Neue Freie Presse
- The Birthday of the Republic
- Memories of Emile Verhaeren
- THE HOLY MOUNTAIN
On the Republic's anniversary, the Neue Freie Presse opened with an editorial arguing that the Republic's birthday called for honest truths rather than rose-tinted lies. The young state, it warned, was in great danger: it had not yet become an intellectual tradition, yet it already showed signs of age and exhaustion. Lower on the page, Stefan Zweig recalled Emile Verhaeren's quiet, free life and described his poetry as an unceasing yes to the present, the city, nature, people and himself. An advertisement announced Der heilige Berg, billed as a drama of the forces of nature, with Leni Riefenstahl, Frida Richard and the famous ski masters Luis Trenker and Hannes Schneider.
Translation
The Birthday of the Republic.
The Republic needs no rose-tinted lies on the festival of its birth. Truth, even the most painful truth, is the commandment of honest allegiance. The Republic is in great danger. It is very young and is still far from having become an intellectual tradition, yet at the same time it already shows signs of age and exhaustion.
Memories of Emile Verhaeren.
By Stefan Zweig.
So quietly and freely did this life go on, and he loved it and loved this love of his. His poetry: what is it, in the end, but the unceasing yes of his existence to all its particulars, the yes to the present, to the city, to nature, to people and to himself?
THE HOLY MOUNTAIN
The drama of the forces of nature THE HOLY MOUNTAIN with LENE RIEFENSTHAL, FRIEDA RICHARD and the two famous ski masters L. TRENKER, HANNES SCHNEIDER. Director: Dr. Arnold Fauck.
Context
The Republic's origins in November 1918 and 1919–1920
The editorial treats 12 November as the Republic's festival of birth, a date that follows directly on the end of the monarchy: the Emperor signed a declaration of abdication on 11 November 1918, and Ignaz Seipel, still an imperial minister at the time, helped formulate it. The new state first called itself German-Austria, but the Treaty of Saint-Germain of 1919 forbade union with Germany without the consent of the League of Nations, and with that route closed German-Austria changed its official name to the Republic of Austria. Its constitution was enacted on 1 October 1920 and amended in December 1929. In November 1926 the Republic was therefore only about eight years old, which is the background to the editorial's remark that it was very young and far from being an intellectual tradition.
Economic hardship and League of Nations supervision
The editorial's picture of a state that was young yet already showed signs of age and exhaustion was written against a hard economic history. After the peace settlement Austria was a small, landlocked country of about 6.5 million people, and Vienna, with almost 2 million inhabitants, was left as an imperial capital without an empire to feed it. In 1922 Chancellor Seipel sought foreign loans and introduced austerity to deal with post-war inflation. The protocol of 4 October 1922 between Austria and the governments of the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Czechoslovakia provided for a gradual reconstruction of the Austrian economy under League of Nations supervision. The budget was stabilized over the next two years, and international supervision of Austria's finances ended only in March 1926, eight months before this anniversary editorial.
Seipel's return and the polarized politics of 1926–1927
Ignaz Seipel, chairman of the Christian Social Party from 1921 to 1930, was again Chancellor from 1926 to 1929, fighting in particular against the Social Democrats. Politics was fractious and violent, with the Social Democrats' Republikanischer Schutzbund and the right-wing Heimwehr confronting each other as paramilitary forces. In the months after this editorial the conflict turned bloody: on 14 July 1927 the men who had fired at Schattendorf were acquitted, left-wing supporters began a massive protest, and the police and army killed 89 people and injured 600. By 1927 Seipel himself, disillusioned with democracy, was advocating its replacement by a clerical authoritarian system. The editorial's author could not know this course of events, but the warning that the Republic was in great danger was written on the eve of this escalation.
Stefan Zweig and the Neue Freie Presse feuilleton
The Verhaeren reminiscence came from one of the paper's own feuilleton writers: Stefan Zweig wrote for the Neue Freie Presse and in his book The World of Yesterday called it the oracle of his fathers. Zweig described the paper as an arbiter of literary judgment for the entire Viennese bourgeoisie, for whom important works were those that won praise in its pages. On this front page Zweig's lyrical tribute to a poet's yes to the city, nature and people stood on the same sheet as an editorial on the Republic's dangers, which shows how the paper combined political argument with cultural authority. The excerpt offers a portrait rather than a biography: it presents Verhaeren's poetry as a continuous affirmation of existence in all its details.
Der heilige Berg and Riefenstahl's screen debut
Der heilige Berg is a 1926 German mountain film directed by Arnold Fanck, starring Leni Riefenstahl, Luis Trenker and Frida Richard, and it was Riefenstahl's first screen appearance as an actress. Hannes Schneider, billed in the advertisement alongside Trenker as a famous ski master, played the mountain guide. The film cost 1.5 million reichsmarks and was one of UFA's most expensive releases in a year otherwise marked by retrenchment. Its German release came on 17 December 1926, in the Christmas season, but its Austrian release is dated to November 1926, which fits this Vienna advertisement. In Berlin, sold-out performances extended its premiere run for five weeks, although some critics were not impressed.
Original
Der Geburtstag der Republik.
Die Republik bedarf keiner rosenroten Lügen an ihrem Wiegenfest. Wahrheit, und sei es auch die peinlichste, ist das Gebot ehrlicher Gefolgschaft. Die Republik ist in einer großen Gefahr. Sie ist sehr jung und noch lange nicht geistige Tradition geworden, aber zu gleicher Zeit hat sie schon Merkmale des Alters und der Erschlaffung.
Erinnerungen an Emile Verhaeren.
So still und frei ging dieses Leben und er liebte es und liebte diese seine Liebe. Seine Dichtung, was ist sie im Letzten anderes, als das unablässige Jasagen seiner Existenz zu allen ihren Einzelheiten, das Ja zur Gegenwart, zur Stadt, zur Natur, zu den Menschen und zu sich selbst.
DER HEILIGE BERG
Das Drama der Naturgewalten DER HEILIGE BERG mit LENE RIEFENSTHAL FRIEDA RICHARD und den beiden berühmten Skimeistern L. TRENKER HANNES SCHNEIDER Regie: Dr. Arnold Fauck.