Viktor (Victor) Kraft

Born:	07-04-1880
Faculty:	Philosophical School
Category:	Expelled teacher

Viktor (Victor) KRAFT (born on July 4th, 1880 in Vienna, died on January 3rd, 1975 in Vienna) was Pd. (ao. Prof.) for Philosophy (Theoretical Philosophy) at the Philosophical School of the University of Vienna. He was persecuted in times of Nazism for racist and political reaoson, he was deprived of his venia legendi in 1938 and also lost his position as a librarian at the university library in 1939. Kraft was the son of a secondary school teacher and attended secondary school in Vienna, where he then studied philosophy, history and geography at the university and obtained his doctorate in 1903. He continued his studies at the University of Berlin, where he only stayed for one semester because he had to return to Austria for his one-year military service in the fall of 1904. Due to a heart defect he was discharged from the military and was also exempt from service in the First World War. According to his account, his health problems also were detrimental to his scientific career and to receiving the venia: In 1904 he had published “Die Erkenntnis der Aussenwelt”, but his next book, “Weltbegriff”, was only released much later, in 1912. In that same year^[1] he began working at the university library in Vienna to ensure his livelihood.^[2] Two years later, in 1914, he habilitated for philosophy at the university. After the publication of his next big work, “Die Grundformen der wissenschaftlichen Methoden” (1924), he received the title of associate professor. Kraft subsequently acted as exam commissioner and chairman and as representative of the librarians in the scientific civil servants’ union.^[3] He furthermore was in charge of training the new personnel at the library.^[4] Together with Otto Neurath, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Moritz Schlick, among others, Kraft was part of the Wiener Kreis (Vienna Circle) in the 1920s and 30s.^[5] Already during the Austro-fascist regime many of its members had left Austria, and in 1938, after Austria’s “Anschluss” to the German Reich, Kraft had to end his teaching assignment at the University of Vienna. On April 22nd, 1938, the ministry of education revoked his teaching license^[6] and at the end of June of the following year he was forced into retirement from his position as chief state librarian at the university library.^[7] In his résumé, Kraft attributed this to the fact that his wife was considered a Jew according to the National Socialist race doctrine.^[8] This is correct with regard to his retirement as a librarian, but it seems that his membership in the Wiener Kreis was the main reason for the revocation of his teaching license. It is possible, and in fact probable, that both of these reasons played an equal part. Kraft was not subject to a publication ban, but in the years between 1938 and 1945 he still only published two articles in the Swedish journal Theoria, both in 1940. During the Nazi era he otherwise worked on his book “Die Grösse eines Körpers gemäss der Relativitätstheorie”.^[9] In March 1944, almost five years after his retirement, he joined the Institut für Denkmalpflege (Institute for Monument Preservation) as a librarian as part of the war work effort, where he stayed until April 1st, 1945.^[10] After the liberation Kraft returned to the university library at the end of May 1945, where he was retroactively admitted back to his position as of April 27th, 1945.^[11] He was also rehabilitated as private lecturer.^[12] While there is no record of any courses held by Kraft in the summer semester of 1945, in the following winter semester he held lectures on the “Neo-positivism of the ‘Wiener Kreis’” and the “Fundamentals of Axiology”.^[13] Two years later he became state librarian general, but he resigned from his duties at the library in the fall of that same year because he was made associate professor^[14] and he received the chair for philosophy that had been held by Dieter Hildebrand until 1938. According to the ministry, Hildebrand had “not reported for duty”.^[15] In 1950, Kraft became a full professor and began working as chairman of the philosophical institute^[16] after a second professorship for philosophy was granted in the employment plan.^[17] He only held this position for two years,^[18] however, since he received emeritus status at the end of the academic year of 1950/51 and taught as an honorary professor in the year afterwards.^[19] Still, Kraft stayed scientifically very active^[20] and published two of his most significant works: “Erkenntnislehre” (1960)^[21] and “Grundlagen der Erkenntnis und der Moral” (1968). Another widely acknowledged book is “Der Wiener Kreis” (1950), which was translated into many languages in its second edition (1968).^[22] In this book, Kraft also addresses the murder of Moritz Schlick in 1936 and writes that he was shot “in the university by a former student, a paranoid psychopath”. The perpetrator, Johann Nelböck, who had been released in 1938 and lived as a blameless citizen in Vienna, sued Kraft because he had been deemed sane in 1936. Kraft finally agreed to a settlement, because - according to his daughter - he felt threatened.^[23] Kraft was only able to a limited degree to establish a connection to the First Republic’s philosophy. In Stadler’s opinion, this is because Kraft was isolated with his positivistic views and received his full professorship at an advanced age. Thus, he mainly achieved recognition outside of the institute. A manifestation of this is the “Kraft-Kreis” (Kraft Circle) at the Institute for Science and Art in Vienna, which acted as a steppingstone in the international career of Paul Feyerabend and others. Furthermore, Kraft also again established contacts to emigrants such as Herbert Feigl or Philipp Frank at the “Forum Alpbach”.^[24] Despite his membership in the Wiener Kreis, Kraft always emphasized his independence, which especially impacted his work on epistemology as well as his axiology. In both disciplines he criticized the neo-positivistic notion of experience. Because of this, Neurath called him a “sympathizer” of the Wiener Kreis, while Kraft saw himself as an “outsider”. In his philosophical view, the notions of knowledge and value had a normative character. He developed his epistemology in a way in reference to Galilee’s principles of “new science”, while he argued for limitations on individual desires in regard to the field of ethics in his book “Grundlagen der Erkenntnis und der Moral”.^[25] In 1949 Kraft became an honorary member of the Association of Austrian Librarians and in 1950 a corresponding member and in 1954 a full member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.^[26] From 1929 to 1938 he had been a member of the exam commission for library science.^[27] In 1966 he received the Medal of Honor of the Association of Austrian Librarians^[28] and in 1970 an honorary doctorate from the University of Innsbruck in honor of his 90th birthday and the university’s 300-year anniversary. In the associated document from the ministry of education, Kraft is praised as a “grand old man of Austrian philosophy” and was “the internationally by far most famous representative of philosophy alive in Austria today”.^[29] In 1971 he received the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art First Class.^[30]

Lit.: Austrian State Archive/AdR, BKA, BBV, PA Kraft; Austrian State Archive/AVA, PA Kraft; Archive of the University of Vienna/PH PA 2291, PHIL GZ 659 ex 1937/38, VVZ SS 1945, WS 1945/46; MÜHLBERGER 1993, 44 ; CZEIKE Vol. 3 1994; KILLY/VIERHAUS Vol. 6 1997; STADLER 2005.

Andreas Huber (translated by Thomas