Marie Jahoda 1907-2001

Marie Jahoda über Joseph Buttinger

The man he [i.e. Karl Frank] had sent to me was Joseph Buttinger who was soon to become the leader of the underground movement. He had great charm, and a good mind. We quickly became friends and politically, I became his left arm, maintaining contact between him and others, since he had to live in hiding. His right arm, as I learned later, was a young very rich American woman who lived m Vienna while doing her medical and psychoanalytic training.^¹ Buttinger stemmed from the poorest circumstances in the provinces. His father was an agrarian labourer.^² Buttinger left school at the age of 13, worked as a labourer on a farm where he characteristically won the heart of the farmer’s wife. To better himself, he left to become a factory hand, joined the young socialists^³ where his organisational abilities quickly led to recognition by the local party. In those years he read widely, guided by an older party member. The central party had established the Arbeiterhochschule,^⁴ a two year intensive residential course for promising but undereducated young workers. They had first-rate teachers, from Otto Bauer up and down. Political indoctrination was for this highly selected group (about 20 each year) not necessary. The curriculum corresponded rather to the requirement of a gymnasium Buttinger benefited enormously from it. He left with great self-confidence and high political ambitions. After a spell as political organiser the aftermath of the civil war gave him the chance of a national leadership position in the underground movement.
I had a first sense of unease about him sometime early in 1936. We met by arrangement in a cinema to exchange information. Buttinger whispered to me that he felt we were being watched; he would leave his coat and brief case with compromising material with me, pretend to go to the lavatory and get away. Which he did. Of course, this was strictly according to the rules of illegality: the leader had to be protected at all costs. But not even a word about what might happen to me? When I reminded him years later in New York of the incident (nothing had happened to me then), he refused to remember it. He had by then married his American psychoanalyst, lived in extreme luxury which had already tested his character beyond breaking point in the underground days, as I learned later from Nuna [i.e. Erna Sailer] who had good reason to resent him deeply. Her husband [i.e. Karl Hans Sailer] had been a rival for the leadership position but was imprisoned and so left the way clear for Buttinger. After the war, Buttinger wrote a book about the underground movement, in which he slandered her husband’s character with a falsified letter.^⁵ In the USA, Buttinger abandoned his socialist ideas, became involved with South Vietnam’s president Diem,^⁶ and particularly with Diem’s beautiful wife. I leave the full story to Nuna who is writing a book about him.^⁷ In Buttinger’s sixties, Alzheimer’s Disease set in. He died many years later in a mental sanatorium. My judgement: great gifts, vitiated by a character not strong enough to survive the transition from extreme poverty to extreme wealth. Almost a tragic figure.

Marie Jahoda Albu: Reconstructions. [Keymer, Sussex: Published by the author] 1996, S. 50.

1 D.i. Muriel Gardiner, geborene Morris (Chicago, Illinois 1901 – Pennington, New Jersey 1985): Psychiaterin, Psychoanalytikerin und Schriftstellerin, seit 1939 mit Joseph Buttinger verheiratet; lebte 1926 bis zur Vertreibung 1938 in Wien, wo sie Medizin studierte und seit 1934 in der sozialistischen Untergrundbewegung tätig war. Anmerkung Reinhard Müller.

2 D.i. Anton Buttinger (1878–1917): Straßen- und Bergbauarbeiter. Anmerkung Reinhard Müller.

3 Gemeint ist die »Sozialistische Arbeiterjugend«: 1903 gegründet als »Verband der jugendlichen Arbeiter Österreichs«, 1919 umbenannt in »Sozialistische Arbeiterjugend«; 1934 mit den anderen sozialdemokratischen Organisationen verboten. Anmerkung Reinhard Müller.

4 Arbeiterhochschule: 1926 gegründete Einrichtung der Arbeiterbildung, in der führende Funktionäre der »Sozialdemokratischen Arbeiterpartei Deutschösterreichs« (SDAP), aber auch bekannte Wissenschaftler ausgewählte sozialdemokratische Arbeiter unterrichteten; musste 1930 im Zuge der Wirtschaftskrise eingestellt werden. Anmerkung Reinhard Müller.

5 Vgl. Joseph Buttinger: Am Beispiel Österreichs. Ein geschichtlicher Beitrag zur Krise der sozialistischen Bewegung. Köln: Verlag für Politik und Wirtschaft 1953. Anmerkung Reinhard Müller.

6 Ngô Đình Diệm (Quảng Bình 1901 – Saigon [Thành phô Hô Chí Minh] 1963): Politiker; 1954 südvietnamesischer Premierminister, stürzte die Monarchie und war von Oktober 1955 bis November 1963 erster Präsident der Republik Südvietnam; regierte zunächst mit US-amerikanischer Unterstützung diktatorisch; berüchtigt für seine brutale Verfolgung Oppositioneller und der Buddhisten; wurde durch einen Militärputsch gestürzt und ermordet. Diêm war Junggeselle, doch fungierte die Frau seines Bruders, Madame Ngô Đình Nhu (d.i. Trân Lệ Xuân, verheiratete Nhu; nannte sich selbst Madame Ngô; Hanoi (Hà Nội) 1924 –), als erste Frau im Staat; für ihre menschenverachtenden Äußerungen berüchtigt als »Dragon Lady«. Anmerkung Reinhard Müller.

7 Gemeint ist wohl das unpublizierte Typoskript von Erna Sailer: Die »Revolutionären Sozialisten«. Von den Februarkämpfen zur Brünner Reichskonferenz. Februar 1934 – Dezember 1934. Wien [198?], 128 Bl., im Archiv für die Geschichte der Soziologie in Österreich, Nachlass Marie Jahoda, Signatur 41/4.1.2.10, pag. 105–232. Anmerkung Reinhard Müller.

UNTERGRUNDARBEIT
Februaraufstand
Kritik an der Parteiführung
Entlassung
Im Untergrund
Aufgaben
Karl Frank
Joseph Buttinger
"Der Funke"
"Revolutionäre Sozialisten"
Ziele der Illegalen
Banksafe für illegale Papiere