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MAX KADE CENTER FOR GERMAN-AMERICAN STUDIES MARCH 2004 Egon Breiner: An Austrian in Exile Peter Breiner State University of New York at Albany Egon Breiner’s life and book gimes, he continued his political Zetkin) and from there to Sweden collection reflect important ele- activity as a member of the now where he joined a number of Aus- ments of the Austrian exile expe- underground Austrian Socialist trian socialist refugees. He lived in rience. Professor Peter Stockholm and worked as a Breiner, Egon Breiner’s son, machinist from 1939 to 1941. who generously donated the His roommate was Bruno collection to the center, has Kreisky. In 1941, through the summarized the background intervention of Joseph But- and context in which these tinger and Muriel Gardiner, valuable books came together. Eleanor Roosevelt made avail- able a number of visas for Aus- Egon Breiner was born in trian socialists to immigrate to 1910 in the Leopoldstadt sec- the United States. Bruno tion of Vienna to a Hungarian Kreisky received one of these father and a German-speaking visas, but at the last minute for mother from Bohemia. Both personal reasons, he decided to parents were Jewish. He was stay in Stockholm. He offered an avid reader and became in- Egon Breiner in the 1990s his visa to Egon Breiner. Fear- terested in politics at a young ing Sweden could be invaded age. He dropped out of school at Party and was repeatedly jailed for any day, Breiner accepted the visa. the age of 15 and joined the youth illegal resistance activity against He then traveled to Moscow and arm of the Austrian Socialist Party. the regime. After the Anschluss, he from there took the trans-Siberian He proved to be an extremely able continued his activity. However, railway to Vladivostok. From there leader and in his 20s became the one day while Breiner was on his he sailed on the Annie Johnson, the district leader [Bezirksleiter] of the way home, a friend told him that last boat to cross the Pacific before young socialists in Leopoldstadt. the Gestapo had been looking for the German invasion of Russia. He took many courses on litera- him at his parents’ home. Not re- Like the unexpected visa to the ture at the Volkschule and enthu- turning home, he acquired a forged U.S., the trip on the Annie Johnson siastically embraced the cultural passport and fled to Zürich, Swit- proved to be one of several turn- life of Vienna. He attended musi- zerland, where he stayed with a ing points in his life. On the boat cal performances, the theater, and number Swiss socialists. He then he met, among others, Bertolt the Vienna opera. During the traveled to Paris (staying with Brecht, with whom he became Dollfuss and Schuschnigg re- Kostya Zetkin, the son of Clara well-acquainted. Once in Los Newsletter of the Max Kade Center Editor: Frank Baron; e-mail: [email protected] Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures; The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045 Telephone: (785) 864-4803; Fax: (785 98; www.ku.edu/~maxkade Angeles, he came to know many knowledge of Austrian and Ger- ersatz family, providing him with of the members of the Brecht circle man literature, and could never re- friends, education, and a sense of including Helly Brecht, Hans sist buying multiple editions of the moral direction. Moreover, this Eisler, Paul Dessau, and Peter same much-loved work, whether party in the postwar period up and Lorre, as well as other refugee it was the collected plays of until the end of the twentieth cen- writers and artists such as Nestroy, the novels of Max Frisch, tury represented to him the em- Alexander Döblin and Franz or The Good Soldier Schweik of bodiment of Austria as a society Werfel. Although he worked as a Hašek. From the 1960s to the end of decency and solidarity. Thus he machinist at Southern Pacific Rail- of his life, Austrian writers and was willing to accept, with a mini- road by day, he spent many eve- sometimes film makers passing mum of criticism, the party’s scan- nings in the Brecht house in Santa through Los Angeles would stop dals, political compromises, and Monica. In 1942 he married a at his house for coffee and cake, slow decay into a leadership of Viennese refugee doctor, party operatives. The turn to the Leopoldine Reinisch. During the right in Austria distressed him war years, despite the hardships, immensely. Similarly, although he and Leopoldine circulated Austria had lost the enormous cul- among the many refugees in Los tural influence it had exercised be- Angeles. The one dark aspect of fore World War II, Breiner fol- this period was that he had left lowed its literary output with en- both his parents and his brother be- thusiasm. On his many trips he hind in Vienna, and he did not collected the latest novels along learn of their fate until after the with a host of books in dialect. In war. His brother and parents died short, from the 1960s to his death in the concentration camps. in 2000, he lived in two worlds, After Brecht and his circle left the world of Los Angeles, with its the United States, Breiner, at least culture of music, theater, and poli- on the surface, settled into the life tics, and the world of Austria (and of a typical member of the post- to a lesser extent, Germany), the World War II generation. He had home of his cultural and political two sons, Peter, born in 1947 and Egon Breiner in the 1930s allegiances. Tom, born in 1952. He bought a The library of Egon Breiner house in the Hollywood Hills and and he would use these visits to represents multiple worlds. It com- continued working as a machinist. tell stories of his experiences be- bines German and Austrian clas- Nonetheless, he and Leopoldine fore and shortly after he came to sics, contemporary German and constituted a circle of Austrian and the United States. Austrian literature, and historical German refugees—this time not Although he was engaged in and political books tracing the renowned—who met regularly in progressive politics in the United radical ups and downs of Central their house to discuss culture, poli- States, his true love was his home Europe. In many ways, the library tics, and life in Europe. Breiner country. Indeed, so strong was his represents his life. That is, he was stayed in contact with his many nostalgia for Austria that he was a product of several cultures, all friends and acquaintances in Aus- willing to overlook some of the now lost: the extraordinary cul- tria. Many of them had entered darker moments of its history. He tural life of fin de siècle Vienna politics in the newly constituted was especially enthusiastic about and its modernist offshoots in the neutral country. He, followed the the governmental success of the late 20s and 30s; the moral and career of Bruno Kreisky with par- party to which he had unstintingly educational world of the Austrian ticular interest. In 1956, Breiner devoted his youth, the Austrian Socialist Party; and the world of visited Austria for the first time Socialist Party, and was full of German and Austrian emigrés in since he had fled. It was one of admiration for both the Chancel- Los Angeles in the post-World War many visits he would make in the lor of Austria, Bruno Kreisky, and II period. He often mourned the course of his life. Though he had the comprehensive Austrian wel- passing of these cultures, and in once entertained the possibility of fare state. Much of this enthusi- an odd way with his death in Oc- returning, he never did so, but he asm stemmed from a fact that is tober of 2000, the world in which watched the political develop- hard to appreciate today, namely a person without an academic de- ments with great interest from the that the pre-World War II Austrian gree could almost single-handedly sidelines. He also pursued one of Socialist Party had been for him absorb and keep alive the culture the great passions of his life, book not just an ordinary political party of Central Europe seemed to have collecting. He had an enormous seeking state power, but almost an disappeared with him. John Spalek and the Record of the Exile Experience Historian H. Stuart Hughes asserts that the “mi- of exile studies. For orientation on any exile topic, it gration to the United States of European intellectu- is necessary to consult his Guide to the Archival als fleeing fascist tyranny . the most important Materials and the multivolume Deutsche cultural event—or series of events—of the second Exilliteratur seit 1933. His interest in Ernst Toller quarter of the twentieth century. Emigration in and Lion Feuchtwanger has resulted in important bib- the 1930s went beyond any previous cultural expe- liographic publications. rience: in its range of talent and achievement; it was The Max Kade Center has been the beneficiary indeed something new in the modern history of West- of Spalek’s talent for book collecting. The exile col- ern man.” John lection reflects his Spalek has been in- broad knowledge defatigable in his of a field that ex- efforts to recover tends into every and preserve the conceivable disci- legacy of this ex- pline. The most re- traordinary histori- cent transfer of cal phenomenon. books from his li- His achievements brary was the were recognized re- Franz Werfel col- cently in a lengthy Books Published by John Spalek lection, probably article of Aufbau the most compre- (October 30, 2003).

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