Karl Tschuppik - a bio-bibliographical approach

Journalist and writer Karl Tschuppik was born in the Bohemian town of Horovice and died in Vienna (1876-1937). Over three decades and three systems of government, he wrote discerning commentaries on Austrian affairs from a (sociopolitically) liberal middle-class point of view. The rapid succession of these articles is arguably unique for that period. Some of Tschuppik`s positions were editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper Prager Tagblatt (19101917), editor-in-chief of the Viennese daily paper Die Stunde (1923 1926), or managing editor of the Berlin weekly paper Montag Morgen (19271933). He was also much in demand as a contributor to periodicals as renowned as Frankfurter Zeitung, Literarische Welt (Berlin), Tage-Buch (Berlin), or Querschnitt (Berlin). His contemporaries were unanimous about Tschuppik`s outstanding importance as a journalist and writer. Ever since 1982, when Klaus Amann compiled 62 of his articles in a single volume (Karl Tschuppik: Von Franz Joseph zu Adolf Hitler), it has become clear that nobody taking an interest in the general political and social framework of the Austrian interwar period can ignore Tschuppik. Even so, the vast majority of his journalistic oeuvre cannot be accessed, being scattered across 50 or so places of publication, including difficult-to-retrieve sources. What motivated Amman`s fragmentary compilation was to make amends to an "uncomfortable" spirit for having totally wrongfully fallen into obliviona spirit who had courageously been warning during the interwar years against a danger to democracy and parliamentarianism, against the destruction of European civilization. Tschuppik spotted a threat (emerging from a "rebellion of the uprooted bourgeois, the frustrated employee, the unskilled jobless, the hopeless student, the trainee teacher") originating right in the center of society, which, having eroded in the wake of World War I and during the continuing economic crisis, "screamed national when meaning social" [Tschuppik 1935]. He was convinced that the only way to bring to a halt what began to emerge in the mid-1930s was to turn people`s minds back to those civilizational standards that were subsumed by Europe, requiring a solidary "coalition of Europeanness." One question he raised in 1936 was: "Shall we again be wading through streams of blood? Will there be a need to start from scratch below ruins?" A persistent theme of Tschuppik`s journalistic work was his defense of the "notion of Austria" while vehemently drawing a line against the Austrofascist ideology of a "German cultural nation" which considered Austria to be "the second German state." Another persistent theme was his person being antagonized by the camp of völkisch nationalists. Indeed, his name appeared on the very first blacklist of "harmful and undesirable writings" drawn up by the Nazis in 1933. The proposed personal bibliography will lay the groundwork for a scientific processing (retrieval and consolidation) of the legacy handed down by this Austrian journalist of European stature and for a comprehensive edition, which will add a key journalist of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, the First Republic, and Austrofascism to the canon.

The objective of this project was to retrieve and consolidate Mr. Tschuppiks oeuvre, which is scattered over dozens of periodicals. It was planned to establish a so-called exhaustive bibliography. Within the 36 months of the projects duration 2.620 primary texts were discovered in 75 newspapers and periodicals such as: "Prager Tagblatt", "Arbeiter-Zeitung" (Vienna), "Montagsblatt aus Böhmen" (Prague), "Frankfurter Zeitung", "Neues Wiener Tagblatt" (Vienna), "Morgenzeitung und Handelsblatt" (Ostrava), "Der Friede" (Vienna), "Der Neue Tag" (Vienna), "Wiener Sonn- und Montags-Zeitung" (Vienna), "Die Börse" (Vienna), "Das Tage-Buch" (Berlin), "Die Stunde" (Vienna), "Der Querschnitt" (Berlin), "Die Literarische Welt" (Berlin), "Montag Morgen" (Berlin), "Süddeutsche Sonntagspost" (Munich), "Der Tag" (Vienna). Journalist and writer Karl Tschuppik was born in the Bohemian town of Horovice and died in Vienna (1876-1937). Over four decades and three systems of government, he wrote discerning commentaries on Austrian affairs from a (sociopolitically) liberal middle-class point of view. The rapid succession of these articles is arguably unique for that period. Some of Tschuppiks positions were editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper "Prager Tagblatt" (1910 1917), editor-in-chief of the Viennese daily paper "Die Stunde" (19231926), or managing editor of the Berlin weekly paper "Montag Morgen" (19271933). During the interwar years he was courageously warning against a danger to democracy and parliamentarianism, against the destruction of European civilization. Tschuppik spotted a threat (emerging from a rebellion of the uprooted bourgeois, the frustrated employee, the unskilled jobless, the hopeless student, the trainee teacher) originating right in the center of society, which, having eroded in the wake of World War I and during the continuing economic crisis, screamed national when meaning social (Tschuppik 1935). He was convinced that the only way to bring to a halt what began to emerge in the mid-1930s was to turn peoples minds back to those civilizational standards that were subsumed by Europe, requiring a solidary coalition of Europeanness. The personal bibliography lays the groundwork for a scientific processing of the legacy handed down by this Austrian journalist of European stature. It paves the way toward a comprehensive annotated edition directed at a broader audiencea publication that has been long overdue.