Frank Knopfelmacher (

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. ...

, 3 February 1923 –

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, 17 May 1995) was a Czech Jew who migrated to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

in 1955 and became a

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

lecturer and

anticommunist Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism, communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global ...

political commentator A pundit is a person who offers opinion in an authoritative manner on a particular subject area (typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport), usually through the mass media. The term pundit describes both women and men, altho ...

at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

. He engaged in vigorous polemics with many members of the left-wing intelligentsia from the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

period onwards, and through his teaching had a formative impact on many Australian postwar thinkers and writers such as

Raimond Gaita Raimond "Rai" Gaita (born Raimund Joseph Gaita; 14 May 1946) is a German-born Australian philosopher and writer, best known for his 1998 biography about his early life, titled '' Romulus, My Father''. He was foundation professor of philosophy a ...

and Robert Manne.

Early life

Knopfelmacher was born into an upper-middle-class Czech Jewish family in

and enjoyed a happy childhood until 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 ...

'', the annexation of Austria in 1938. Recognizing that his life was in danger, he fled the country in November 1939 with other members of a

Zionist Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

youth group and joined a

kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

. In January 1942, he joined the Communist Party and spent the remainder of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

as a member of the Free Czech Forces, attached to the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

. Every member of his family in Vienna was murdered in

the Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

, where he had returned in 1945, had been taken over by the Communists. Reading

Arthur Koestler Arthur Koestler (, ; ; ; 5 September 1905 – 1 March 1983) was an Austria-Hungary, Austro-Hungarian-born author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest, and was educated in Austria, apart from his early school years. In 1931, Koestler j ...

's ''

Darkness at Noon ''Darkness at Noon'' (, ) is a novel by Austrian-Hungarian-born novelist Arthur Koestler, first published in 1940. His best known work, it is the tale of Rubashov, an Old Bolshevik who is arrested, imprisoned, and tried for treason against the ...

'' had soured his opinion of them, and he used money from his family estate to bribe officials into letting him flee to

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. He thereafter detested the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, while continuing to revere

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

as a man, whom, as late as July 1983, he defended, in a '' Quadrant'' article).

Academic career

Knopfelmacher completed a doctorate in philosophy and psychology at the

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...

. In 1955, he moved to Melbourne and took up a lectureship at University of Melbourne's Psychology Department. Few outside professional circles had heard of him until 1965, when he applied and was approved for a post in political philosophy at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

but had his appointment blocked, in what became a front-page ''cause célèbre'', by the University Senate. The Senate considered Knopfelmacher's published criticisms of

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, and its apologists, to be unduly strong meat. He had written of Melbourne leftists that "like rats, they wish to operate in the dark" (''Twentieth Century'' magazine, Volume 18, 1964). Those firmly supporting him included

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

philosopher

David Malet Armstrong David Malet Armstrong (8 July 1926 – 13 May 2014), often D. M. Armstrong, was an Australian philosopher. He is well known for his work on metaphysics and the philosophy of mind, and for his defence of a factualist ontology, a function ...

, who called Knopfelmacher "a man fatally ahead of his time by a few years. A short time afterwards academic rebels were saying pretty much anything they liked, how they liked, about their opponents. If anyone tried to censure them or impede their careers as a result of this, the shouts that their academic freedom had been violated were deafening. To Knopfelmacher, however...

Saki Hector Hugh Munro (18 December 1870 – 14 November 1916), popularly known by his pen name Saki and also frequently as H. H. Munro, was a British writer whose witty, mischievous and sometimes macabre stories satirise Edwardian society and ...

's saying applied: it is the first Christian martyr who gets the hungriest lion."

Association with right-wing figures

Catholic activist B.A. Santamaria stated (in his 1969 book ''Point of View'') that, compared with Knopfelmacher's opponents, "

Pontius Pilate Pontius Pilate (; ) was the Roman administration of Judaea (AD 6–135), fifth governor of the Judaea (Roman province), Roman province of Judaea, serving under Emperor Tiberius from 26/27 to 36/37 AD. He is best known for being the official wh ...

was an amateur!". During the late 1960s Knopfelmacher (still lecturing at Melbourne University) became de facto academic leader of those usually associated with the Santamaria-controlled Peace With Freedom group, who favoured continuing Australian military involvement in the

. He became a strong proponent of the controversial drive for Australian conscription and the method of conscription by lottery. When, in 1972, Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War ended (with the election of the

Whitlam government The Whitlam government was the federal executive government of Australia led by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam of the Australian Labor Party. The government commenced when Labor defeated the McMahon government at the 1972 Australian federal elect ...

), Knopfelmacher's long-standing intellectual unpredictability became more pronounced. He turned vehemently against Santamaria. In ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'' on 7 April 1984, he likened Santamaria's treatment of trade-union opponents to

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...

's treatment of

Trotskyists Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as a ...

; this assertion was clearly libellous, but Santamaria refused to press charges. The previous year (''Quadrant'', October 1983), Knopfelmacher had directed some of his most sarcastic prose against Santamaria's supporters among conservative Catholic activists. His self-contradictions did not end there. In 1977, he had proclaimed, in an article in the short lived Sydney magazine ''

Nation Review ''Nation Review'' was an Australian Sunday newspaper, which ceased publication in 1981. It was launched in 1972 after independent publisher Gordon Barton bought out Tom Fitzgerald (economist), Tom Fitzgerald's ''Nation (Australia), Nation'' publ ...

'', that "Australia is a deeply racist nation" and lauded Indochinese refugee arrivals, viewing their acceptance by the immigration authorities as a debt of honour that Australia owed to its defeated allies. Within five years he executed a complete ''volte-face'' in condemning

multiculturalism Multiculturalism is the coexistence of multiple cultures. The word is used in sociology, in political philosophy, and colloquially. In sociology and everyday usage, it is usually a synonym for ''Pluralism (political theory), ethnic'' or cultura ...

in sharp terms and calling it an "ethnic cauldron" (''The Bulletin'', 24 March 1981) and "a banana republic of squabbling and mutually resentful expatriated mini-cultures, each with its own special bunch of ethnic ..führers" ( Robert Manne d. ''The New Conservatism in Australia'', St Lucia, Queensland, 1982). Elsewhere he described multiculturalism as a racket, an industry scrambling for government grants.Norman Abjorensen, (1995), A key figure in a puzzling era
''The Canberra Times'', 19 May 1995, p.13.
Accessed 16 March 2018. From 1979, he denounced (especially in letters to

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

's '' Encounter'' magazine) John Bennett, the secretary of the Victorian Council for Civil Liberties, for disseminating

Holocaust denial Historical negationism, Denial of the Holocaust is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that asserts that the genocide of Jews by the Nazi Party, Nazis is a fabrication or exaggeration. It includes making one or more of the following false claims: ...

literature. Yet by 1989 he was arguing vituperatively with Jews who publicly advocated a national war crimes statute. For all his admiration of Koestler and

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to a ...

, Knopfelmacher wrote far less than either man, and his hardcover bibliography amounted to one 1968 reflection, ''Intellectuals and Politics''. (A promised full-length memoir remains in manuscript, but a brief account of his political education appeared in the 1981 anthology ''Twenty-Five Years of Quadrant''.) In his last years Knopfelmacher mended fences with Santamaria, who, from the early 1990s, deliberately sought reconciliations with ex-Cabinet Minister Clyde Cameron and other erstwhile foes.Bill Guy, ''A Life on the Left: A Biography of Clyde Cameron'' (Adelaide: Wakefield Press, 1999), pp. 154-157

Personal life

Knopfelmacher married fellow refugee Jarmila "Jacka" Pick in 1944. She succumbed in 1968 to an especially cruel and protracted form of

multiple sclerosis Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease resulting in damage to myelinthe insulating covers of nerve cellsin the brain and spinal cord. As a demyelinating disease, MS disrupts the nervous system's ability to Action potential, transmit ...

. In 1970, Knopfelmacher wed Australian teacher Susan Robinson; the couple had two children. His protracted, usually free-wheeling, invariably slanderous late-night telephone monologues (visited alike upon associates and, more often, antagonists) retained a mythic status for decades among Australian intellectuals, not least for their superabundant four-letter words, which evoked the heyday of

Kenneth Tynan Kenneth Peacock Tynan (2 April 1927 – 26 July 1980) was an English theatre critic and writer. Initially making his mark as a critic at ''The Observer'', he praised John Osborne's ''Look Back in Anger'' (1956) and encouraged the emerging wave ...

and Berkeley's Filthy Speech Movement. He died on 17 May 1995 after incurring severe injuries in a road accident following a meeting with

Václav Havel Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and dissident. Havel served as the last List of presidents of Czechoslovakia, president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until 1992, prior to the dissol ...

. In his obituary Robert Manne wrote that Knopfelmacher was "one of the most brilliant and influential political writers and teachers in the postwar history of Melbourne University".Robert Manne, "A life of Right over wrong", ''

'', 19 May 1995, p. 14.

References

Selected bibliography

* (1958) Paths to peace ook Review ''Quadrant'' 2, 93-96. * (1958) The threat to academic freedom. ''Quadrant'' 2, 17-26. * (1959) On tolerance. Q''uadrant'' 3, 5-13. * (1959) The poverty of historicism ook Review ''Quadrant'' 3, 104. ''See also:'' The Poverty of Historicism * (1960) The causes of world war three ook Review ''Quadrant'' 4, 87-88. * (1962) Conscience and freedom. ''Quadrant'' 6, 29-36. * (1967) The consequences of Israel. ''Quadrant'' 11, 55-64. * (1967) The most important problems. ''Quadrant'' 11, 57-63. * (1967) My political education. ''Quadrant'' 11, 17-33. * (1968) There are no youth movements. ''Quadrant'' 12, 27-30. * (1968) ''Intellectuals and Politics: And Other Essays'', Thomas Nelson, Melbourne * (1969) The fourth world. ''Quadrant'' 13, 38-45. * (1969) University reform. ''Quadrant'' 13, 41-50. * (1973) The rise and fall of Anti-communism. ''Quadrant'' 17, 66-79. * (1976) Koestler at 70. ''Quadrant'' 20, 41-46. * (1978) Among the fleshpots - Solzhenitsyn and the west. ''Quadrant'' 22, 9-10. * (1978) The coming madness (Book review). ''Quadrant'' 22, 74-75. * (1979) Keeping the great in Britain. ''Bulletin'' (Sydney) 92,94,96. * (1981) Migrants: beware of the cauldron. ''Bulletin'' (Sydney) 38,40. * (1982) Arthur Koestler: The mole of god. ''Quadrant'' 26, 11-19. * (1982) The case against multi-culturalism. The New Conservatism in Australia. 40-64. * (1983) As I please: Black propaganda in Australia. ''Quadrant'' 27, 7-8. * (1983) As I please: In (mild) defence of Karl Marx. ''Quadrant'' 27, 7-8. * (1983) As I please: Our central weakness. ''Quadrant'' 27, 8-10. * (1983) As I please: Social emancipation of women of Australia. ''Quadrant'' 27, 9-11. * (1983) As I please: The Hawke Regime. ''Quadrant'' 27, 6-7. * (1983) As I please: Traitor Burchett. ''Quadrant'' 27, 7-8. * (1984) The banality of evil. -Book review. ''Quadrant'' 28, 64-66. * (1984) Boring for women (with apologies to Malcolm Muggeridge). -The possible effects of Jewish neo conservatism on the feminist debate. ''Quadrant'' 28, 65-66. * (1984) Has America recovered?. -Has America's defeat in Indochina shaken both power and morale? ''Quadrant'' 28, 67-68. * (1984) The multicultural enterprise and its consequences. ''Quadrant'' 28, 9-11. * (1984) The new model subversives. ''Quadrant'' 28, 15-16. * (1984l) Nineteen eighty-four. ''Quadrant'' 28, 5-7. * (1984) Pilatology. -Pontius Pilate. ''Quadrant'' 28, 8-10. * (1984) What Moscow wants. ''Quadrant'' 28, 7-8. * (1985) Against forgetting. -Discussion of ideas in John P. Roche's 'The history and impact of Marxist Leninist organizational theory' and their implications for the United States and Australia. ''Quadrant'' 29, 73-75. * (1985) Bitburg: a very personal comment. -on Jews who capitalise on the Holocaust but weren't directly involved. ''Quadrant'' 29, 38-39. * (1985) For whom the bell tolls. ''Quadrant'' 29, 75-76. * (1985) For whom the bell tolls: South Africa, Australia and Israel. ''Quadrant'' 29, 75-76. * (1985) Gulag fields. ''Quadrant'' 29, 59. * (1985) It can't happen here?: Defecting from the free world. ''Quadrant'' 29, 51-52. * (1985) Oceania, tis for thee. ''Quadrant'' 29, 36-37. * (1985) Peace with freedom. ''Quadrant'' 29, 55-56. * (1985) Stalin's daughter. ''Quadrant'' 29, 84-85. * (1985) Wilfred Burchett's treason. ''Quadrant'' 29, 32. * (1986) After the Geneva summit. ''Quadrant'' 30, 88-90. * (1987) The unquiet life of Sidney Hook. ''Quadrant'' 31, 8-14. * (1989) The Vietnam debate revisited: a perspective from the 1990s. ''Quadrant'' 33, 14-17. * (1990) Bangs and whimpers: The Soviet crisis. ''Quadrant'' 34, 25-28. * (1997) The threat to academic freedom. In 'The Oxford Book of Australian Essays.' (ed) Imre Salusinszky, OUP, Melbourne () pp. 150–155.

Early life

Academic career

Association with right-wing figures

Personal life

References

Selected bibliography

Further reading