Theodor Hartwig (philosopher)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Theodor Hartwig (* 1872 in Vienna as Theodor Herzl ; † 1958 in Vienna) was an Austrian cultural philosopher , publicist and functionary in various organizations of the freethinking movement .

life and work

Theodor Hartwig was born in 1872 as Theodor Herzl into a Jewish family . In 1895, while studying sociology, he converted to Catholicism and at the same time changed his name, the latter so as not to be confused with the then known Zionist Theodor Herzl . His marriage was also dissolved at this time, with custody of the two daughters Greta and Mela being awarded to him. The latter later became known as the writer Mela Spira . A later son Kurt, who was born into his second marriage, committed suicide in 1924.

Hartwig's conversion to Catholicism was only pro forma . All of his writings, with which he has stood out since the 1920s - in the meantime he had an academic career as a professor of sociology - are supported by a decided anti-clericalism and atheism . Hartwig now emerged as a functionary and organizer of various freethinker groups, especially the "proletarian freethinkers". He was a temporary publisher of regional (e.g. Free Thought. Organ of the Bund Proletarischer Freethinker in the CSR. ) And national (e.g. Der Atheist. Organ of the International Freethinker Union ) magazines. Although he remained until the late 1930s Marxist was, he has never joined a Marxist party.

Although Hartwig was a professor, his writings were not professorially scientific, but rather scientific popularizations of the Marxist worldview. Its purpose was to encourage people to act according to Marx's proposition that what matters is to change the world. In doing so, Hartwig, who received the insights of the young psychoanalysis , not only tied in with people's economic problems, but also with personal, psychological ones, the deeper causes of which he also explained from the existing social order and therefore pleaded for their change. Although he was not a psychologist, he came very close to the endeavors of the Sexpol movement founded by the psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich , who was expelled from the KPD in 1933 . Hartwig discussed the mass psychology of fascism and other Reich books very positively in some freethinking magazines and wrote in Reich's Zeitschrift für Politische Psychologie und Sexualökonomie in the 1930s .

A shift in Hartwig's literary ambitions can already be seen in his “Critical Comments on the 8th International Philosophers' Congress in Prague in 1934”. Its target group is no longer the masses, but the progressive intellectuals, who threaten to become disoriented by the political victory of National Socialism and the Stalinist development in the Soviet Union. Hartwig's tendency towards philosophy is more noticeable in his first book after the war. But he is still a political head, which the subtitle of his treatise on existentialism clearly indicates: a politically reactionary ideology.

Fonts (selection)

  • The cosmopolitan thought. Collected essays on the history and criticism of humanization efforts. Ludwigsburg: Publishing house "Peace through Law" 1924
  • Jesus or Karl Marx? Vienna: Verlag Rudolf Cerny 1925, exp. Edition 1926
  • With or without God? A Capuchin sermon in socialist lighting. Vienna: Verlag Rudolf Cerny 1926
  • Sociology and Socialism. Introduction to the materialistic conception of history. Jena: Urania publishing company 1927
  • Revolutionizing women. Tetschen-Bodenbach / CSR: Association of Proletarian Freethinkers 1927.
  • [with Max Adler , Fritz Lewy a. a.]: Our position on Soviet Russia. Lessons and Perspectives of the Russian Revolution. With a foreword by Max Seydewitz . Berlin: Marxist Publishing Company 1931
  • Fascism in Germany. Freethinkers Association of North America, Wisconsin 1933 (ended up on the list of writings banned by the National Socialists)
  • The crisis of philosophy. Critical remarks on the 8th International Congress of Philosophers in Prague in 1934. Prague: Michael Kacha Publishing House 1935
  • The sense of the "religious-moral" education. In: Zeitschrift für Politische Psychologie und Sexualökonomie, 4 (1937), Issue 3, pp. 203-205 ( online )
  • The tragedy of the bedroom. Contributions to the psychology of marriage. Vienna: Verlag Rudolf Cerny 1947
  • Existentialism. A politically reactionary ideology. Vienna: Verlag Rudolf Cerny 1948
  • Hamlet's inhibitions. A psychological study. Vienna: Verlag Rudolf Cerny 1952

proof

  1. See Hartwig's book Gone ... Sketches and Reflections. Vienna: Anzengruber-Verlag Brothers Suschitzky 1927. The book begins with a mounted portrait of Hartwig's "son, friend and comrade-in-arms" Kurt, to whom it is also dedicated.
  2. Hartwig justifies this in the foreword to Sociology and Socialism : "It may be strange that I paid special attention to the psychological development of man." He did this because Marxism was - wrongly - accused of seeing it People only as puppets of the economic process.
  3. Book reviews and smaller articles, e.g. B. The sense of "religious-moral" education. In: Zeitschrift für Politische Psychologie und Sexualökonomie, 4 (1937), Heft 3, pp. 203-205.
  4. ^ The crisis of philosophy 1935
  5. Entry in the list of forbidden books

Web links