Benedikt Kautsky Papers

Period (1839-1944) 1945-1962
Total size   2.5 m.
Consultation Not restricted
User restriction  Permission required for making photocopies of supplement 1997 and for publication of supplement 1997. Please contact the Reading Room.

Biography

Born in Stuttgart, Germany 1894, died in Vienna 1960; son of Karl Kautsky; economist, social democratic writer and theorist, bank director; deserted the Austrian army in 1918 and served as a secretary to Otto Bauer in 1919; secretary of the Vienna Arbeiterkammer and editor of Arbeit und Wirtschaft from 1923; worked with various institutions for labour education; arrested by the GESTAPO in 1938, survived seven years in concentration camps and published his experiences in `Teufel und Verdammte' 1948; associate professor in Graz from 1954 and Vienna from 1958; assistant director of the Creditanstalt from 1957; coauthor of the 1958 program of the Sozialistische Partei Österreichs (SPÖ) and the `Godesberger Programm' of the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD) in 1959.

Content

Personal papers: correspondence between Benedikt Kautsky and his wife Gerda Kautsky-Brunn (photocopies) 1938-1945, with his brother Felix Kautsky 1945-1952, his nephew Hans Kautsky 1945-1954 and his parents Karl and Luise Kautsky; correspondence with Friedrich Adler, Otto Braun, Julius Braunthal, Herman Gorter, Paul Hertz, Bruno Kreisky, Georg Ledebour, Theodor Liebknecht, Gustav Mayer, Paul Olberg, Roman Rosdolsky, Georges Scheuer, Živko Topaloviç and others 1945-1960; manuscripts and proofs 1946-1957, including `Teufel und Verdammte' and his unpublished biography of August Bebel; file on the publication of `Teufel und Verdammte' in the USA 1947-1949; press clippings of his articles 1947-1953, 1962; Papers of relatives: some letters (photocopies) by Gerda Kautsky 1944-1945; personal documents of members of the Kautsky family 1839-1942, including Karl and Luise Kautsky; some manuscripts by Karl Kautsky. NB. Originals of the photocopies in private possession.