Ernst Fischer (writer)

Ernst Fischer (writer)

Ernst Fischer (July 3, 1899 – July 31, 1972), also known under the pseudonyms: "Peter Wieden", "Pierre Vidal", and "Der Miesmacher", was a Bohemia-born Austrian journalist, writer and politician.

Contents

Life

Ernst Fischer was born in Komotau, Bohemia in 1899. He studied philosophy in Graz. In 1932, he was married to Ruth von Mayenburg. Initially a social democrat, Fischer became a member of the Communist Party of Austria (Kommunistischen Partei Österreichs or KPÖ) member in 1934 after being disillusioned in democracy for not being able to withstand fascism.

In 1934, after Fischer and his wife were involved in the Austrian Civil War, they had to leave Austria.[1] The went to Czechoslovakia, where he began working for the Comintern as an editor.[2] In 1938, they went to Moscow, where Fischer continued to work for the Comintern. They lived at Hotel Lux,[3] a luxury hotel that had been built in 1911,[4] and was taken over by the Communist Party after the October Revolution. Following Adolf Hitler's seizure of power, the hotel became a refuge for communist exiles, especially Germans.[5] The Fishers lived there from 1938 until 1945.[4]

When Fischer and his wife arrived at Hotel Lux, the Stalinist purges were still taking place and the exiles living at the hotel were living in a climate of fear and terror. The autumn after their arrival, Fischer came home from work one evening, looking terrified. Gustl Deutsch, an Austrian who had been arrested and had imprisoned, had managed to smuggle him a note to alert him to the danger facing Fischer. Under torture, Deutsch had named Fischer as being involved in a plot against Stalin's life. Although the charges were completely false, by being accused, Fischer was in grave danger and he immediately sought help from Georgi Dimitrov, one of the leaders of the Comintern. Dimitrov replied, "I will be able to save you, but the others...?"[6]

After the war, Fischer remained an important figure in the KPÖ until 1969. He served as Communist Minister of Information in the first post-war government of Renner (April 27, 1945 - December 20, 1945).

Fischer and his wife were divorced in 1954.[1]

His book, Erinnerungen und Reflexionen ("Memories and Reflections"), was released around the same time his ex-wife's book came out, Blaues Blut und rote Fahnen. Revolutionäres Frauenleben zwischen Wien, Berlin und Moskau ("Blue Blood and Red Flags. Revolutionary Female Life Between Vienna, Berlin and Moscow"). The two books covered the same period.[1]

Fischer died on July 31, 1972 in Deutschfeistritz.

References

  1. ^ a b c "Köstliche Entdeckung" Der Spiegel (November 3, 1969). Retrieved November 14, 2011 (German)
  2. ^ "Nachts kamen Stalins Häscher" Der Spiegel (October 16, 1978), p. 98. Note: The html file is from a low-quality OCR scan and is full of typos. There URL has a link to a PDF version, but it's low-quality too. Retrieved November 15, 2011 (German)
  3. ^ "Nachts kamen Stalins Häscher", p. 94
  4. ^ a b Peter Dittmar, "Der steinerne Zeuge des stalinistischen Terrors" Die Welt (October 30, 2007). Retrieved November 11, 2011 (German)
  5. ^ Hermann Weber, Hotel Lux - Die deutsche kommunistische Emigration in Moskau (PDF) Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung No. 443 (October 2006), p. 58. Retrieved November 12, 2011 (German)
  6. ^ "Nachts kamen Stalins Häscher", p. 102

Literary works

  • Krise der Jugend. 1931
  • Freiheit und Diktatur. 1934
  • Die Entstehung des österreichischen Volkscharakters. 1944
  • Franz Grillparzer. 1948
  • Roman in Dialogen. 1955 (Zusammen with Louise Eisler)
  • Kunst und Koexistenz: Beitrag zu einer modernen marxistischen Ästhetik. 1967
  • Was Marx wirklich sagte. 1968
  • Erinnerungen und Reflexionen. 1969
  • Das Ende einer Illusion. 1973
  • Von Grillparzer zu Kafka. 1975

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Ernst Fischer — may refer to: Ernst Fischer (composer) (1900–1975), German composer and keyboard player Ernst Fischer (writer) (1899 1972), an Austrian journalist, writer and politician Ernst Otto Fischer (1918–2007), German chemist, Nobel prizewinner Ernst… …   Wikipedia

  • Ernst Wiechert — (18 May 1887 ndash; 24 August 1950) was a German teacher, poet and writer.BiographyWiechert was born in near Sensburg (Mrągowo), East Prussia.He was one of the most widely read novelists in Germany during the 1930s. He incorporated his Catholic… …   Wikipedia

  • Ernst Graf zu Reventlow — Ernst, Count Reventlow (August 18, 1869 ndash; November 21, 1943) was a German naval officer, journalist and Nazi politician. Early lifeErnst Christian Einar Ludwig Detlev graf zu Reventlow was born at Husum, Schleswig Holstein, Germany, the son… …   Wikipedia

  • Physician writer — Physician writers are medical doctors who write creatively in fields outside their practice of medicine. Their works include short stories, novels, poetry, drama, screenplays, children’s literature, speculative fiction, scholarly works, essays,… …   Wikipedia

  • CZECHOSLOVAK LITERATURE — By force of historic circumstances, Jews in the Czech lands – Bohemia and Moravia – before World War I tended on the whole to identify themselves with the culture of the ruling Austrians, while Jews in Slovakia mostly absorbed Hungarian culture.… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • AUSTRIA — AUSTRIA, country in Central Europe. Middle Ages Jews lived in Austria from the tenth century. However the history of the Jews in Austria from the late Middle Ages was virtually that of the Jews in vienna and its environs. In the modern period,… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Chomutov — Coordinates: 50°27′38.83″N 13°25′3.66″E / 50.4607861°N 13.4176833°E / 50.4607861; 13.4176833 …   Wikipedia

  • Ruth Rix — (born 1942) is an artist based in Brighton, England who works across the visual arts, with a particular interest in painting. Her work is in private collections.Early lifeBorn in Leamington Spa to parents who were Jewish refugees, Rix has lived,… …   Wikipedia

  • literature — /lit euhr euh cheuhr, choor , li treuh /, n. 1. writings in which expression and form, in connection with ideas of permanent and universal interest, are characteristic or essential features, as poetry, novels, history, biography, and essays. 2.… …   Universalium

  • List of German Americans — This is a list of notable German Americans.German Americans (Deutschamerikaner) are citizens of the United States of ethnic German ancestry and form the largest ancestry group in the United States, accounting for 17% of US population. [cite web… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”