El judío favorito de Hitler: El enigma de Otto Weininger

by Allan Janik, Enrique García Moreno (Translator), Carla Carmona Escalera (Editor)

Otto Weininger (1880-1903) fue sin duda la figura más controvertida del periodo histórico y cultural conocido como la «­Viena fin de siglo», algo así, en palabras de Steven Beller, como su mala conciencia, pues tras su suicidio pasaría a encarnar los rasgos más censurables del misoginia, antisemitismo y antimodernismo. Después de cursar filosofía y psicología en la universidad de la capital austriaca, donde se doctoraría en 1902, publicó Sexo y carácter, un pionero y provocador estudio que influiría tanto en algunas de las principales luminarias del siglo XX ―Ludwig Wittgenstein, James Joyce, Hermann Broch o Elias Canetti― como en la figura epítome de todas sus futuras desgracias, el líder del partido nazi. En El judío favorito de Hitler, el profesor Allan Janik ―coautor, junto a Stephen Toulmin, del mítico ensayo La Viena de Wittgenstein―, ha completado el primer estudio verdaderamente exhaustivo en torno a Otto Weininger, disolviendo su aparente enigma, contextualizando sus aportaciones en el marco de la literatura y del pensamiento europeos contemporáneos, y explicando por qué, a pesar de su brevísima vida, infame reputación y opiniones inquietantes, dejó una huella tan profunda en el siglo que apenas vio nacer. Una lectura esencial para quienes se interesan por la filosofía, la cultura y las artes.

Genres: Biography

224 pages, Paperback

Published October 11, 2023

Reviews

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title here is somewhat misleading, chosen presumably to attract attention. Which indeed it does and may well encourage people to pick the book up. But although there is some evidence that Hitler knew of Otto Weininger, there is nothing to suggest that he had actually read him or that he was in any way influenced by his writings – although the fact that Weininger seemed to be anti-Semitic would obviously have appealed. More interesting is the fact that James Joyce and Wittgenstein read and related to Weininger’s thinking – in fact James Joyce gets more of a mention in the book than Hitler. Be that as it may, Otto Weininger (1880-1903) was a controversial thinker and philosopher, a prominent figure in fin-de-siècle Vienna, and is now remembered for his extreme views on women and Jews. He is accused of being a self-hating Jew and his 1903 book Sex and Character became a cause celebre. His ideas were taken seriously by heavy-weight thinkers and writers and Janik argues that we should look afresh and without bias at what he actually proposed. He does an excellent job in this fairly short exploration of explaining Weininger's world-view and is, up to a point, an apologist for him. Nevertheless some of Weininger’s views are certainly problematic – for example that Jews should stop breeding and thus in one generation the Jewish “problem” would be solved. Janik makes his case well and I found this a fascinating examination of a deeply troubling and troubled thinker and agree that in spite of his negative reputation it is indeed worth looking at him objectively rather than with a knee-jerk reaction. I learnt a lot from this accessible and clearly written volume and it certainly deserves more reviews than it has so far garnered. (Feb 2022)

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

When the crap ideas dominating us were invented, but still intellectually serious.

Weininger was a confronting and deeply serious thinker. There’s a lot of nonsense that made sense at the time, but the underlying objects of his curiosity remain as elusive today as they did one hundreds years ago. He was determined to address the items in the “too difficult box.”

His apparently anti-female and anti-Semitic chapters really aren’t. Unfortunately Hitler didn’t appreciate this, and made the fateful comment that relegated Weininger to the trash heap of history. His concerns thus remain unaddressed.

Janie’s effort at the resurrection of Weininger is laudable.