Robert Streibel

This volume brings together for the first time all the essays of the great educator Eugenie Schwarzwald (1872-1940). Eugenie Schwarzwald practiced a pedagogy of practice; she founded schools in Vienna around 1900 and was one of the first to provide girls with the prerequisites for studying at university. At a time when military drill and corporal punishment dominated schools, she saw her students as human beings. She raised funds to send children to the countryside during and after World War I, established summer homes, operated the "Seeblick" hotel at Grundlsee as a retreat for intellectual workers, maintained international networks, supported artists, and initiated countless initiatives from anti-alcohol campaigns to animal welfare. Her legacy consists of her essays, which she wrote between 1908 and 1938. She authored more than 300 pieces. She wrote for the "Neue Freie Presse," the "Neue Wiener Tagblatt," the "Bühne," and the "Vossische Zeitung." These essays are a testament to her love for humanity. The short texts are vignettes from Vienna, literary monuments for her friends and acquaintances, and accounts of her travels across Europe. The significance of "Fraudoktor"—as she was affectionately called—in Vienna until the rise of the National Socialists can also be gauged by the fact that she served as inspiration for literary characters. Examples range from Robert Musil's "Diotima" in "The Man Without Qualities" to Frau Doktor Mania in Josef Weinheber's "Gold ausser Kurs," which can be read here.