Flats
Van de Velde-Schlick
Flats as intellectual meeting places have a long tradition in bourgeois Viennese salon culture, often characterised by women. Blanche Hardy-Schlick and Moritz Schlick, whose guests included Ludwig Wittgenstein, Karl Popper, and Arthur Schnitzler, as well as members of the Vienna Circle, built on this tradition.
The meetings in Olga Hahn-Neurath and Otto Neurath’s flat were less formal. As in many other respects, Schlick and Neurath formed the opposite poles within the Vienna Circle. Despite her blindness, Olga Hahn-Neurath acted as hostess and was an active participant in the often very lively debates. Overall, for the Vienna Circle and its periphery, the flats were meeting places for groups of different sizes and compositions. Felix Kaufmann was associated with liberal circles in connection with Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich August von Hayek, while Heinrich Gomperz had his own philosophy circle.
Flat of Blanche and Moritz Schlick, 4th district, Prinz-Eugen-Straße 68, c. 1930
From here, Moritz Schlick travelled directly to his lectures in the main university building on the Ring on tram line D, which still exists today.
Blanche Schlick continued to live in Vienna after her husband’s murder and self-published a selection of his numerous aphorisms after the Second World War in 1962.
Van de Velde-Schlick
Dining with Prof Schlick and his wife. American Society, Envoy Washburn, Consuls Haven and Groves; Countess Hartenau. Almost exclusively English conversation – With Mrs Haven, a native of France, French. Mrs Schlick had visited me before with Miss Alden. – Unproblematic atmosphere. – Schlick Professor of philosophy at the University of Vienna.
Arthur Schnitzler‘s diary, 15 March 1928
In the evening to Schlick; Waismann and Wittgenstein there (for the first time). Very interesting, original, likeable person. Fiercely against Esperanto because "not grown organically".
Carnap’s diary, 20 June 1927
Blanche Schlick, c. 1905
Blanche Hardy, originally from Massachusetts (USA), married Moritz Schlick in 1907. She served as president of the American Women’s Association in Vienna, was the organiser of the salon in Prinz-Eugen-Straße, and played an important role as a networker.
Wiener Kreis Gesellschaft
Moritz Schlick, the 1920s
Schlick led a middle-class life in Vienna and travelled extensively, taking holidays in Austria and abroad, including to Lake Millstatt and the Adriatic Sea, where he also met Wittgenstein.
Universitätsarchiv Wien, Archiv der Universität Wien, AT-UAW 106.I.1265
Flat Neurath Schloßgasse 1, 5., c. 1950
Olga Hahn-Neurath and Otto Neurath lived in this house from 1921 to 1930; then until 1934 in the Haydnhof municipal housing complex on Gaudenzdorfer Gürtel. The Neuraths’ flats were among the most important meeting places of the Vienna Circle. With their informal atmosphere and often lively (also political) discussions, they formed the antithesis to the bourgeois-liberal scenery of the Schlick Salon.
Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv, Fotosammlung C 7017/1258: 5
So that‘s how I came to Neurath, who lived in the fifth district in an old, very run-down house. It smelled awful. We arrived at the flat door. The door was opened by a blind woman: Mrs Neurath. She led us to her husband, who was asleep. She had to shake him to wake him. He was an enormous man, as big as an elephant, who always drew himself as an elephant in his letters instead of signing his name.
Heinrich Neider, in conversation with Rudolf Haller
Otto Neurath, Anna Schapire-Neurath, “Lesebuch der Volkswirtschaftslehre”, Leipzig, W. Klinkhardt 1910
The social scientist and feminist Anna Schapire (1877–1911) married Otto Neurath in 1907. In addition to her own publications, Schapire-Neurath published together with her husband, whose academic work she strongly influenced. She died at the birth of their son Paul, who went on to study sociology with Paul Lazarsfeld in the USA.
Report on Olga Hahn’s dissertation, 16 February 1911
Olga Hahn-Neurath, Hans Hahn’s sister, completed her degree in mathematics despite her blindness caused by optic neuritis. She was an active member of the Vienna Circle and frequently received guests such as Rudolf Carnap and Friedrich Waismann, who read texts that were then discussed.
Postcard from Robert Musil to Otto Neurath, 5 April 1920
Musil wrote his dissertation on Ernst Mach in Berlin in 1908, where he belonged to Richard von Mises’ Circle. After his return to Vienna he showed an interest in the work of the Vienna Circle. With this postcard, he offered Otto Neurath his support in publishing his Anti-Spengler (1921).
In the morning with Mrs Neurath. Waismann reads aloud: Russell‘s The Analysis of the Mind, we discuss behaviourism.
Carnap’s diary, 11 Dec. 1928
Olga Hahn-Neurath and Otto Neurath
Photo: unknown
Institut Wiener Kreis
Otto Neurath
Photo: unknown
ÖNB/Wien, Nachlass Otto und Marie Neurath, Cod. Ser. n. 32005, Beilage 6
With Ina to Kaufmann; 5:30–10:30. Tarski also joins us. First on the roof terrace. Kaufmann sings funny new philosophical songs. 1 ½ hours alone with him about his MS and physicalism
Carnap’s diary, 30 June 1935
Felix Kaufmann, “Wiener Lieder zu Philosophie und Ökonomie”
In addition to the Vienna Circle, Kaufmann was also active in the liberal economic circles of Ludwig Mises and F.A. Hayek, and the Kelsen circle of legal theorists. He also channelled his academic interests into song lyrics, which he performed to the melodies of well-known Viennese songs at his flat at 19., Döblinger Hauptstraße 90 and in coffee houses.
Der Forscher und der Methodologe
Of The Mises-Kreis: Wiener Lieder zu Philosophie und Ökonomie, Wroclav 2019
Interpretin: Anna Maria Birnbauer
www.mises.at
Streit um die Priorität
Of The Mises-Kreis: Wiener Lieder zu Philosophie und Ökonomie, Wroclav 2019
Interpretin: Anna Maria Birnbauer
www.mises.at
Die reine Rechtslehre
Of The Mises-Kreis: Wiener Lieder zu Philosophie und Ökonomie, Wroclav 2019
Interpretin: Anna Maria Birnbauer
www.mises.at
Antimetaphysisches Trutzlied
Of The Mises-Kreis: Wiener Lieder zu Philosophie und Ökonomie, Wroclav 2019
Interpretin: Anna Maria Birnbauer
www.mises.at
Page from the guest book of Haus Ehrenhaft, 19th, Grinzinger Straße 70, 1931/32
The guest book of the eccentric physicist Felix Ehrenhaft shows the lively culture of social and scientific communication in this house. In addition to Hans Hahn and Philipp Frank, Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr were also among the guests.
In the afternoon at Ehrenhaft; Brouwer there, passing through.
Carnap’s diary, 17 April 1931
Felix Ehrenhaft in the laboratory in front of an experimental apparatus, 1950
Ehrenhaft was a full professor of physics and head of the Third Institute of Physics at the University of Vienna from 1920 on. Exposed to the Nazi persecution of Jews after the >Anschluss<, he was dismissed from the university and fled to the USA via England and Brazil. He returned to Austria and the University of Vienna in 1947.
ÖNB/Wien , FO600042/18
Olga Taussky-Todd „Remembrances of Kurt Gödel“
Ehrenhaft was a full professor of physics and head of the Third Institute of Physics at the University of Vienna from 1920 on. Exposed to the Nazi persecution of Jews after the >Anschluss<, he was dismissed from the university and fled to the USA via England and Brazil. He returned to Austria and the University of Vienna in 1947.
Wiener Kreis Gesellschaft
Copyright: Bibliopolis
21 September 37, Taussky, 11–1, at her flat [...] 37/38 Lecturer London. Wants to read about differential geometry. And old-fashioned geometry, 5 hours a week. [...] I am wondering about integer matrix rings. The corresponding group would have order n2. In any case, the usual units do not form a group, but it is possible that there are units that form a group. [...] Wittgenstein is said to read marvellously. If you come into his room, you risk being thrown straight out. For the English, something horrible. [...] Vienna is now a Nazi paradise. Everyone they didn‘t want is gone.
Gödel‘s "Protokolle", 21 November 1937
Trude Waehner’s studio
The studio of artist Trude Waehner at Buchfeldgasse 6 was an important meeting place for artists and intellectuals, including Neurath, Kaufmann, and Karl Menger and Josef Frank, the latter two whom she portrayed.
Flat Gomperz
Egon Schiele, Heinrich Gomperz, Univ.-Prof., Dr., Philosoph, 1918
Chalk drawing on paper
Gomperz was closely associated with the Vienna Circle and cultivated his own circle in his flat at Grünbergstraße 25, with strong overlaps. He was dismissed from the University of Vienna in 1934 because he refused to sign the declaration of solidarity with the Austro- fascist regime. After Gomperz’s emigration, his circle continued to meet until the ›Anschluss‹, for example at Edgar Zilsel’s house.
Mon 9th, 8 o’clock in the evening with Kraft at Gomperz. On 'Psychology in Physical Language'; Gomperz thinks that could be good but is not very meaningful (!). On syntax, meaningful, etc.
Carnap’s diary, 9 March 1931