Emil Utitz

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Emil Utitz
Emil Utitz giving a lecture in Theresienstadt, still from the 1944 propaganda film Theresienstadt (photographer: Ivan Frič [de; fr])
Born(1883-05-18)18 May 1883
Roztoky , Kingdom of Bohemia, Austria-Hungary
Died2 November 1956(1956-11-02) (aged 73)
Jena, East Germany
Academic background
Education
  • University of Munich
  • German Charles-Ferdinand University
  • University of Leipzig
Alma materCharles University
ThesisWilhelm Heinse und die Ästhetik zur Zeit der deutschen Aufklärung (1906)
Doctoral advisorChristian von Ehrenfels
InfluencesFranz Brentano
Academic work
Discipline
  • philosopher
  • psychologist
Sub-discipline
  • art theory
  • aesthetics
  • characterology
  • cultural philosophy
Institutions
Doctoral studentsHermann Boeschenstein

Emil Utitz (27 May 1883 – 2 November 1956) was a Czech philosopher and psychologist of Jewish descent. He was educated in Prague, where he was a classmate of

University of Halle-Wittenberg. After his forced retirement in 1933, he became a professor in Prague. In 1942, he was deported to Theresienstadt Ghetto, where he was head of the library. After the liberation of Theresienstadt in 1945, he returned to Prague. Utitz died in Jena
in 1956, while travelling through East Germany to give lectures.

Early life and education

Kinský Palace in Prague, where Utitz and Franz Kafka went to school

Emil Utitz was born in

Wilhelm Heinse and aesthetics in the German Enlightenment).[5][6] During his studies, he was member of a philosophical circle, strongly influenced by Franz Brentano, that met at the Café Louvre [cs] and included Kafka and Oskar Kraus.[7][8]

Utitz also wrote poems. His Von des Lebens letzten Rätseln: Eine lyrische Symphonie in drei Sätzen (On Life's Final Mysteries: A Lyrical Symphony in Three Movements) appeared in 1902, and in the same year, he used the pseudonym Ernst Limé[9] to publish the collection Meine Hochburg (My Stronghold).[10]

Academic career

Main building of the University of Rostock

After his doctorate, Utitz travelled to Italy, spending time with Franz Brentano in

University of Halle-Wittenberg as successor of Max Frischeisen-Köhler [de]. Although he had converted to Protestantism,[15] he was considered Jewish in the context of the so-called Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service and was suspended in April 1933, then forced into unpaid retirement in October 1933.[5] He returned to Prague, where he first worked on the Nachlass of Franz Brentano, then became the successor of Christian von Ehrenfels as Chair of Philosophy at the German University of Prague in October 1934.[5][12] He was forcibly retired in 1938 after arguments with Nazi colleagues.[5]

His PhD students include Hermann Boeschenstein (Die Aesthetik des J. P. de Crousaz, The Aesthetics of J. P. de Crousaz, Rostock 1924)[16][17] and Johannes Güthling (Vergleichende Untersuchungen über das Augenmaß für Strecken und Flächen, Comparative Studies of the Visual Judgement for Distance and Area, Halle 1927).[18]

Utitz's works include books on art theory, aesthetics,

Egon Erwin Kisch.[9][19]

Theresienstadt

Utitz and his wife were deported to Theresienstadt Ghetto on 30 July 1942.[5][20] There, he became head of the Ghetto Central Library [de], which opened in November 1942.[21] The library started with about 4,000 books, most of them theological or scholarly works in Hebrew or German.[22] Within a year, the collection had grown to over 48,000 volumes. When the reading room opened in June 1943, use was restricted to readers who could pay a deposit and pass an interview with Utitz or another librarian.[23] Utitz, who was one of the "prominent" prisoners given special treatment, was involved in cultural activities in Theresienstadt, for example as judge in a poetry contest in 1944.

Auschwitz in October 1944 and later given to H. G. Adler.[27]
Utitz and his assistant, Käthe Starke-Goldschmidt [de], who preserved the Theresienstadt Papers,[28] were the only library staff to survive until the liberation of Theresienstadt in May 1945, and spent three more months in the camp to oversee the disbanding of the library, with 100,000 books returned to Prague.[29] Utitz later wrote a book about the psychology of life in Theresienstadt, which appeared in a Czech edition in 1947 and in German translation in 1948.[30]

Later life and death

After the liberation of Theresienstadt, he returned to Prague and was again named professor of philosophy at the university.[5] As emeritus professor, he lived in Smíchov.[2] Utitz became a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in 1948.[31] While travelling to give lectures in East Germany, he died in Jena on 2 November 1956 from a heart attack.[32]

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ Karge 2011, p. 281.
  2. ^ a b c d e Burkhardt 1998, p. 38.
  3. ^ a b Wolfradt, Billmann-Mahecha & Stock 2014, p. 454.
  4. ^ Wolfradt, Billmann-Mahecha & Stock 2014, pp. 454–455.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Wolfradt, Billmann-Mahecha & Stock 2014, p. 455.
  6. ^ Matějčková 2020, p. 439.
  7. ^ Trivium 2010.
  8. ^ Smith 1997, pp. 85–86.
  9. ^ a b Bergman 2007.
  10. ^ Stach & Frisch 2016, p. 500.
  11. ^ Burkhardt 1998, p. 141.
  12. ^ a b Mehring 2003, p. 761.
  13. ^ Karge 2011, p. 282.
  14. ^ Kowitz 2017.
  15. ^ Stone 2012, p. 87.
  16. ^ Batts 2003.
  17. ^ Milnes 1969, p. 1.
  18. ^ Wolfradt, Billmann-Mahecha & Stock 2014, p. 153.
  19. ^ Boeschenstein 1971.
  20. ^ Peschel 2012, p. 220.
  21. ^ Intrator 2007, p. 515.
  22. ^ Intrator 2005, pp. 6–7.
  23. ^ Intrator 2007, pp. 517–518.
  24. ^ Intrator 2005, p. 25.
  25. ^ Alfers 2010, p. 54.
  26. ^ Adler 2017, p. 148.
  27. ^ Modlinger 2015, p. 66.
  28. ^ Meyer 2013, p. 319.
  29. ^ Intrator 2007, pp. 520–521.
  30. ^ Peschel 2012, p. 227.
  31. ^ Bigler-Marschall 2017.
  32. ^ Burkhardt 1998, p. 36.

Sources

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