Benedikt Freistadt (Pseudonym: Bruno Frei)

Born:	06-11-1897
Faculty:	Philosophical School
Category:	Deprivation of academic degree

Benedikt FREISTADT (born on June 11th, 1897 in Preßburg/Hungary [Bratislava/Slovakia], son of Michael Freistadt and Berta Freistadt (nee Hauser), died on May 21st, 1988 in Klosterneuburg/Lower Austria) moved to Vienna with his family in the age of 12. In fall term 1915/16 he began to study philosophy at the University of Vienna. From 1917 on he worked as a journalist for the Viennese newspaper "Abend" and wrote sociocritical and political reports, e.g. about the revolt of Austrian seamen in 1918 or the miserable living conditions in Vienna after World War I. He graduated at the Philosophical School of the University of Vienna in Philosophy on June 30th, 1920 with the academic degree 'Dr. phil.' (dissertation: 'Die Ethik des Pirque Aboth als Paradigma einer Ethik des Judentums.').  In times of Nazism (1940) he was deprived of his academic degree, with the racist argument, that he as a Jew was not considered dignified an academic degree of a German university ('eines akademischen Grades einer deutschen Hochschule unwürdig').  In 1941 Benedikt Freistadt was able to escape from France and emigrated via Trinidad and the USA to Mexico. In Mexico-City we was co-founder and chief editor of the journal "Freies Deutschland" and member of the Acción Republicana Austriaca en México. After the declaration of Moscow in 1943 he joined the Austrian Communist Party and co-founded the periodical "Austria Libre".  After his return to Austria in 1947 he was chief editor of the "Abend", then worked as a foreign correspondent in Beijing/China from 1956 to 1959 and issued the "Österreichisches Tagebuch" together with Ernst Fischer from 1959 until 1965. After that he worked as a freelance writer and got involved with the KPÖ. He wrote numerous reports, essays and novellas. Benedikt Freistadt (Bruno Frei) was member of the PEN-Club and head of the "Verbindung demokratischer Schriftsteller und Journalisten Österreichs".  It took 68 years since the deprivation - and a very long time since the end of Nazism - until the regranting of the doctorate took finally place in 2008.
Publications: Wiener Wohnungselend (1918), Jüdisches Elend in Wien (1920), Gespräch über das Glück (1920), Das Elend Wiens, Reportage (1921), Die roten Matrosen von Cattaro (1926), Im Lande der fluchenden Rabbis und der hungernden Bauern (1927), Im Lande der roten Macht (1929), Wie Hitler zur Macht kam (1933), Hitler über Deutschland (1933), Hanussen, Biografie (1934), Rakosi zum dritten Mal vom Galgen bedroht! (1935), Was geht in Deutschland vor? (1936), Die Männer von Vernet (1950), Die Aufrüstung Österreichs (1952), Mit eigenen Augen (1955), Die Stafette (1958), Frühling in Vietnam (1959), Der große Sprung. China heute (1959), Israel zwischen den Fronten (1965), Carl von Ossietzky, Biografie (1966), Die deutsche antifaschistische, literarische Emigration in Prag 1933-36 (1967), Der Weg Ernst Fischers (1968), Das Signal, Memoiren (1970), Der Türmer: Josef Popper-Lynkeus (1971), Der Papiersäbel (Autobiografie, 1972), Zur Kritik der Sozialutopie (1973), Im Schatten von Karl Marx: Moses Hess (1977), Sozialismus und Antisemitismus (1978), Der kleine Widerstand (1978).

Lit.: Bruno FREI, Der Papiersäbel, Frankfurt am Main 1972; Gottfried FRITZL, Bruno Frei im mexikanischen Exil. Fluchtweg und Exiltätigkeit eines Österreichers, Wien 1996 [Diplomarbeit];  Eva HOLPFER, Ferdinand HACKL, Die Sammlung Bruno Frei (1897–1988), Wien 1996; POSCH 2009, 275, 412; Daniela ROTSCHÄDL, Kommunistischer Boulevardjournalismus während der Besatzungszeit am Beispiel des Wiener "Abend" unter Leitung von Bruno Frei. Diplomarbeit, Universität Wien 1994; SILVERMAN 2012, 123.

Katharina Kniefacz