Otto Neurath: Encyclopedist, Adult Educationalist and School Reformer

Abstract

Born 1882 in Vienna as the son of the Viennese social reformer and political economist Wilhelm Neurath and Gertrud Kämpfen, Otto Neurath gained his university qualification at the Wiener Staatsgymnasium in 1902 and started his many-sided studies with mathematics and physics, but finally settled on political economy, history and philosophy. During this time he became acquainted with Philipp Frank, Hans Hahn and his sister Olga Hahn, and his later first wife Anna Schapire who died in 1911 after the birth of their son Paul. The multi-lingual and socially critical feminist Anna Schapire conducted international studies about philosophy, literature and political economy and earned her doctorate in 1906 with a diesis Arbeitsschutz und die politischen Parteien in Deutschland (‘The Protection of Labour and the Political Parties in Germany’).¹ It is more than likely that she stimulated Neurath’s socio-economic and political engagement. She was influential also in his move to Berlin where he continued his studies in political economy under Eduard Meyer and Gustav Schmoller, and already in 1904 published his article ‘Geldzins im Altertum’ (‘Monetary Interest in Antiquity’).

First published as ‘Otto Neurath (1882–1945): Enzyklopädist, Schulreformer und Volksbildner’, Erwachsenenbildung in Österreich 40 (1989), H. 5-6, 33-36, © 1989, Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Wien. Translated with kind permission of BMUK, Abteilung Erwachsenenbildung, Wien, and the author by T. E. Uebel.