Letter from Julia Mannheim to Ernest Manheim in Kansas City, Mo. London, Februay 21, 1947.
Transliteration by Karin Eisner
Commentary by Reinhard Müller [1]
5 The Park
London N.W. 11.
February 21, 1947
! I am very sorry and I almost feel ashamed for not having answered your warm letter, for which I'm deeply grateful, until today. I don't want to dwell on the reasons for this belated response, I only want to say that the worst misfortune that could ever happen to me has befallen me, and that I have been occupied with handling the many accruing administrative tasks and other everyday worries. I could not open the many letters of sympathy that arrived from all parts of the world and from friends who wrote from the bottom of their heart for weeks. In haste, I have also assembled a list of publications. It may be incomplete, but by and large it should match.I am thankful to you in advance for your obituary, [2] which nobody can write more justly than you. Certainly also Clarke, T.S. Eliot and Lindsay [3] ,resp., wrote a necrolog therein, but none of them really had an idea about what Karl actually thought and did.
Since 1945, Karl was content with his working situation. After his terrible frustration at the London School of Economics, where Ginsberg [4] had not allowed him to teach his proper subject since 1939, he was appointed to chair at the University of London, where he taught about the Principles of Education from a social perspective. [5] He had about 800 students. Until he had reached this point, he had to do so many different things, for example the editorship of the International Library for Sociology and Social Reconstruction, [6] so that this banefully exhausted him. And when the Promised Land opened itself up to him, he was tired, and his heart refused to go on. His murderer is this Ginsberg and this country, which can only take, but is incapable of giving back. [7] How right Karl was to tell you to get away from here as soon as possible. Now they rack their brains and ponder who could give them only a share of what Karl used to give them. Some weeks before his death, Karl was offered the directorship of the Unesco in Europe, and it was proposed that the Unesco be affiliated with the Institute of Education. [8] The plans for that were already in his head, and I know that he also had plans for you. Many books and manuscripts have remained unfinished, notably the last book he had worked on for 6 years, titled "Essentials of Democratic Planning", [9] which he wrote on behalf of Chatham House. [10] In the summer, he wanted to catalogue the enormous amount of material that he had already been working on, but unfortunately he did not have the time left to do this.
Myself, I have a psychoanalysis practice. [11] It is only the work that keeps me going [English in the original].
I would like to hear everything from you, Anna and the child, and I heard with gladness that your mother and Greti are safe and sound. [12]
You know that aunt Rosa and uncle Gustav died. [13]
I would welcome it if somebody in America tried to finish Karl's unpublished work, because his old disciples and those who knew and understood his thoughts are all in America. Maybe something in this direction crosses your mind. [14]
Many warm greetings to all of you. In old friendship
Juliska
[1]
Karl Mannheim died in London on January 9, 1947. Six weeks later, his widow, the psychologist and psychoanalyst Julia Mannheim (born Károlyné Júlia "Juliska" Láng; *Budapest 1893, †London 1955) wrote from London to Karl's Cousin Ernest Manheim in Kansas City, Mo. First published in: Archiv für die Geschichte der Soziologie in Österreich. Newsletter (Graz), No. 16 (Dezember 1997), pp. 14-16. The original of this letter is held by the Archiv für die Geschichte der Soziologie in Österreich, Graz, Nachlass Ernest Manheim, Signatur 31/1. Annot. R. M.
[2]
Cf. Ernest Manheim: Karl Mannheim 1893-1947, in: The American Journal of Sociology, vol. 52., No. 6 (Mai 1946), pp. 471-474. Annot. R. M.
[3]
(Since 1943) Sir Fred Clarke (*High Coggy, Witney 1880, †London 1952), British Pedagogue, 1936-1945 Director of the Institute of Education at the University of London; T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot (*Saint Louis, Mo. 1888, †London 1965), American-British poet; Alexander Dunlop Lindsay, 1st Baron Lindsay of Birker (*Glasgow 1879, †Keele 1952), British moral philosopher. Annot. R. M.
[4]
Morris Ginsberg (*Lithuania 1889, †Highgate 1970), British sociologist; came to Great Britain when he was still a child; 1929-1954 Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Annot. R. M.
[5]
From 1933 until 1945, Karl Mannheim was a Lecturer in Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science and from 1941 to 1945, a Lecturer at the Institute of Education at the University of London, where he was appointed Chairman of Education in 1945. Annot. R. M.
[6]
A series of publications (London-New York) founded by Karl Mannheim in 1942 . Annot. R. M.
[7]
This no doubt unsustainable and wrongful charge can only be explained by pointing to the psychic state of emergency in which the widow found herself. Annot. R. M.
[8]
In 1946, Karl Mannheim was appointed president of the European Commission of the UNESCO, yet he could not assume this office due to his poor health.
[9]
Cf. Karl Mannheim: Freedom, power, and democratic planning. New York: Oxford University Press 1950. Annot. R. M.
[10]
The Chatham House, erstwhile residence of the Earl of Chatham in London, has been the base of the Royal Institute of International Affairs since its foundation in 1920. Annot. R. M.
[11]
Julia Mannheim earned her diploma as a psychologist 1918 in Budapest at Géza Révész (1878-1955). Annot. R. M.
[12]
The persons mentioned are Ernest Manheim's wife, Anna Sophie (Ann Sophy), born Vitters (*Osnabrück 1899, †Kansas City, Mo. 1988), and their son Tibor (Frank Tibor) Manheim (*Leipzig 1930), who made an academic career as a geochemist. Hermine Manheim, born Wengraf, remarried Déri (1870-1953), is Ernest Manheim's mother, "Greti" his sister Margit, married Ivan (1899-1974). Annot. R. M.
[13]
The persons mentioned, Rosa Mannheim, born Eylenburg, and Gusztáv (Gustav) Mannheim, are Karl Mannheim's parents. Annot. R. M.
[14]
Cf. Karl Mannheim: Essays on the sociology of culture. Edited by Ernest Manheim in cooperation with Paul Kecskemeti [i.e. Pál Kecskeméti]. New York: Oxford University Press 1956. Annot. R. M.
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