Haidbauer incident
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The Haidbauer incident, known in Austria as ''der Vorfall Haidbauer'', took place in April 1926 when Josef Haidbauer, an 11-year-old schoolboy in
Otterthal Otterthal is a municipality in the Industrieviertel of Lower Austria, Austria. 61.72 percent of the municipality is forested. There are 25 agricultural companies. 266 persons are employed. The activity rate was 48.31%. Population References

, Austria, reportedly collapsed unconscious after being hit on the head during class by the Austrian philosopher
Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is considere ...
.
Ray Monk Ray Monk (born 15 February 1957) is a British biographer who is renowned for his biographies of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Bertrand Russell, and J. Robert Oppenheimer. He is emeritus professor of philosophy at the University of Southampton, where he ...
, ''Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius'', Free Press, 1990, p. 232.
Wittgenstein taught philosophy at the
University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
from 1929, but a decade earlier had trained as a school teacher in Austria. It was while working at a village elementary school that the Haidbauer incident took place. The boy's collapse was reported to the police, and Wittgenstein was summoned to appear in court in
Gloggnitz Gloggnitz is a mountain town in the Neunkirchen district of Lower Austria, Austria. Gloggnitz is situated in the south-western part of the Vienna Basin in Lower Austria. It is surrounded by the highest mountains in Lower Austria, Mount Rax (20 ...
on 17 May 1926, where the judge ordered a psychiatric report.
Alexander Waugh Alexander Evelyn Michael Waugh (born 1963) is an English writer, critic, and journalist. Among other books, he has written ''Fathers and Sons: The Autobiography of a Family'' (2004), about five generations of his own family, and ''The House of Wi ...
, ''The House of Wittgenstein: A Family at War'', Random House of Canada, 2010, p. 149.
According to the philosopher
William Warren Bartley William Warren Bartley III (October 2, 1934 – February 5, 1990), known as W. W. Bartley III, was an American philosopher specializing in 20th century philosophy, language and logic, and the Vienna Circle. Early life and education Born in Wilk ...
, the hearing exonerated Wittgenstein,
W.W. Bartley, III William Warren Bartley III (October 2, 1934 – February 5, 1990), known as W. W. Bartley III, was an American philosopher specializing in 20th century philosophy, language and logic, and the Vienna Circle. Early life and education Born in Wil ...
, ''Wittgenstein'', Open Court, 1994 973 pp. 107ff.
although the Wittgenstein biographer
Alexander Waugh Alexander Evelyn Michael Waugh (born 1963) is an English writer, critic, and journalist. Among other books, he has written ''Fathers and Sons: The Autobiography of a Family'' (2004), about five generations of his own family, and ''The House of Wi ...
writes that the outcome of the case was never published. Waugh argues that Wittgenstein's family may have had a hand in making the issue disappear.Waugh, ''The House of Wittgenstein'', p. 162. Haidbauer was not the only pupil Wittgenstein was alleged to have struck. Ten years later, while working at Cambridge, he returned to the villages, to a mixed reception, to ask for the children's forgiveness.


Background


Trattenbach

In August 1918 Wittgenstein completed his ''
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus The ''Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus'' (widely abbreviated and cited as TLP) is a book-length philosophical work by the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein which deals with the relationship between language and reality and aims to define the ...
'', first published in 1921 in Germany, and widely regarded as one of the most important works of 20th-century philosophy. After military service during the First World War, he decided to become an elementary school teacher. One of his sisters said this was like using a precision instrument to open crates.Monk, ''Ludwig Wittgenstein'', pp. 169ff. He attended teacher-training college in the Kundmanngasse in Vienna in September 1919, and in 1920 was given his first job as a teacher in
Trattenbach Trattenbach is a village in Austria, situated in Lower Austria. It is in the industrial part (''Industrieviertel'') of Lower Austria. The village's total area is , of which 81.31% is forested. From 1920 to 1922, the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein ...
, a village of a few hundred about southwest of Vienna. He did not have a high opinion of the villagers, writing to
Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...
in October 1921:
I am still at Trattenbach, surrounded, as ever, by odiousness and baseness. I know that human beings on the average are not worth much anywhere, but here they are much more good-for-nothing and irresponsible than elsewhere.James Carl Klagge, ''Wittgenstein: Biography and Philosophy'', Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp. 185–186.
After renting a room in the attic of the local grocer's store, Wittgenstein was soon the object of gossip among the villagers, who regarded him with suspicion. Waugh writes that the brighter pupils remembered him with affection. He taught them about architecture, botany, geology, bought a microscope for them, made model steam engines, and showed them how to dissect a squirrel, and how to boil the flesh off a cat then reassemble its skeleton. Hermine Wittgenstein, his older sister, watched him teach, and said the pupils
literally crawled over each other in their desire to be chosen for answers or demonstrations.
He spent hours with favoured pupils, offering them extra tuition outside the classroom, sometimes until eight in the evening, which did not endear him to their parents.Bartley, ''Wittgenstein'', pp. 103–104, 106. He would take them on overnight trips to Vienna to see museums and cathedrals; after one such trip the group had to hike at night through a forest for 12 miles from the station at Gloggnitz, back up the mountain to Trattenbach.Bartley, ''Wittgenstein'', pp. 99–100. One boy, Karl Gruber, from an impoverished family with six children, became a favourite. The two studied
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
, Greek and mathematics together from four to seven in the evening, then dined in Wittgenstein's room. He proposed to Karl's parents that he adopt the boy, offering to send him to the city and finance his education. The mother agreed, but the father said no and called Wittgenstein "''ein verrückter Kerl''" ("a crazy fellow").


Corporal punishment

Wittgenstein was reportedly seen as a tyrant by the slower students, delivering slaps on the cheek (''Ohrfeigen'') as well as pulling hair (''Haareziehen''). He devoted the first two hours of each school day to mathematics, which some of the students recalled years later with horror, according to Monk. One villager described him as "that totally insane fellow who wanted to introduce advanced mathematics to our elementary school children."Waugh, ''The House of Wittgenstein'', pp. 148–149. The physical punishments were not unusual in Austria for boys at the time, but the villagers were unhappy that he was doing it to the girls too. Girls were not expected to grasp
algebra Algebra () is one of the broad areas of mathematics. Roughly speaking, algebra is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols in formulas; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathematics. Elementary a ...
, writes Monk, much less have their ears boxed over it.Monk, ''Ludwig Wittgenstein'', pp. 194ff. Bartley interviewed some of the pupils in 1969. They told him that Wittgenstein was a nervous teacher. He would break out in a sweat, rub his chin, pull his hair, and bite into a crumpled handkerchief. Bartley suggests that, although it seems clear that Wittgenstein did hit the children, some of the incidents may have been exaggerated. One boy, the brother of the boy Wittgenstein had wanted to adopt, stuffed a pencil up his nose to make it bleed after Wittgenstein slapped him. The story of how Wittgenstein had given a boy a bloody nose spread, and soon other children were playing similar tricks, which included pretending to faint.


Hassbach and Puchberg

In September 1922 he moved to a secondary school in Hassbach, but he left after a month, telling a friend:
These people are not human ''at all'' but loathsome worms.
In November he began work at a primary school in
Puchberg am Schneeberg Puchberg am Schneeberg is a town in the south-eastern part of Lower Austria with approximately 2650 inhabitants. It is situated about 80 Kilometres from Vienna. The highest point of Puchberg is the Schneeberg with 2076 m, the highest mountain of ...
. He was lonely and had no one he could talk to about philosophy. From there he wrote to Russell:
I am now in another hole, though I have to say, it is no better than the old one. Living with human beings is hard! Only they are not really human, but rather animal and human.
A student from Cambridge, Frank P. Ramsey, arrived in Austria to visit him in September 1923 to discuss a review of the ''Tractatus'' he had agreed to write for ''Mind''. He reported in a letter home:
He is very poor, at least he lives very economically. He has one tiny room, whitewashed, containing a bed, washstand, small table and one hard chair and that is all there is room for. His evening meal which I shared last night is rather unpleasant coarse bread, butter and cocoa. His school hours are eight to twelve or one and he seems to be free all the afternoon.
D. H. Mellor David Hugh Mellor (; 10 July 1938 – 21 June 2020) was a British philosopher. He was a Professor of Philosophy and Pro-Vice-Chancellor, later Professor Emeritus, of Cambridge University. Biography Mellor was born in London on 10 July 1938, ...

"Cambridge Philosophers I: F. P. Ramsey"
''Philosophy'' 70, 1995, pp. 243–262.
While in Cambridge, Ramsey told the economist
John Maynard Keynes John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, ( ; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was an English economist whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. Originally trained in ...
that Wittgenstein was refusing all financial help from his family, and was even returning Christmas presents they sent him, because he did not want to have any money he had not earned himself.Monk, ''Ludwig Wittgenstein'', p. 212.


Move to Otterthal


Encounter with Josef Haidbauer

In September 1924 Wittgenstein moved to a new school in
Otterthal Otterthal is a municipality in the Industrieviertel of Lower Austria, Austria. 61.72 percent of the municipality is forested. There are 25 agricultural companies. 266 persons are employed. The activity rate was 48.31%. Population References

, near Trattenbach; the headmaster, Josef Putre, was someone Wittgenstein had become friends with at Trattenbach. Josef Haidbauer was one of Wittgenstein's pupils, 11 years old and by all accounts a weak child and slow learner. His father had died, and his mother worked locally as a maid for a farmer named Piribauer. Piribauer himself had a daughter, Hermine, in Wittgenstein's class. Wittgenstein had reportedly pulled her so hard by the ears and hair that her ears had bled, and some of her hair had fallen out.Monk, ''Ludwig Wittgenstein'', pp. 224, 232–33. During a lesson in April 1926 Wittgenstein hit Haidbauer two or three times on the head, and the boy collapsed unconscious. Wittgenstein sent the class home, carried Haidbauer to the headmaster's office, then left the building. He bumped into Herr Piribauer on the way out, who had arrived at the school after the children alerted him. Piribauer said that when he met Wittgenstein in the hall that day:
I called him all the names under the sun. I told him he wasn't a teacher, he was an animal trainer! And that I was going to fetch the police right away!
Another pupil, August Riegler, said of the incident:
It cannot be said that Wittgenstein ill-treated the child. If Haidbauer's punishment was ill-treatment, then 80 percent of Wittgenstein's punishments were ill-treatments.
Piribauer tried to have Wittgenstein arrested, but the one-man police station was empty when he went there, and the next day he was told Wittgenstein had disappeared. On 28 April, Wittgenstein handed in his resignation to Wilhelm Kundt, a local school inspector. He returned to Vienna, where he took a job as an assistant gardener in the Brothers of Mercy monastery in Hütteldorf.


Trial

Wittgenstein was summoned to appear before the district court in
Gloggnitz Gloggnitz is a mountain town in the Neunkirchen district of Lower Austria, Austria. Gloggnitz is situated in the south-western part of the Vienna Basin in Lower Austria. It is surrounded by the highest mountains in Lower Austria, Mount Rax (20 ...
on 17 May 1926. Waugh writes that he lied to the court about his use of physical punishment against the children. The judge suspected he was mentally ill, and ordered an adjournment for psychiatric reports. Wittgenstein continued to live in Vienna while the case continued, writing to a friend, Rudolf Koder:
I'm curious to know what the psychiatrist will say to me, but I find the idea of the examination nauseating and am heartily sick of the whole filthy business.
A letter in August 1926 to Wittgenstein from a friend of his, Ludwig Hänsel, indicated that the hearings were continuing, but nothing is known about the case after that. Wittgenstein's family was one of the wealthiest in Europe at the time, and Waugh writes that they may have managed to cover things up. According to Monk, the hearings were a source of great humiliation to Wittgenstein.


Apology

Ten years later Wittgenstein was living in Norway, and went through a period of wanting to make confessions to his friends about various issues, one of which was his use of violence against the children in Austria. One of the friends he confessed to, Fania Pascal, recalled the confession as:
During the short period when he was teaching at a village school in Austria, he hit a little girl in his class and hurt her (my memory is, without details, of a physically violent act). When she ran to the headmaster to complain, Wittgenstein denied that he had done it.
Another friend, Rowland Hurt, remembered the confession differently, and said it concerned having lied about the Haidbauer incident during the court case. In the same year that he made this confession to friends, he also travelled to Otterthal and appeared without warning at the homes of the children he had hurt. He visited at least four of them, asking for their forgiveness. One villager, George Stangel, recalled:
I myself was not a pupil of Wittgenstein's, but I was present when shortly before the war Wittgenstein visited my father's home to apologize to my brother and my father. Wittgenstein came at midday, at about one o'clock, into the kitchen and asked me where Ignaz is. I called my brother, my father was also present. Wittgenstein said that he wanted to apologize if he had done him an injustice. Ignaz said that he had no need to apologize, he had learned well from Wittgenstein. Wittgenstein stayed for about half an hour and mentioned that he also wanted to go to Gansterer and Goldberg to beg their pardon in a similar way.
He also visited Hermine Piribauer, the girl whose ears he had pulled, who apparently replied to the apology with:
Ja, ja.Monk, ''Ludwig Wittgenstein'', pp. 370–372.
Monk writes that Wittgenstein regarded the confessions as a form of surgery to remove cowardice. In 1937 he wrote in a notebook:
Last year with God's help I pulled myself together and made a confession. This brought me into more settled waters, into a better relation with people, and to a greater seriousness. But now it is as though I had spent all that, and I am not far from where I was before. I am cowardly beyond measure. If I do not correct this, I shall again drift entirely into those waters through which I was moving then.


References

{{Ludwig Wittgenstein, state=uncollapsed Ludwig Wittgenstein 1926 in Austria