Walther Rode

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Walther Rode (originally Rosenzweig ; born April 9, 1876 in Czernowitz , Bukowina ; † August 12, 1934 in Comologno , Ticino , Switzerland ) was a lawyer and writer .

Life

Coming from an upper-class, assimilated Jewish family, he received his first literary inspiration from his father Leon Rosenzweig (1840–1914) banker, local councilor, later a member of the Reichsrat, who wrote plays and stories. Studied law in Chernivtsi , continued his studies in Vienna, where he became a Dr. jur. obtained his doctorate and settled as a lawyer in Vienna after completing an apprenticeship. Around 1900 the family name was changed to Rode. Defense attorney in high-profile political trials. His experience in justice soon turned him into a bitter opponent of ossified civil servants and inhuman justice, and led to the first satirical pamphlets . During the First World War, he was called up for military service as a defense attorney and investigating judge at a court martial in Ljubljana , trying to alleviate the terror of the imperial and kk military justice. He returned to Vienna in 1915 when he was released from military service for health reasons. As a member of the “Austrian Political Society”, co-founded by the wholesale merchant Julius Meinl II, efforts to achieve a swift mutual agreement. First conflict with the “Supreme Court”, which he accuses of “deliberate violation of the law, mockery and arbitrariness”. The disciplinary judges acquitted him.

Increased journalistic activity, for example at the pacifist-democratic magazine “Der Friede”, soon also at other Viennese newspapers (“Der Morgen”, “Der Tag”, “ Neue Freie Presse ”, “Neues 8-Uhr-Blatt”, “ Arbeiter Newspaper ”and others). This resulted in friendly relationships with journalists such as Kurt Tucholsky , Anton Kuh , Leo Perutz , Roda Roda , Franz Blei , Joseph Roth and Rudolf Olden . Several volumes appear with collections of his lectures and newspaper articles. In 1925 another conflict with the Supreme Court, which he sharply lashed out in a newspaper article for confirming a wrongful conviction in a murder trial. Tried before a jury as an insult to the Supreme Court, he defends himself brilliantly and is again acquitted.

A bitter satire against the civil servants leads to a boycott of his law firm by the indignant civil servants. In 1928 he gave up the bar and went to Switzerland, where he was appointed correspondent for the League of Nations in Geneva by the “ Prager Tagblatt ” . In addition, intensive journalistic and literary work for the “ Weltbühne ”, “ Das Tag-Buch ” and numerous daily newspapers. He publishes books with the quintessence of his judicial experience (“Justice”), his League of Nations reports (“Peace and Peace People”) and a satirical “Reader for the accused” (“Buttons and Birds”). After the National Socialists came to power in Germany, he immediately began the journalistic fight against racism, oppression and barbarism through his book “Deutschland ist Caliban” and the collaboration in leading magazines of the anti-fascist exile “Die Sammlung”, “Das Neue Tage-Buch” and “ The New World Stage ”. He is around the Zurich lawyer Wladimir Rosenbaum and his wife Aline Valangin , both active supporters of literary exile, in whose house in Ticino he died in August 1934. His writings are banned and burned by the National Socialists and are forgotten. His “Reading Book for Defendants” was also banned in the Austrian corporate state in 1937 as “dangerous to the state”.

Walther Rode Prize

Medienhaus Wien has been awarding the Walther Rode Prize since 2011. This appreciation is given to journalistic and journalistic work that is characterized by a high-quality attitude that is unaffected by daily political opportunism. The winners are selected by its founding partners Andy Kaltenbrunner , Matthias Karmasin , Daniela Kraus, Alfred J. Noll , Astrid Zimmermann. In addition to the prize money, a book with the jury's justification will be presented, which was designed by Gabriele Lenz, office for visual design.

Award winners

Works (selection)

  • Erotic literature. Two defense speeches. Stern, Vienna 1912.
  • From the Viennese judiciary. (Under the pseudonym "Pamphilius"). Bio, Vienna 1914.
  • The truth and its limits in court. Lecture given at the Urania in Vienna on March 3, 1917, Vienna 1917.
  • The Petko Peneff case and the oral court day before the Court of Cassation. Stern, Vienna 1918.
  • Nationality struggle and political process in the former Austria. Stern, Vienna 1919.
  • (Together with Leo Perutz): The field courts and the people's court. Brand, Vienna 1919.
  • Vienna and the Republic. Stern, Vienna 1920.
  • Justice, judiciary and others. Wiener Graphische Werkstätte, Vienna 1921.
  • Court of the Supreme Court . Speech given on June 23, 1925 before the jury court in Vienna. F. Lang, Vienna 1925.
  • Austria's happy agony. Polemic pamphlets and pamphlets. Publishing house Dr. Tooth u. Dr. Diamant, Vienna 1926
  • Austria's pyramid of civil servants. C. Konegen, Vienna 1927.
  • Application to initiate the preliminary investigation against Dr. Ernst Hauser and comrades for the crime of murder. Vienna 1927
  • Judiciary. Fragments. Rowohlt, Berlin 1929
  • Buttons and birds. Reading book for defendants. Transmare, Berlin 1931
    • New edition with an essay by Anton Kuh . Afterword Gerd Baumgartner. Edited by Thomas B. Schumann. Edition memoria, Hürth 2000. ISBN 3930353105 .
    • Also in the edition of the work at Löcker Wien udT reader for defendants . s. u.
  • Peace and Peace People. Transmare, Berlin 1931.
  • Germany is Caliban. Europa Verlag, Zurich 1934.
  • Work edition in four volumes. Edited by Gerd Baumgartner. Löcker, Vienna 2007. ISBN 3-85409-444-2 .
    • Vol. 1: Austria's happy agony .
    • Vol. 2: Reader for defendants .
    • Vol. 3: Pamphlet against Hitler .
    • Vol. 4: Life and Work .
  • Vienna and the Republic and other careful observations . Edited and appended by Alfred J. Noll. Czernin-Verlag, Vienna 2011. ISBN 978-3-7076-0376-7 .
  • The Fall of Baroness Bibu and Other Real Life Stories . Edited and with a comment by Alfred J. Noll. Czernin-Verlag, Vienna 2013. ISBN 978-3-7076-0436-8 .
  • Always against the judiciary! - Polemics and pamphlets . Edited by Alfred, J. Noll, Czernin, Vienna 2013. ISBN 978-3-7076-0473-3 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Walther Rode Prize 2013 . Retrieved April 9, 2015.
  2. ↑ Walther Rode Prize 2014 . Retrieved April 9, 2015.
  3. ↑ derStandard.at - STANDARD columnist Günter Traxler receives Walther Rode Prize . Article dated September 27, 2016, accessed September 27, 2016.
  4. ↑ derStandard.at: Walther Rode Prize for ORF magazines "Report" and "Hohes Haus" . Article dated October 30, 2017, accessed November 20, 2017.
  5. ↑ Walther Rode Prize 2018. Accessed September 10, 2019 .
  6. ↑ The “Walther Rode Prize” from Medienhaus Wien in 2019 goes to Tobias Pötzelsberger, Simone Stribl, Patrick Swanson and Matthias Westhoff. September 10, 2019, accessed September 9, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Confident on the Ibiza weekend: ORF journalists Pötzelsberger, Stribl, Swanson, Westhoff received awards. In: derStandard.at . September 10, 2019, accessed September 10, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Rode, Walther
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rosenzweig, Walter (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian lawyer and writer
DATE OF BIRTH April 9, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Chernivtsi , Bukovina
DATE OF DEATH August 12, 1934
Place of death Comologno , Canton Ticino, Switzerland