Hugo Bettauer
Encyclopedia
Hugo Bettauer born Maximilian Hugo Bettauer, was a prolific Austria
n writer and journalist, who was murdered by a Nazi Party follower on account of his controversial views. He was very well known in his lifetime; many of his books were bestsellers and in the 1920s a number were made into films, most notably Die freudlose Gasse
(The Joyless Street, directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst
, 1925), which dealt with prostitution, and Die Stadt ohne Juden (The City Without Jews, directed by Hans Karl Breslauer
, 1924), a satire against anti-Semitism.
on 18 August 1872, the son of the stockbroker Arnold (Samuel Aron) Bettauer from Lemberg (Lviv
) and his wife Anna (née Wecker). He had two older sisters, Hermine (Michi) and Mathilde. In 1887-88, together with Karl Kraus
, he attended the fourth form of the Franz-Joseph-Gymnasium in the Stubenbastei, Vienna
. Kraus was to be his fiercest critic for the whole of his life.
At the age of 16 Bettauer ran away from home and travelled to Alexandria
, from where the Austrian Consul sent him straight back again.
In 1890 Bettauer converted from the Jewish
faith to the Evangelical
church. In the same year he joined the Kaiserjäger (Imperial mountain infantry) as a one-year volunteer. The change of religion was presumably connected with the fact that Jewish soldiers who lacked noble status found it virtually impossible to make any kind of career in the military, and for conversion purposes the Evangelical Church was preferable to the Roman Catholic Church.
he left the army again, due to difficulties with his superiors. Together with his mother he moved to Zürich
and in 1896, aged 24, gained possession of his substantial inheritance from his father.
In Zürich he married the love of his youth, Olga Steiner, with whom, after the death of his mother, he emigrated to the United States
. During the crossing, in a disastrous speculation Bettauer lost his entire fortune. He and Olga remained until 1899 in New York City
, where she appeared as an actress. Although Bettauer acquired American citizenship, he was unable to find work, so they travelled to Berlin
, where their son Heinrich Gustav Hellmuth Bettauer was born. (Their son went by the name Helmut and was transported to Auschwitz in 1942, where he presumably died.)
In Berlin Bettauer worked as a journalist and made a name for himself in connection with the exposure of a number of scandals. Among other things he wrote in the aftermath of one such scandal the book Bobbie, which appeared in 1921, in which he described a rich and powerful child abductor.
In 1901, after the suicide of the director of the Berliner Hoftheater, whom he had accused of corruption, Bettauer was expelled from Prussia
. He then moved to Munich
, where he worked in the cabaret Die Elf Scharfrichter ("The eleven executioners") and in the autumn of 1901 went to Hamburg
to become director of the specialist publication Küche und Keller ("Kitchen and Cellar").
In 1910 he returned to Vienna and took a job with the Neue Freie Presse
. When at the beginning of World War I
he wanted to join the army he was turned down, on the grounds of his American citizenship.
In 1918, after an altercation caused by a defective typewriter, he was fired from the Neue Freie Presse.
. In the book, a fictional politician orders the expulsion of all Jews from Vienna. One writer noted that "in scenes that are frighteningly prophetic, Austria borrows thirty stock car trains from neighboring countries to help in the expulsion (to the east) of the Jews and their belongings." In the book, the citizens of Vienna initially celebrated the expulsion, but sentiment changed as theaters went bankrupt and department stores, hotels and resorts suffered. The economy declined to such an extent that a popular movement arose demanding the return of the Jews. Without the Jews to blame, the Nazi party collapsed; the expulsion law was repealed, and the Jews were welcomed back to Vienna.
The City Without Jews sold 250,000 copies in its first year, and became one of Bettauer's most controversial works, gaining him both great admirers and bitter enemies. Nazi sympathizers attacked Bettauer and his work, denouncing him as the "Red poet" and a "corruptor of youth".
A much shorter-lived venture was another weekly paper, Er und Sie. Wochenschrift für Lebenskultur und Erotik ("He and She. Weekly Paper for Lifestyle and Eroticism"), which Bettauer launched in 1924 together with R. Olden; it was closed down after five numbers.
In the course of time Bettauer's works brought him substantial returns in terms of stage and film rights, as their racy and often controversial contents made them popular for adaptation.
He was thus not only one of the most controversial, but also one of the most successful writers of his time. In the film version of Die freudlose Gasse
(G. W. Pabst, 1925), Greta Garbo
made her international screen debut, and in Stadt ohne Juden, which was filmed in 1924 under the director Hans Karl Breslauer
, both Hans Moser
and Ferdinand Maierhofer made theirs.
Because of his "investigative journalism" and his stance in favour of sexual openness and liberation, Bettauer was repeatedly the object of public debate. His opponents sought to discredit him as a "gutter hack" (Asphaltliterat). Over time the conflict escalated: Bettauer was publicly vilified, his newspaper was confiscated, and eventually a legal action was brought against him, a side-effect of which was an outbreak of public threats and calls for his murder. Surprisingly, Bettauer was acquitted; the subsequent edition of his newspaper reached a circulation of 60,000, the highest ever among weeklies of the period; in March 1925 its expansion was being seriously considered.
shot Bettauer several times. He was taken to hospital in Vienna with serious injuries and died on 26 March 1925.
Even before his death there were heated arguments, to the point of physical violence, in the Wiener Gemeinderat ("Vienna City Council") over the motives of the attacker. Rothstock himself maintained that he wanted to take a stand against the alleged immorality of an author who had become famous for his sexually explicit and liberal writings. However, it was established that before the attack Rothstock had been a member of the National Socialist party, and although by March 1925 he had left it again, he was nevertheless supported after Bettauer's death by lawyers and friends with close ties to the Nazis. It is generally accepted that it was Bettauer's prominent criticism of anti-Semitism, encapsulated in particular in the high-profile book and film Stadt ohne Juden, that lay behind his murder. The court ordered Rothstock to be sent to a psychiatric clinic, which he left 18 months later a free man.
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n writer and journalist, who was murdered by a Nazi Party follower on account of his controversial views. He was very well known in his lifetime; many of his books were bestsellers and in the 1920s a number were made into films, most notably Die freudlose Gasse
Die freudlose Gasse
Joyless Street , a film based on the novel by Hugo Bettauer and directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst in France, is one of the first films of the "New Objectivity“ movement. Greta Garbo stars in her second major role...
(The Joyless Street, directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst
Georg Wilhelm Pabst
-Biography:Pabst was born in Raudnitz, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary , the son of a railroad employee.Returning from the United States, he was in France when World War I began...
, 1925), which dealt with prostitution, and Die Stadt ohne Juden (The City Without Jews, directed by Hans Karl Breslauer
Hans Karl Breslauer
Hans Karl Breslauer, born Johann Karl Breslauer, later often known as H. K. Breslauer was an early Austrian film director, also an actor, screenwriter and author.- Career as actor and screenwriter :...
, 1924), a satire against anti-Semitism.
Life
Maximilian Hugo Bettauer, later known as Hugo Bettauer, was born in Baden bei WienBaden bei Wien
-Points of interest:The town offers several parks and a picturesque surrounding, of which the most frequented is the Helenental valley. Not far from Baden, the valley is crossed by a widespread aqueduct of the Vienna waterworks...
on 18 August 1872, the son of the stockbroker Arnold (Samuel Aron) Bettauer from Lemberg (Lviv
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
) and his wife Anna (née Wecker). He had two older sisters, Hermine (Michi) and Mathilde. In 1887-88, together with Karl Kraus
Karl Kraus
Karl Kraus was an Austrian writer and journalist, known as a satirist, essayist, aphorist, playwright and poet. He is regarded as one of the foremost German-language satirists of the 20th century, especially for his witty criticism of the press, German culture, and German and Austrian...
, he attended the fourth form of the Franz-Joseph-Gymnasium in the Stubenbastei, Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. Kraus was to be his fiercest critic for the whole of his life.
At the age of 16 Bettauer ran away from home and travelled to Alexandria
Alexandria
Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...
, from where the Austrian Consul sent him straight back again.
In 1890 Bettauer converted from the Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
faith to the Evangelical
Lutheranism
Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German reformer. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...
church. In the same year he joined the Kaiserjäger (Imperial mountain infantry) as a one-year volunteer. The change of religion was presumably connected with the fact that Jewish soldiers who lacked noble status found it virtually impossible to make any kind of career in the military, and for conversion purposes the Evangelical Church was preferable to the Roman Catholic Church.
Marriage and emigration
After five months in TyrolCounty of Tyrol
The County of Tyrol, Princely County from 1504, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, from 1814 a province of the Austrian Empire and from 1867 a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary...
he left the army again, due to difficulties with his superiors. Together with his mother he moved to Zürich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
and in 1896, aged 24, gained possession of his substantial inheritance from his father.
In Zürich he married the love of his youth, Olga Steiner, with whom, after the death of his mother, he emigrated to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. During the crossing, in a disastrous speculation Bettauer lost his entire fortune. He and Olga remained until 1899 in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where she appeared as an actress. Although Bettauer acquired American citizenship, he was unable to find work, so they travelled to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, where their son Heinrich Gustav Hellmuth Bettauer was born. (Their son went by the name Helmut and was transported to Auschwitz in 1942, where he presumably died.)
In Berlin Bettauer worked as a journalist and made a name for himself in connection with the exposure of a number of scandals. Among other things he wrote in the aftermath of one such scandal the book Bobbie, which appeared in 1921, in which he described a rich and powerful child abductor.
In 1901, after the suicide of the director of the Berliner Hoftheater, whom he had accused of corruption, Bettauer was expelled from Prussia
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...
. He then moved to Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, where he worked in the cabaret Die Elf Scharfrichter ("The eleven executioners") and in the autumn of 1901 went to Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
to become director of the specialist publication Küche und Keller ("Kitchen and Cellar").
Second marriage
After his first marriage had ended in divorce, Bettauer became acquainted in Hamburg with his future second wife, Helene Müller, who at the time was aged 16. In 1904 they eloped to America. They married during the crossing, and in the same year their son Reginald Parker Bettauer was born. In New York Bettauer worked as a newspaper journalist, and also began to write serial novels for newspaper publication.In 1910 he returned to Vienna and took a job with the Neue Freie Presse
Die Presse
Die Presse is an Austrian daily newspaper based in Vienna. It was founded in 1946 by World War II resistance fighter Ernst Molden and stands in tradition of the Viennese newspapers "Die Presse" and "Neue Freie Presse" . The paper covers general news topics...
. When at the beginning of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
he wanted to join the army he was turned down, on the grounds of his American citizenship.
In 1918, after an altercation caused by a defective typewriter, he was fired from the Neue Freie Presse.
After the war
Immediately after the war Bettauer worked as a correspondent for various New York papers, and started an aid programme in New York for the people of Vienna. From 1920 he produced novels in great quantity, publishing four or five every year. He specialised in crime stories with a social message, which were extremely popular. Another reason for the popularity of his novels was that they were not only set in Vienna but also in Berlin and New York.The City Without Jews
His best-known novel was Die Stadt ohne Juden ("The City Without Jews") from 1922, a satire on the acutely topical subject of anti-SemitismAnti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
. In the book, a fictional politician orders the expulsion of all Jews from Vienna. One writer noted that "in scenes that are frighteningly prophetic, Austria borrows thirty stock car trains from neighboring countries to help in the expulsion (to the east) of the Jews and their belongings." In the book, the citizens of Vienna initially celebrated the expulsion, but sentiment changed as theaters went bankrupt and department stores, hotels and resorts suffered. The economy declined to such an extent that a popular movement arose demanding the return of the Jews. Without the Jews to blame, the Nazi party collapsed; the expulsion law was repealed, and the Jews were welcomed back to Vienna.
The City Without Jews sold 250,000 copies in its first year, and became one of Bettauer's most controversial works, gaining him both great admirers and bitter enemies. Nazi sympathizers attacked Bettauer and his work, denouncing him as the "Red poet" and a "corruptor of youth".
Investigative journalism and other work
Besides all this, Bettauer set up Bettauers Wochenschrift, a weekly paper that regularly caused controversy with its progressive, not to say provocative, contents. As in the USA he exploited the concept of the serial novel.A much shorter-lived venture was another weekly paper, Er und Sie. Wochenschrift für Lebenskultur und Erotik ("He and She. Weekly Paper for Lifestyle and Eroticism"), which Bettauer launched in 1924 together with R. Olden; it was closed down after five numbers.
In the course of time Bettauer's works brought him substantial returns in terms of stage and film rights, as their racy and often controversial contents made them popular for adaptation.
He was thus not only one of the most controversial, but also one of the most successful writers of his time. In the film version of Die freudlose Gasse
Die freudlose Gasse
Joyless Street , a film based on the novel by Hugo Bettauer and directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst in France, is one of the first films of the "New Objectivity“ movement. Greta Garbo stars in her second major role...
(G. W. Pabst, 1925), Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo , born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, was a Swedish film actress. Garbo was an international star and icon during Hollywood's silent and classic periods. Many of Garbo's films were sensational hits, and all but three were profitable...
made her international screen debut, and in Stadt ohne Juden, which was filmed in 1924 under the director Hans Karl Breslauer
Hans Karl Breslauer
Hans Karl Breslauer, born Johann Karl Breslauer, later often known as H. K. Breslauer was an early Austrian film director, also an actor, screenwriter and author.- Career as actor and screenwriter :...
, both Hans Moser
Hans Moser (actor)
Hans Moser was an Austrian actor who, during his long career, from the 1920s up to his death, mainly played in comedy films. He was particularly associated with the genre of the Wiener Film...
and Ferdinand Maierhofer made theirs.
Because of his "investigative journalism" and his stance in favour of sexual openness and liberation, Bettauer was repeatedly the object of public debate. His opponents sought to discredit him as a "gutter hack" (Asphaltliterat). Over time the conflict escalated: Bettauer was publicly vilified, his newspaper was confiscated, and eventually a legal action was brought against him, a side-effect of which was an outbreak of public threats and calls for his murder. Surprisingly, Bettauer was acquitted; the subsequent edition of his newspaper reached a circulation of 60,000, the highest ever among weeklies of the period; in March 1925 its expansion was being seriously considered.
Death
The Nazis branded Bettauer a "Red poet" and "corruptor of youth", and an Austrian party member published a series of articles calling for "radical self help" and "lynch justice against all polluters of our people". On 10 March 1925, a dental technician named Otto RothstockOtto Rothstock
Otto Rothstock was the assassin of Hugo Bettauer.As a young member of the Nazi party, Rothstock was enraged by Bettauer's satire of Nazi anti-semitism in his popular work, The City Without Jews. On March 10, 1925 Rothstock entered Bettauer's office and shot him five times at point-blank range...
shot Bettauer several times. He was taken to hospital in Vienna with serious injuries and died on 26 March 1925.
Even before his death there were heated arguments, to the point of physical violence, in the Wiener Gemeinderat ("Vienna City Council") over the motives of the attacker. Rothstock himself maintained that he wanted to take a stand against the alleged immorality of an author who had become famous for his sexually explicit and liberal writings. However, it was established that before the attack Rothstock had been a member of the National Socialist party, and although by March 1925 he had left it again, he was nevertheless supported after Bettauer's death by lawyers and friends with close ties to the Nazis. It is generally accepted that it was Bettauer's prominent criticism of anti-Semitism, encapsulated in particular in the high-profile book and film Stadt ohne Juden, that lay behind his murder. The court ordered Rothstock to be sent to a psychiatric clinic, which he left 18 months later a free man.
Major novels
- Im Banne von New York, 1907
- Im Kampf ums Glück, 1907 (reprint 1926)
- Auf heißem Boden, 1907
- Im Schatten des Todes, 1907 (reprint 1925)
- Aus den Tiefen der Weltstadt, 1907
- Faustrecht, 1919
- Hemmungslos, 1920 (reprint 1988)
- Bobbie auf der Fährte, 1921 (reprint 1926 under the title "Bobbie oder die Liebe eines Knaben")
- Die drei Ehestunden der Elizabeth Lehndorff, 1921
- Der Frauenmörder, 1922
- Der Herr auf der Galgenleiter, 1922
- Das blaue Mal, 1922
- Die Stadt ohne Juden, 1922 (reissued 1988, 1996)
- Der Kampf um Wien, 1922/23 (shortened edition under the title Ralph und Hilde 1926)
- Die lustigen Weiber von Wien, 1924
- Gekurbeltes Schicksal, 1924
- Die freudlose Gasse, 1924 (reissued 1988)
- Das entfesselte Wien, 1924
- Die schönste Frau der Welt, 1924
- Memoiren eines Hochstaplers, 1924
- Kampf ums Glück, 1926
- Gesammelte Werke in sechs Bänden ("Collected Works in Six Volumes"), Salzburg, 1980 (contains: Kampf um Wien/Das entfesselte Wien/Die freudlose Gasse/Die Stadt ohne Juden/Faustrecht/Hemmungslos)
Novellas
- Der Tod einer Grete und andere Novellen, 1926
- Geschichten aus dem Alltag, 1926
Stage plays
- Die Stadt ohne Juden (with Hans Saßmann), 1922
- Die blaue Liebe (with Klemens Weiß-Clewe), 1924
Newspapers / periodicals
- Er und Sie, 14 February - 13 March 1924
- Bettauers Wochenschrift 15 May 1924 - 26 August 1927
- Der Bettauer Almanach für 1925, 1925
Film adaptations
- Faustrecht, Germany/Austria 1922, director: Karl Ehmann
- Die schönste Frau der Welt, Germany 1924, director: Richard EichbergRichard EichbergRichard Eichberg was an German film director and producer. He directed 87 films between 1915 and 1949. He also produced 77 films between 1915 and 1950.He was born in Berlin, Germany and died in Munich, Germany....
- Die Stadt ohne Juden, Austria 1924, director: Hans Karl BreslauerHans Karl BreslauerHans Karl Breslauer, born Johann Karl Breslauer, later often known as H. K. Breslauer was an early Austrian film director, also an actor, screenwriter and author.- Career as actor and screenwriter :...
- Das Abenteuer der Sybille Brant / Der Frauenmörder, Germany 1925, director: Carl FroelichCarl FroelichCarl August Froelich was a German film pioneer and film director.-Apparatus builder and cameraman:...
- Die freudlose GasseDie freudlose GasseJoyless Street , a film based on the novel by Hugo Bettauer and directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst in France, is one of the first films of the "New Objectivity“ movement. Greta Garbo stars in her second major role...
, Germany 1925, director: Georg Wilhelm PabstGeorg Wilhelm Pabst-Biography:Pabst was born in Raudnitz, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary , the son of a railroad employee.Returning from the United States, he was in France when World War I began...
, with Greta GarboGreta GarboGreta Garbo , born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, was a Swedish film actress. Garbo was an international star and icon during Hollywood's silent and classic periods. Many of Garbo's films were sensational hits, and all but three were profitable... - Der Bankkrach unter den Linden, Germany 1926, director: Paul Merzbach
- Andere Frauen, Austria 1928, director: Heinz Hanus
- La rue sans joie, France 1938, director: André HugonAndré HugonAndré Hugon was a French film director, screenwriter and film producer best known for his silent films from 1913 onwards particularly of the 1920s and into sound....
(French languageFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
version of Die freudlose Gasse)