors

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Wynfrid Kriegleder: Benda, Oskar . In: Christoph König (Ed.): Internationales Germanistenlexikon 1800–1950 . tape 1 : AG. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2003, ISBN 3-11-015485-4 , p. 130-131 .
  2. ↑ a b c Felix Czeike (Ed.): Benda, Oskar. In:  Historisches Lexikon Wien . Volume 1, Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1992, ISBN 3-218-00543-4 , p. 320 ( digitized version ).
  3. ^ William M. Johnston: The Austrian man. Cultural history of the uniqueness of Austria . Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Graz 2010, ISBN 978-3-205-78298-8 , pp. 225-226 .
  4. ↑ Wynfrid Kriegleder: Ernst Schön Wiese picture of Austrian literature . In: Robert G. Weigel (Ed.): Ernst Schönwiese: Aspects of his work. Lectures at the International Ernst Schönwiese Symposium at the University of Auburn . Francke, Tübingen 2012, ISBN 978-3-7720-8465-2 , p. 54 .
  5. ↑ Felix Czeike (Ed.): Bendagasse. In:  Historisches Lexikon Wien . Volume 1, Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1992, ISBN 3-218-00543-4 , p. 320 ( digitized version ).
personal data
SURNAME Benda, Oskar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian Germanist, literary scholar and educator
DATE OF BIRTH May 24, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Rakaca
DATE OF DEATH 2nd January 1954
Place of death Mödling