“For Vienna I don’t exist.” The Berlin Critic Leo Berg and the Press of the Metropolis upon Danube Cover Image

„Für Wien existiere ich litterarisch noch gar nicht.“ Der Berliner Kritiker Leo Berg und die Presse der Donaumetropole
“For Vienna I don’t exist.” The Berlin Critic Leo Berg and the Press of the Metropolis upon Danube

Author(s): Peter Sprengel
Subject(s): History
Published by: AV ČR - Akademie věd České republiky - Masarykův ústav
Keywords: Berlin modernism; Viennese modernism; censorship; Women’s movement; antisemitism; Friedrich Nietzsche; cultural pessimism

Summary/Abstract: Berlin critic Leo Berg’s (1862–1908) cooperation in the Viennese magazine Die Zeit is an example of the differences and exchange relations between Berlin and Viennese modernity. In spite of his former friendship with the “pope” of Viennese modernity, Hermann Bahr, during the former’s editorship Bahr publishes only three articles in Zeit. These cause partly offence to the censorship or the literary women's movement. One last contribution of 1899 discusses Nietzsche’s philosophy. Anti-Semitism probably also stood in the way of a stronger effect of the German Jewish critic in Vienna, expressing itself in a Viennese criticism of his book Der Übermensch in der modernen Literatur. In letters to the Viennese critic Moriz Necker, Berg from a cultural-pessimistic point of view picks out as a central theme his difficulties to gain a stronger foothold in the Viennese press scene.

  • Issue Year: 2/2010
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 59-73
  • Page Count: 15
  • Language: German