Otto Weiniger
Weiniger was born in austria into a jewish family. His father was a goldsmith and his mother a houswife. After attending primary school and graduating from secondary school in July 1898, Weininger registered at the University of Vienna in October of the same year. He studied philosophy and psychology but took courses in natural sciences and medicine as well. Weininger learned Greek, Latin, French and English very early, later also Spanish and Italian, and acquired passive knowledge of Swedish, Danish and Norwegian. After his PhD he converted to protestant christianity
In 1902 Weininger went to Bayreuth, where he witnessed a performance of Richard Wagner's Parsifal, which left him deeply impressed. Via Dresden and Copenhagen he made his way to Christiania (Oslo), where he saw for the first time Henrik Ibsen's liberation drama Peer Gynt on stage. Upon his return to Vienna Weininger suffered from fits of deep depression. The decision to take his own life gradually took shape; after a long discussion with his friend Artur Gerber, however, Weininger realized that "it is not yet time".
Artur Gerber later recalled: "His appearance was strange. The gaunt figure seemed stiff, lacking in all flexibility and grace. The movements, often awkward, clumsy, were mostly abrupt and sudden." And Stefan Zweig described his encounter with Weininger as "passing an inconspicuous person": "He always looked like he had taken a thirty-hour train ride, dirty, tired, crumpled, walked around crookedly and embarrassed, as it were pressing against an invisible wall, and the mouth under the thin little mustache somehow twisted itself crookedly. His eyes (my friends told me later) are said to have been beautiful: I never saw them because he always looked past you (even when I spoke to him, I didn't feel them facing me for a second): all this I only understood later from the irritated feeling of inferiority, the Russian criminal feeling of the self-tormented.”
After months of concentrated work, Gender and Character appeared in June 1903 - a fundamental study that sought to put the "relationship of the sexes" in a "new light" - by the Viennese publishing house Braumüller & Co. It was the text of Weininger's doctoral thesis, still at three crucial chapters, in which Weininger developed his tendencies towards anti-Semitism, misogyny and unrestrained metaphysics unchecked: "The essence of woman and its meaning in the universe", "Judaism", "Woman and humanity".
Weininger laid out the sum of his life on 600 pages. It was the construct of a hatred of women, to which Judaism also fell victim, since it "seems steeped in femininity". Weininger saw a threat in both women and Jews: sexuality, guilt, only body and matter, devoid of any spirit, soul or morality. Both oppressed and tormented him deep inside. In his mind, redemption was only promised by a genius, the epitome of the masculine. Weininger saw its highest form in the religious founder.
Back in Vienna he spent his last five days with his parents. On 3 October he took a room in the house at Schwarzspanierstraße 15, where Ludwig van Beethoven had died. He told the landlady that he was not to be disturbed before morning, since he planned to work and then to go to bed late. That night he wrote two letters, one to his father and the other to his brother Richard, telling them that he was going to shoot himself.
On 4 October Weininger was found mortally wounded, having shot himself in the chest. He died in the Wiener Allgemeines Krankenhaus (Vienna General Hospital) and was buried in the Matzleinsdorf Protestant Cemetery in Vienna.
Gender and character is one of the classic documents of Viennese modernism. The work appears, similar to Houston Stewart Chamberlain's "Foundations of the 19th Century", with a universal claim to interpretation. The focus is on the gender issue.
In his main work, Weininger revealed a sharp rejection of everything Jewish and at the same time proved himself to be an advocate of an attitude that was hostile to women and the body. The values of higher life are just as inaccessible to women as the world of ideas. The more feminine the woman, the more she embodies a purely mindless lust. Only through the man does the woman receive a second-hand life.
Weininger connects this with anti-Semitic views: the Jew, he claims, is "always lascivious and horny" because of his "feminine" essence; “the born communist”; "a matchmaker" by nature and not actually pious as he "can't believe at all". Still, a little hope dawned. The Jewish non-existence would be the “condition before being” and therefore the Jews would have to “fight against themselves, inwardly conquer Judaism” in order to become human beings, i.e. men. Also Jesus Christ “was a Jew, but only in order to most completely overcome Judaism in himself”. Therefore, "he is the greatest human being" who would have conquered his "special original sin" - namely being a Jew - through the "complete negation" of his being. Judaism seemed to Weininger steeped in femininity. From this he derived the equation that "the Jew" is a woman. Since both women and Jews are only sexuality, only body and matter, devoid of any spirit, soul or morality and incapable of sexual asceticism, they pose a threat. According to Weininger, society must overcome the female elements and adapt to the male orientate. He calls for a new humanity constructed on a new masculinity.
Weininger attempted to define male and female based on the assumption that all living things contain a proportion of both. Female or male never occurs in their pure form, but always in a mixture. Weininger placed the masculine at one end of a scale. In the concept of woman and instinct on the one hand and man and spirit on the other hand, he assigned a mental and moral inferiority to the female. Feminine is not capable of any mental orientation or creative productivity. He also assigned masculine and feminine traits to various movements and concepts. For him, Judaism was strongly female-dominated, while Christianity had more male traits.
Weininger's remarks on Judaism form one of the most effective literary versions of anti-Jewish ideology in the history of modern anti-Semitism. In his description of "the Jew" he chooses categories of extreme negativity. Stereotypes, borrowed from anti-Semitic propaganda, are used to label "Judaism" versus Christianity. Weininger often appeals to anti-Semitic resentments through his formulations. Judaism is one of the most important disruptive factors in the social order. Christianity, on the other hand, represents the “absolute negation” of Judaism.
Hitler himself said this about Weiniger:
Shoutout to @Heartless
I only found out about him because of his banner
Weiniger was born in austria into a jewish family. His father was a goldsmith and his mother a houswife. After attending primary school and graduating from secondary school in July 1898, Weininger registered at the University of Vienna in October of the same year. He studied philosophy and psychology but took courses in natural sciences and medicine as well. Weininger learned Greek, Latin, French and English very early, later also Spanish and Italian, and acquired passive knowledge of Swedish, Danish and Norwegian. After his PhD he converted to protestant christianity
In 1902 Weininger went to Bayreuth, where he witnessed a performance of Richard Wagner's Parsifal, which left him deeply impressed. Via Dresden and Copenhagen he made his way to Christiania (Oslo), where he saw for the first time Henrik Ibsen's liberation drama Peer Gynt on stage. Upon his return to Vienna Weininger suffered from fits of deep depression. The decision to take his own life gradually took shape; after a long discussion with his friend Artur Gerber, however, Weininger realized that "it is not yet time".
Artur Gerber later recalled: "His appearance was strange. The gaunt figure seemed stiff, lacking in all flexibility and grace. The movements, often awkward, clumsy, were mostly abrupt and sudden." And Stefan Zweig described his encounter with Weininger as "passing an inconspicuous person": "He always looked like he had taken a thirty-hour train ride, dirty, tired, crumpled, walked around crookedly and embarrassed, as it were pressing against an invisible wall, and the mouth under the thin little mustache somehow twisted itself crookedly. His eyes (my friends told me later) are said to have been beautiful: I never saw them because he always looked past you (even when I spoke to him, I didn't feel them facing me for a second): all this I only understood later from the irritated feeling of inferiority, the Russian criminal feeling of the self-tormented.”
After months of concentrated work, Gender and Character appeared in June 1903 - a fundamental study that sought to put the "relationship of the sexes" in a "new light" - by the Viennese publishing house Braumüller & Co. It was the text of Weininger's doctoral thesis, still at three crucial chapters, in which Weininger developed his tendencies towards anti-Semitism, misogyny and unrestrained metaphysics unchecked: "The essence of woman and its meaning in the universe", "Judaism", "Woman and humanity".
Weininger laid out the sum of his life on 600 pages. It was the construct of a hatred of women, to which Judaism also fell victim, since it "seems steeped in femininity". Weininger saw a threat in both women and Jews: sexuality, guilt, only body and matter, devoid of any spirit, soul or morality. Both oppressed and tormented him deep inside. In his mind, redemption was only promised by a genius, the epitome of the masculine. Weininger saw its highest form in the religious founder.
Back in Vienna he spent his last five days with his parents. On 3 October he took a room in the house at Schwarzspanierstraße 15, where Ludwig van Beethoven had died. He told the landlady that he was not to be disturbed before morning, since he planned to work and then to go to bed late. That night he wrote two letters, one to his father and the other to his brother Richard, telling them that he was going to shoot himself.
On 4 October Weininger was found mortally wounded, having shot himself in the chest. He died in the Wiener Allgemeines Krankenhaus (Vienna General Hospital) and was buried in the Matzleinsdorf Protestant Cemetery in Vienna.
Gender and character is one of the classic documents of Viennese modernism. The work appears, similar to Houston Stewart Chamberlain's "Foundations of the 19th Century", with a universal claim to interpretation. The focus is on the gender issue.
In his main work, Weininger revealed a sharp rejection of everything Jewish and at the same time proved himself to be an advocate of an attitude that was hostile to women and the body. The values of higher life are just as inaccessible to women as the world of ideas. The more feminine the woman, the more she embodies a purely mindless lust. Only through the man does the woman receive a second-hand life.
Weininger connects this with anti-Semitic views: the Jew, he claims, is "always lascivious and horny" because of his "feminine" essence; “the born communist”; "a matchmaker" by nature and not actually pious as he "can't believe at all". Still, a little hope dawned. The Jewish non-existence would be the “condition before being” and therefore the Jews would have to “fight against themselves, inwardly conquer Judaism” in order to become human beings, i.e. men. Also Jesus Christ “was a Jew, but only in order to most completely overcome Judaism in himself”. Therefore, "he is the greatest human being" who would have conquered his "special original sin" - namely being a Jew - through the "complete negation" of his being. Judaism seemed to Weininger steeped in femininity. From this he derived the equation that "the Jew" is a woman. Since both women and Jews are only sexuality, only body and matter, devoid of any spirit, soul or morality and incapable of sexual asceticism, they pose a threat. According to Weininger, society must overcome the female elements and adapt to the male orientate. He calls for a new humanity constructed on a new masculinity.
Weininger attempted to define male and female based on the assumption that all living things contain a proportion of both. Female or male never occurs in their pure form, but always in a mixture. Weininger placed the masculine at one end of a scale. In the concept of woman and instinct on the one hand and man and spirit on the other hand, he assigned a mental and moral inferiority to the female. Feminine is not capable of any mental orientation or creative productivity. He also assigned masculine and feminine traits to various movements and concepts. For him, Judaism was strongly female-dominated, while Christianity had more male traits.
Weininger's remarks on Judaism form one of the most effective literary versions of anti-Jewish ideology in the history of modern anti-Semitism. In his description of "the Jew" he chooses categories of extreme negativity. Stereotypes, borrowed from anti-Semitic propaganda, are used to label "Judaism" versus Christianity. Weininger often appeals to anti-Semitic resentments through his formulations. Judaism is one of the most important disruptive factors in the social order. Christianity, on the other hand, represents the “absolute negation” of Judaism.
Hitler himself said this about Weiniger:
Shoutout to @Heartless
I only found out about him because of his banner
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