Egon Friedell (born Egon Friedmann; 21 January 1878,
Vienna
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
– 16 March 1938, Vienna) was a prominent
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
n
cultural historian
Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, attitudes, and habits of the individuals in these gr ...
,
playwright
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just
Readin ...
,
actor
An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...
and
Kabarett
Kabarett (; from French ''cabaret'' = tavern) is satirical revue, a form of cabaret which was developed in France by Rodolphe Salis in 1881 as the ''cabaret artistique''. It was named Le Chat Noir and was centered on political events and satire. ...
performer,
journalist
A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism.
Roles
Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...
polymath
A polymath or polyhistor is an individual whose knowledge spans many different subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. Polymaths often prefer a specific context in which to explain their knowledge, ...
. Before 1916, he was also known by his pen name Egon Friedländer.
Early life
Friedell's parents had immigrated to Vienna from the eastern parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.Bernhard Viel (2013), "Egon Friedell: Der geniale Dilettant". Friedell was the second child of
Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
parents, Moriz Friedmann and Karoline (née Eisenberger), who were running a silk manufactory in
Mariahilf
Mariahilf (; ; "Mary's help") is the 6th municipal district of Vienna, Austria (). It is near the center of Vienna and was established as a district in 1850. Mariahilf is a heavily populated urban area with many residential buildings.
Wien.gv.a ...
. His older brother, , also later became a writer and journalist.
His mother left the family for another man when he was one year old, from then on he lived with his father. The divorce was made in 1887. After his father's death in 1889, Friedell lived with his aunt in
Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...
, where he would attend school, until he was expelled for unruly behaviour three years later. Even at this young age, Friedell was considered a trouble maker and free thinker.
In 1897, he renounced Judaism and converted to the
Lutheran
Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...
faith.
He attended several schools in Austria and
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
. Whilst attending school in
Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...
in 1897, he already attended lectures on history of philosophy by Kuno Fischer.Elisabeth Flucher (2015), Traces of Immanuel Kant in Friedell’s Work. In: Violetta Waibel, Detours: Approaches to Immanuel Kant in Vienna, in Austria, and in Eastern Europe. . page 365
In 1899, he finally passed his
Abitur
''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...
(
exit examination
An exit examination is a test that students must pass to receive a diploma and graduate from school. Such examinations have been used in a variety of countries; this article focuses on their use within the United States. These are usually crite ...
) after four attempts, in
Bad Hersfeld
The festival and spa town of Bad Hersfeld (''Bad'' is "spa" in German; the Old High German name of the city was ''Herolfisfeld'') is the district seat of the Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in northeastern Hesse, Germany, roughly 50 km southeast ...
.
After graduation, he enrolled in
Heidelberg University
Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is Germany's oldest unive ...
to study under the historian of philosophy and follower of
Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealism, German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political phi ...
, Kuno Fischer.
Also in 1899, he had come of age and accepted his part of his father's inheritance. This enabled him to buy a tenement in Vienna at Gentzgasse 7, where he lived from 1900 on. This is also where he died. Neither of the brothers wanted to continue running the father's factory.
From 1900 to 1904, Egon Friedell studied philosophy and German literature in Vienna. During that time he met
Peter Altenberg
Peter Altenberg (9 March 1859 – 8 January 1919) was a writer and poet from Vienna, Austria. He played a key role in the genesis of early modernism in the city.
Biography
He was born Richard Engländer on 9 March 1859 in Vienna into a Jews, J ...
and began writing articles for ''März'' and '' Die Schaubühne''.
In 1904, he received his
PhD
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
for the dissertation on ''
Novalis
Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg (2 May 1772 – 25 March 1801), pen name Novalis (; ), was a German nobility, German aristocrat and polymath, who was a poet, novelist, philosopher and Mysticism, mystic. He is regarded as an inf ...
als Philosoph'', which he wrote under the guidance of Friedrich Jodl. His dissertation was published soon after at in Munich.
Actor, theatre critic, essayist, translator and biographer
In 1905, he started publishing texts in Karl Kraus's journal '' Die Fackel''. The first was ''Vorurteile'' (issue no. 190), which included the following statement: "The worst prejudice we acquire during our youth is the idea that life is serious. Children have the right instincts: they know that life is not serious, and treat it is a game..." In the following issue he published ''Die Lehrmittel'' and ''Das schwarze Buch'', which was co-authored with
Peter Altenberg
Peter Altenberg (9 March 1859 – 8 January 1919) was a writer and poet from Vienna, Austria. He played a key role in the genesis of early modernism in the city.
Biography
He was born Richard Engländer on 9 March 1859 in Vienna into a Jews, J ...
. Then followed by ''Zwei Skizzen: Der Panamahut & Die Bolette'' (issue 193), ''Pilatus'' (issue 201) and ''Ein Schmerzensschrei'' (issue 202). After these texts were published, he and Kraus fell out with each other.
In 1906, Friedell began
kabarett
Kabarett (; from French ''cabaret'' = tavern) is satirical revue, a form of cabaret which was developed in France by Rodolphe Salis in 1881 as the ''cabaret artistique''. It was named Le Chat Noir and was centered on political events and satire. ...
performances at venues called ''Cabaret Nachtlicht'' and '.
In 1907 he directed at ''Intimes Theater'' in Vienna, which was run by his brother, Oskar Friedmann. There, he staged plays by
August Strindberg
Johan August Strindberg (; ; 22 January 184914 May 1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist, and painter.Lane (1998), 1040. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg wrote more than 60 pla ...
,
Frank Wedekind
Benjamin Franklin Wedekind (July 24, 1864 – March 9, 1918) was a German playwright. His work, which often criticizes bourgeois attitudes (particularly towards sex), is considered to anticipate expressionism and was influential in the developme ...
and
Maurice Maeterlinck
Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck (29 August 1862 – 6 May 1949), also known as Count/Comte Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who was Flemish but wrote in French. He was awarded the 1911 Nobel Prize in ...
and brought them to the audience in Vienna for the first time. Friedell was doing lighting, acting and directing.
Between 1908 and 1910 Friedell worked as the artistic director of the ', named after the Johann Strauss operetta. Most pieces were written either by
Peter Altenberg
Peter Altenberg (9 March 1859 – 8 January 1919) was a writer and poet from Vienna, Austria. He played a key role in the genesis of early modernism in the city.
Biography
He was born Richard Engländer on 9 March 1859 in Vienna into a Jews, J ...
or jointly by Friedell and Alfred Polgar, who were nicknamed the "Polfried AG". He also was acting there. Other people involved were Oscar Straus,
Hermann Bahr
Hermann Anastas Bahr (; 19 July 1863 – 15 January 1934) was an Austrian writer, playwright, director, and critic.
Biography
Born and raised in Linz, Bahr studied in Vienna, Graz, Czernowitz and Berlin, devoting special attention to philosophy, ...
,
Franz Blei
Franz Blei (pseudonyms: Medardus, Dr. Peregrinus Steinhövel, Amadée de la Houlette, Franciscus Amadeus, Gussie Mc-Bill, Prokop Templin, Heliogabal, Nikodemus Schuster, L. O. G., Hans Adolar; January 18, 1871 July 10, 1942) was an essayist, play ...
,
Erich Mühsam
Erich Mühsam (6 April 1878 – 10 July 1934) was a German Antimilitarism, antimilitarist anarchism, anarchist essayist, poet and playwright. He emerged at the end of World War I as one of the leading agitators for a Federalism, federated Bavari ...
,
Hanns Heinz Ewers
Hanns Heinz Ewers (3 November 1871 – 12 June 1943) was a German actor, poet, philosopher, and writer of short stories and novels. While he wrote on a wide range of subjects, he is now known mainly for his works of horror, particularly his tril ...
,
Alexander Roda Roda
Alexander Friedrich Ladislaus Roda Roda (13 April 1872 – 20 August 1945) was an Austrian writer and satirist.
Biography
Roda Roda was born as Šandor Friedrich Rosenfeld in Drnowitz, Moravia, Austria-Hungary (now Drnovice, Czech Republi ...
and
Frank Wedekind
Benjamin Franklin Wedekind (July 24, 1864 – March 9, 1918) was a German playwright. His work, which often criticizes bourgeois attitudes (particularly towards sex), is considered to anticipate expressionism and was influential in the developme ...
.
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), better known as Fritz Lang (), was an Austrian-born film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety Obituari ...
described his impressions of the Fledermaus: "There, amid Jugendstil decor, Kokoschka mounted his Indian fairy tale "Des getupfte Ei" The Dotted Egg"on slides, writer Alfred Polgar ..read his short prose and caustic commentary, and Friedell and other authors of rising repute presented their sketches and short plays."
During this time, Friedell continued to publish essays and one-act plays. His first literary effort was ''Der Petroleumkönig'' (Petrol king) in 1908. The
parody
A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satire, satirical or irony, ironic imitation. Often its subject is an Originality, original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, e ...
''Goethe im Examen'', written jointly Alfred Polgar, in which he also played the leading role, made him famous in German speaking countries and got mentioned in the Sunday Times. He played this role repeatedly until 1938. Also in that time he wrote ''Soldatenleben im Frieden''.
In 1910, Friedell was commissioned by publisher Samuel Fischer to write a biography of the poet
Peter Altenberg
Peter Altenberg (9 March 1859 – 8 January 1919) was a writer and poet from Vienna, Austria. He played a key role in the genesis of early modernism in the city.
Biography
He was born Richard Engländer on 9 March 1859 in Vienna into a Jews, J ...
. Fischer, who had expected something light, was unsatisfied with Friedell's analysis and critique of culture titled ''Ecce poeta'', and the book was not promoted in any way. Hence, the book was a commercial failure, but served to mark the beginning of Friedell's interest in
cultural history
Cultural history records and interprets past events involving human beings through the social, cultural, and political milieu of or relating to the arts and manners that a group favors. Jacob Burckhardt (1818–1897) helped found cultural history ...
.
He frequented the so called "literary cafés" among the
Viennese coffee house
The Viennese coffee house (, ) is a typical institution of Vienna that played an important part in shaping Viennese culture.
Since October 2011 the "Viennese Coffee House Culture" is listed as an " Intangible Cultural Heritage" in the Austrian ...
s, notably the Café Central, where many notable people were patrons and where he got acquainted and befriended with many of them.
In 1912, Friedell went to
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
, wrote and performed in cabarets. In 1913, he temporarily worked as an actor for director
Max Reinhardt
Max Reinhardt (; born Maximilian Goldmann; 9 September 1873 – 30 October 1943) was an Austrian-born Theatre director, theatre and film director, theater manager, intendant, and theatrical producer. With his radically innovative and avant-gard ...
.
In 1914, suffering from alcoholism and obesity, Friedell was forced to undergo treatment at a
sanatorium
A sanatorium (from Latin '' sānāre'' 'to heal'), also sanitarium or sanitorium, is a historic name for a specialised hospital for the treatment of specific diseases, related ailments, and convalescence.
Sanatoriums are often in a health ...
near
Munich
Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
. Friedell was enthusiastic about the beginning of
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, as were many of his contemporaries, and volunteered for military service but was rejected for physical reasons.
In 1916, he officially changed his name to ''Friedell''.
Friedell published the ''Judas Tragedy'' in 1920 and it was staged at the
Burgtheater
The Burgtheater (; literally: "Castle Theater" but alternatively translated as "(Imperial) Court Theater", originally known as '' K.K. Theater an der Burg'', then until 1918 as the ''K.K. Hofburgtheater'', is the national theater of Austria in ...
in 1923.
In 1922 published ''Quarry — Miscellaneous Opinions and Quotations''.
In 1924, while working as a critic for the journal ''Stunde'', Friedell was fired as a "traitor", for making satirical remarks.
Between 1919 and 1924, Friedell worked as a journalist and theatre critic for various publishers including ''Die Schaubühne'', ''Der Merker'' and ''Neues Wiener Journal''.
Between 1924 and 1927 he was
ensemble cast
In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that comprises many principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17
Structure
In contrast to the po ...
at the
Theater in der Josefstadt
The Theater in der Josefstadt is a theater in Vienna in the eighth district of Josefstadt. It was founded in 1788 and is the oldest still performing theater in Vienna. It is often referred to colloquially as simply ''Die Josefstadt''.
Following ...
in Vienna, which was directed by
Max Reinhardt
Max Reinhardt (; born Maximilian Goldmann; 9 September 1873 – 30 October 1943) was an Austrian-born Theatre director, theatre and film director, theater manager, intendant, and theatrical producer. With his radically innovative and avant-gard ...
. There he played, amongst others, roles in ''
The Servant of Two Masters
''The Servant of Two Masters'' () is a comedy by the Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni written in 1746. Goldoni originally wrote the play at the request of actor Antonio Sacco, one of the great Harlequins in history. His earliest drafts had larg ...
'', ''
Fanny's First Play
''Fanny's First Play'' is a 1911 play by George Bernard Shaw. It was first performed as an anonymous piece, the authorship of which was to be kept secret. However, critics soon recognised it as the work of Shaw. It opened at the Little Theatre ...
'', ''
Intrigue and Love
''Intrigue and Love'', sometimes ''Love and Intrigue'', ''Love and Politics'', or ''Luise Miller'' (, ; literally "''Cabal and Love''") is a five-act Play (theatre), play written by the German dramatist Friedrich Schiller. His third play, it was ...
'', ''
The Merchant of Venice
''The Merchant of Venice'' is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. A merchant in Venice named Antonio defaults on a large loan taken out on behalf of his dear friend, Bassanio, and provided by a ...
''. He played with famous actors such as Hans Moser and
Heinz Rühmann
Heinrich Wilhelm "Heinz" Rühmann (; 7 March 1902 – 3 October 1994) was a German film actor who appeared in over 100 films between 1926 and 1993. He is one of the most famous and popular German actors of the 20th century, and is considered a Ge ...
.
After 1927, health problems prevented any permanent commissions, and he worked as an independent essayist, editor and
translator
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...
in Vienna.
Among the authors Friedell translated were
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionism, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalism, Transcendentalist movement of th ...
,
Christian Friedrich Hebbel
Christian Friedrich Hebbel (18 March 1813 – 13 December 1863) was a German poet and dramatist.
Biography
Hebbel was born at Wesselburen in Dithmarschen, Holstein, the son of a bricklayer. He was educated at the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums ...
in 1909,
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (; 1 July 1742 – 24 February 1799) was a German physicist, satirist, and Anglophile. He was the first person in Germany to hold a professorship explicitly dedicated to experimental physics. He is remembered for his p ...
,
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian, and philosopher. Known as the "Sage writing, sage of Chelsea, London, Chelsea", his writings strongly influenced the intellectual and artistic culture of the V ...
and
Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogue (literature), travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales.
Andersen's fai ...
in 1914,
Johann Nestroy
Johann Nepomuk Eduard Ambrosius Nestroy (; 7 December 1801 – 25 May 1862) was a singer, actor and playwright in the popular Austrian tradition of the Biedermeier period and its immediate aftermath. He participated in the 1848 revolutions and ...
, and
Thomas Babington Macaulay
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, (; 25 October 1800 – 28 December 1859) was an English historian, poet, and Whig politician, who served as the Secretary at War between 1839 and 1841, and as the Paymaster General between 184 ...
in 1924.
During his life he published 22 works with 15 different publishers. Additionally, he wrote for 17 different journals and newspapers. Since 1937, he worked on two unfinished books, which only were left as sketches: ''History of Philosophy'' and ''Novel on Alexander the Great''.
Cultural history
Cultural History of the Modern Age
During the early 1920s, Friedell wrote the three volumes of his ''Cultural History of the Modern Age'', which describes events from the
Black Death
The Black Death was a bubonic plague pandemic that occurred in Europe from 1346 to 1353. It was one of the list of epidemics, most fatal pandemics in human history; as many as people perished, perhaps 50% of Europe's 14th century population. ...
to
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
in an
anecdotal
Anecdotal evidence (or anecdata) is evidence based on descriptions and reports of individual, personal experiences, or observations, collected in a non- systematic manner.
The term ''anecdotal'' encompasses a variety of forms of evidence. This ...
format. In 1925, publisher Hermann Ullstein received the first volume, but was suspicious of the historiography of an actor. Five other publishers subsequently rejected the book. The first volume was finally published by Heinrich Beck in Munich in 1927 and the following two volumes in 1928 and 1931. His approach to history was influenced by
Oswald Spengler
Oswald Arnold Gottfried Spengler (29 May 1880 – 8 May 1936) was a German polymath whose areas of interest included history, philosophy, mathematics, science, and art, as well as their relation to his organic theory of history. He is best know ...
and
Jacob Burckhardt
Carl Jacob Christoph Burckhardt (; ; 25 May 1818 – 8 August 1897) was a Swiss historian of art and culture and an influential figure in the historiography of both fields. His best known work is '' The Civilization of the Renaissance in ...
.
For instance, Friedell writes; "All the classifications man has ever devised are arbitrary, artificial, and false, but simple reflection also shows that such classifications are useful, indispensable, and above all unavoidable since they accord with an innate aspect of our thinking." Friedell summed up the
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon, Napol ...
as: "the Tsar of Russia falls in love for everyone; the King of Prussia thinks for everyone, the King of Denmark speaks for everyone; the King of Bavaria drinks for everyone; the King of Württemberg eats for everyone … and the Emperor of Austria pays for everyone."British Government. Foreign & Commonwealth Office, 18 December 2012. Speech - The Foreign Office, one of the great offices of state. by William Hague, Foreign Secretary /ref>
''A Cultural History of Antiquity''
Friedell's ''A Cultural History of Antiquity'' was planned in three volumes. Because his publisher in Germany Heinrich Beck was, since 1935, not allowed to publish any of his works, the first volume on ''Cultural History of Egypt's Land and of the Ancient Orient'' was published in 1936 by the Helikon-Verlag in
Zürich
Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...
.
The second volume ''Cultural History of Ancient Greece'' was unfinished and published in Munich in 1950. Due to his death, he couldn't write the third volume on ''Cultural History of the Romans''.
Censorship and suicide
In 1933, when the
Nazis
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
came to power in Germany, Friedell described the regime as: "the realm of the Antichrist. Every trace of nobility, piety, education, reason is persecuted in the most hateful and base manner by a bunch of debased menials".
In 1937, Friedell's works were banned by the National Socialist regime as they did not conform to the theory of history promoted by the
NSDAP
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor, the German Workers ...
, and all German and Austrian publishers refused to publish his works.
On the occasion of the
Anschluss
The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938.
The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...
of Austria, anti-semitism was rampant: Jewish men and women were being beaten in the streets and their businesses and
synagogues
A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as wed ...
ransacked or destroyed. Friedell, knowing that he could be arrested by the
Gestapo
The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
, began to contemplate ending his own life. Friedell told his close friend,
Ödön von Horváth
Edmund Josef von Horváth (9 December 1901 – 1 June 1938) was an Austro-Hungarian playwright and novelist who wrote in German, and went by the ''nom de plume'' Ödön von Horváth (). He was one of the most critically admired writers of his g ...
, in a letter written on 11 March: "I am always ready to leave, in every sense."
On 16 March 1938, at about 22:00, two SA men arrived at Friedell's house to arrest him. Different accounts of the circumstances of his death have been given. In one version Friedell, aged 60, committed suicide by jumping out of the window. Before leaping, he had warned pedestrians walking on the sideway where he hit by shouting "Watch out! Get out of the way!" Recent research relying on information given by one of Friedell's nephews states that the writer, fatally wounded by the SA, fell out of the window.
Egon Friedell, of whom Hilde Spiel said "in him, the exhilarating fiction of the
homo universalis
A polymath or polyhistor is an individual whose knowledge spans many different subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. Polymaths often prefer a specific context in which to explain their knowledge, ...
rose once again", was interred in the protestant cemetery in Simmering in Vienna.
In 1954, a street in Vienna was named after him. In 1978, the Austrian postal service issued a stamp with his portrait in celebration of his 100th birthday. In 2005, his grave was given the honor of becoming an Ehrengrab.
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, prolific in many genres. He wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, hist ...
'
The Time Machine
''The Time Machine'' is an 1895 dystopian post-apocalyptic science fiction novella by H. G. Wells about a Victorian scientist known as the Time Traveller who travels to the year 802,701. The work is generally credited with the popularizati ...
, translated by Eddy C Bertin into English and republished as The Return of the Time Machine
* ''Kulturgeschichte des Altertums'', 1949
* ''Das Altertum war nicht antik'', 1950
* ''Kleine Porträtgalerie,'' 1953
* ''Abschaffung des Genies. Essays bis 1918'', 1984
* ''Selbstanzeige. Essays ab 1918'', 1985