Jura Soyfer and Maria Szecsi 1938

Jura Soyfer (December 8, 1912. Kharkov, Ukraine - February 15/16, 1939, Buchenwald concentration camp, Germany) was an important Austrian political journalist and cabaret writer. Image File history File links 1jura. ... Image File history File links 1jura. ... December 8 is the 342nd day (343rd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1912 (MCMXII) was a leap year starting on Monday in the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday in the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Kharkov (rus: Ха́рьков) or Kharkiv (ukr: Ха́рків) is the second largest city in Ukraine, a center of Kharkivska oblast. It is situated in the northeast of the country and has a population of two million. ... February 15 is the 46th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... February 16 is the 47th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Slave laborers in the Buchenwald concentration camp (Elie Wiesel is second row, seventh from left). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Cabaret is a form of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue — a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting around the tables (often dining or drinking) watching the performance. ... The term writer can apply to anyone who creates a written work, but the word more usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, or those who have written in many different forms. ...

Life

Jura Soyfer was the son of the industrialist Vladimir Soyfer and his wife Lyuboc. The well-to-do Jewish family employed French- and English-speaking governesses for Soyfer and his older sister Tamara. Judaism. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

In 1921 the family fled from the Bolshevist revolution and arrived in the town of Baden near Vienna; later they moved into Vienna itself. At the age of 15, Soyfer began studying socialist writings and became a staunch Marxist. In 1927 he joined the Verband der Sozialistischen Mittelschüler (the Association of Socialist Mittelschule pupils). His early experience with languages meant that Soyfer soon developed a feeling and love for language and wordplay. In 1929 this led to his becoming a member of the Politischen Kabarett der Sozialdemokraten (Political Cabaret of the Social Democrats) where he gained his first experience in writing for the stage. 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Bolshevik Party Meeting. ... Overview of Baden from a southern hill Baden bei Wien is a spa town and medieval city in Lower Austria, 26 kilometres south of Vienna, with a population of 31,000 (2002). ... Vienna (German: Wien [viːn]; Slovenian: Dunaj, Croatian and Serbian: Beč Romanian: Viena, Hungarian: Bécs, Czech: Vídeň, Slovak: Viedeň, Romany Vidnya;) Vienna is the capital of Austria, and also one of the nine States of Austria. ... Socialism is an ideology of a social and economic system in which the means of production are collectively owned and administered by all of society. ... Link titleghjhjhjhjyhjInsert non-formatted text here #REDIRECT Insert textItalic text To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... 1927 (MCMXXVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... The education system in Germany has a long tradition of compulsory state schools. ... 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

From December 1931, Soyfer wrote two weekly political satires, one in the Arbeiter-Zeitung (Workers' Newspaper) and the other in the social-democratic weekly Der Kuckuck (The Cuckoo). He also wrote two articles for the Politische Bühne (Political Stage, a socialist newspaper connected to the Red Players group of actors). These demanded that theatre become more politicised, and that it should stop producing mere distraction and entertainment. In this respect Soyfer approaches Bertolt Brecht's "epic theatre". 1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1931 calendar). ... Satire is a literary technique of writing or art which exposes the follies of its subject (for example, individuals, organizations, or states) to ridicule, often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change. ... Social democracy is a political ideology emerging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from supporters of Marxism who believed that the transition to a socialist society could be achieved through democratic evolutionary rather than revolutionary means. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Epic theater, also known as theater of alienation or theater of politics, is a theater movement arising in the early to mid-20th century, inextricably linked to the German director Bertolt Brecht. ...

Soyfer also satirised the key authoritarian figures of the 'Austro-fascisitic' (1933/4 to 1938) period like Dollfuss, Starhemberg and Schuschnigg. Engelbert Dollfuss Engelbert Dollfuss (German: Dollfuß) (October 4, 1892 - July 25, 1934) was an Austrian politician and dictator. ... Kurt Schuschnigg (14 December 1897 in Riva del Garda, Austria-Hungary – 18 November 1977 in Mutters, Austria; Kurt von Schuschnigg until 1919) was an Austrian politician who in 1934 succeeded the assassinated Engelbert Dollfuss as dictator of Austria, as leader of the regime often called Austrofascism. ...

In August 1935, through the writer and theatre critic Hans Weigel, Soyfer was intoriduced to Leon Askin, an actor and director at Vienna's popular "ABC Theatre", a political cabaret. This is where most of Soyfer's pieces were later performed. 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Leon Askin (left) and Paulus Manker in a café in Vienna. ...

In 1937, Soyfer was mistaken for Franz Marek, a leader of the Communist Party of Austria (Kommunistische Partei Österreichs, KPÖ)and arrested. When it was discovered that Soyfer himself had also written incriminatory pieces, he was imprisoned for three months. On February 17, 1938 he was freed as part of an amnesty for political prisoners. He remained in freedom for only 26 days, however: on March 13, 1938 he was arrested as he tried to cross the border to Switzerland, and later was transported to Dachau concentration camp. Here, Soyfer met the composer Herbert Zipper, and together they wrote the famous Dachaulied, the Dachau song, which cynically took up the Nazi motto Arbeit macht frei ("work liberates"), written above the entrance to such camps. 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Communist Party of Austria (de: Kommunistische Partei Österreichs, or KPÖ) is a communist party from Austria. ... February 17 is the 48th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... A political prisoner is anyone held in prison or otherwise detained, perhaps under house arrest, because their ideas or image either challenge or pose a real or potential threat to the state. ... March 13 is the 72nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (73rd in leap years). ... 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... SS Chief Heinrich Himmler inspects the Dachau concentration camp (1936) The Dachau concentration camp was a Nazi concentration camp near the city of Dachau, north of Munich, in Bavaria (southern Germany). ... The term National Socialism has been used in self-description by a number of different political groups and ideologies, some of which have no connection with the Nazis; see National socialism (disambiguation). ... Arbeit Macht Frei gate at KZ Sachsenhausen Arbeit macht frei is a German phrase meaning work brings freedom or work shall make you free. It is probably derived from John 8:32 in The Bible, the truth shall make you free and from there, via the Protestant work ethic, developed...

In the autumn of that year Soyfer was transferred to Buchenwald concentration camp where he died of typhus the day after his release was granted, 16 February 1939. Slave laborers in the Buchenwald concentration camp (Elie Wiesel is second row, seventh from left). ... February 16 is the 47th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Works

Soyfer's first work, Der Weltuntergang oder Die Welt steht auf kein' Fall mehr lang ("The End of the World", or "The world is certainly not going to last much longer") was first performed in the early summer of 1936; the last performance took place only a short time later on 11 July 1936. It shows humanity before the Apocolypse, the destruction of the world by a comet - the violent repression of the revolutionary masses and the blindness of the people waiting for the end of the world. In the end, the comet does not find the heart to destroy the world, which gives the play a positive ending, but also underlines the frustrating incorrigibility and stupidity of human beings. 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... July 11 is the 192nd day (193rd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 173 days remaining. ... 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

His second work, Der Lechner Edi schaut ins Paradies (translated into English as "Journey to Paradise") depicts an unemployed person who sets off to find those guilty for his distress in the past, with the help of a time machine. Eventually he discovers that the cause for his condition is the creation of humanity. The play ends, however, with a call to people to make decisions, including political ones. In this way, Soyfer connects pathos with the typical element of cabaret, political criticism. Pathos (from πάσχειν paschein, the Greek word meaning to suffer) is an appeal to anothers pride or character in general. ... Cabaret is a form of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue — a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting around the tables (often dining or drinking) watching the performance. ...

Soyfer's third play is Astoria, a reaction to the problematic use of the word Vaterland which had been discussed in Austria since 1918. "Astoria" is a non-existent land which is the focus of the hopes and aspirations of the characters in the play. Their utopic dreams are constantly destroyed by reality. This point is made clearly at the end of the play by a song of praise the actors sing about the country when they are actually being sent to prison. 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ...

In 1937 Soyfer wrote Vineta. In this piece he leaves behind traditional Austrian theatre and portrays absurd actions and speech which lead irretrievably to downfall and destruction. The protest against facts which are seen as unchangeable, and the idea of "not wanting to know" are both themes of the play. Vineta is a warning against war and against illusions which are created to suppress people. 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Soyfer also wrote Broadway Melodie 1942 for the "ABC Theatre". It is an adaption of Columbus by Kurt Tucholsky and Walter Hasenclever. Soyfer kept the original satire of the clergy and court society, but his political criticism of society is far more radical. The way the play sees events from the point of view of the lower classes makes it a classic piece of Volkstheater Wien (Austrian popular theatre); it becomes clear that the lower classes of society are actually superior to the upper classes, or at least should be. Kurt Tucholsky Kurt Tucholsky (Berlin, January 9, 1890 – December 21, 1935 in Gothenburg) was a German journalist, satirist and writer. ... Walter Hasenclever, b. ... Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. ... The Volkstheater Wien (the Viennese popular theater) was founded in 1889 by request of the citizens of Vienna, amongst them the dramatist Ludwig Anzengruber and the furniture manufacturer Thonet, in order to offer a popular counter weight to the Hofburg Theatre. ...

During his imprisonment from 1937 - 1938, Soyfer began writing another play which was to be about Adolf Hitler. Nothing has survived of these drafts. 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... (help· info) (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 and Führer (Leader) of Germany from 1934 until his death. ...

The first verse of the Dachaulied, the Dachau song:

Resonance

Jura Soyfer's intent was not to present any complete solutions or conclusions: he believed that the problems he presented could only be solved in real life, in actual protest. His plays destroy illusions and call upon us to change society in its present form. He himself saw his own plays as a means for propaganda with a direct connection to the times in which he lived.

Soyfer's plays were published as a collection for the first time in 1974 thanks to the work of members of the organisation of exiled Austrians in England, "Young Austria". This took his works out of their original context: they were presented, for example, as timeless criticisms of society in the GDR. 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1974 calendar). ... East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR), German Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR), was a socialist country that existed from 1949 to 1990. ...

See also

• List of Austrian writers

This is a list of Austrian writers and poets. ...

External links

• Dachaulied, composed by Herbert Zipper - listen to music : "quasi una fantasia: Juden und die Musikstadt Wien" (Timms, Edward / Hanak, Werner / Botstein, Leon / Jüdisches Museum Wien )(with 2CDs)
• [1] [2]; [3] (sound, 74-94)
• Jura Soyfer Society in German

Leon Botstein, as photographed during a February 2004 interview with WXBC Radio Bard. ... CD may stand for: Compact Disc Canadian Forces Decoration Cash Dispenser (at least used in Japan) CD LPMud Driver Centrum-Demokraterne (Centre Democrats of Denmark) Certificate of Deposit České Dráhy (Czech Railways) Chad (NATO country code) Chalmers Datorförening (computer club of the Chalmers University of Technology) a 1960s...

Further reading

• "Jura Soyfer and His Time (Studies in Austrian Literature, Culture, and Thought)" by Donald G. Daviau, 1995 ISBN 1572410051
• "The legacy of Jura Soyfer, 1912-1939: Poems, prose and plays of an Austrian antifascist" (Engendra theaterbooks) ISBN 0919830072
• "It's Up to Us!: Collected Works of Jura Soyfer (Studies in Austrian Literature, Culture, & Thought)", 1996 ISBN 0929497554