Marie Jahoda über ihren Bruder Eduard »Edi« Jahoda

At the outbreak of war [1914; R.M.] we were on holiday, in Mondsee1 I believe, without my father [i.e. Carl Jahoda]. An immediate return to Vienna was imperative. But the trains had been requisitioned for troop movements according to long-Iaid war plans [...]. Edi [Jahoda], then 11 years old, fully conscious of his status as the only available man in the family, took charge. He went to the station, discovered that some troop trains had wagons for civilians, persuaded my mother [i.e. Betty Jahoda, née Propst] that we must go to the station and wait for an opportunity to board, got us into an overcrowded compartment and finally home.
Once again, 12 years later, he took charge of the family's fate, with much greater cost to himself. My father died in the night before the day of Edi's doctoral promotion ceremony. He had studied Physics in Göttingen, Heidelberg and Vienna and was, in line with talent and inclination, destined for an academic career.2 First, he had to settle my father's affairs and the financial future of the family. It emerged that the situation was grim. The great inflation of the early twenties had wiped out all my father's savings, including 4 trust funds he had established for the higher education of his children. The business lived from hand to mouth, there was no spare capital that could be withdrawn for the heirs. [...] But only Edi understood the situation fully at the time. If he took over my father's business, he could hope to maintain our living standard, not otherwise. So he did. He was very successful, particularly in the USA where he established his own scientifically advanced business which was based on profit sharing. Only once did I hear him admit that his early decision had been a sacrifice. In 1970 rioting students had destroyed City College's new concert hall, a building for which Fritz [Jahoda] as Professor of Music had worked long and hard. Fritz was very upset. Edi said: there was a time when I envied your academic life; no longer.

Marie Jahoda Albu: Reconstructions. [Keymer, Sussex: Published by the author] 1996, S. 15-16.

1 Mondsee: See in Oberösterreich. Anmerkung Reinhard Müller.
2 Die Dissertation des begabten Physikers, dessen wissenschaftliche Karriere durch den Tod des Vaters beendet wurde, erschien an prominentem Ort; vgl. Eduard Jahoda: Beiträge zur Lumineszenz und Verfärbung der mit Becquerelstrahlen behandelten Alkalichloride. (Mit 8 Textfiguren) (Vorgelegt in der Sitzung am 18. November 1926). Wien: Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky, A.-G. 1926 (= Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien. Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse. Sitzungsberichte. Abteilung IIa. 135. Band. Jahrgang 1926. 10. / Mitteilungen aus dem Institut für Radiumforschung. 193.), S. 675-703. Anmerkung Reinhard Müller.

© Reinhard Müller -- Graz, im Oktober 2006

DAS ELTERNHAUS
über Betty Jahoda
über Carl Jahoda
über Edward Jahoda
über Franz Jahoda
über Fritz Jahoda
über Georg Jahoda
   Karl Kraus --"--
über Susan Jahoda
über Anton Kuerti
über Rosi Kuerti
über "Mitzi"
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