Innozenz Grafe
| Born: |
01-05-1916 |
| Faculty: |
Philosophical School |
| Category: |
Expelled student |
Innozenz (Timo Felix) GRAFE, born on January 5
th, 1916 in Vienna/Austria (entitled residency ('heimatberechtigt') for Vienna/Austria, Citizenship: Austria), son of Dr. Felix Grafe (bank official, poet) and his first wife Marianne Grafe, née Weil, lived in Vienna's 18
th district, Poetzleinsdorfer Strasse 25. , On June 18th, 1934, he had successfully passed the school-leaving examination (Reifepruefung/Matura) at the Bundesgymnasium Wien 19 and began studying at the University of Vienna in the fall term of 1934/35. He was last enrolled in the spring term of 1938 at the Philosophical School in the 4
th and last year of his studies and attended lectures in Ancient History, Classical Philology and Linguistics.
After the Anschluss, he was one of the few who, in the spring term of 1938, were allowed to continue their studies until the end of the term under the 2% numerus clausus introduced for Jewish students for a few months.
On June 27
th, 1938, he registered for the final examinations - viva voce ("Rigorosen") - in Classical Philology and Classical Studies as a major and Ancient History as a minor and submitted his dissertation: "
Qua ratione imperatores Romani culti sint a poetis," which was immediately approved by the reviewing classical philologists Richard Meister (1881-1964) and Johann Mewaldt (1880-1964). Shortly thereafter, on July 5
th, 1938, he passed the two-hour viva voce examination with the dissertation examiners Meister and Mewaldt as well as with the ancient historian Rudolf Egger (1882-1969), and the following day, on July 6
th, 1938, he also passed the one-hour viva voce examination ("Philosophicum") with philosopher Otto Tumlirz (1890-1957) and Hans Eibl (1882-1958). Thus, after a long period of uncertainty, he was able to complete his studies and receive his doctorate on July 21
st, 1938, albeit only under numerous symbolic discriminations, within the framework of a "non-Aryan doctorate", while at the same time being banned from working in the entire German Reich.
Innozenz Grafe also worked as an editor and proofreader for the Viennese
Phaidon publishing house of Béla Horovitz (1898-1955) and Ludwig Goldscheider (1896-1973) in these months before and after his graduation, until he was able to flee Vienna. He was able to emigrate via Switzerland - where he made up for the marriage to his wife Henrietta, which had already been planned for Vienna - to England/Great Britain, where he was able to continue his studies at
Wadham College of the
University of Oxford and also work at the
Bodleian Library in Oxford. Classified as a
friendly alien, he was able to continue his studies after the outbreak of war in October 1939 and was exempt from internment, but after the German conquest of Belgium, the Netherlands and France in 1940, he was classified as an
enemy alien and interned in England from June to October 1940. He was then later also involved in intelligence activities as a
secret listener.
His father, Dr. Felix Grafe (née Felix Löwy), was, as Innozenz Grafe states in the Nationale, a retired bank official of the
Bodencreditanstalt, but was primarily known as a writer and poet (his first poems appeared in the
Fackel by Karl Kraus (1874-1936) in 1910, editor of the journal
Der Anbruch from 1918-1920) and as a translator from English, French, Czech, and Italian, including William Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, and Charles Baudelaire. A private collector, expert and lover of prints, engravings and old manuscripts, he was employed as an expert in old books, manuscripts and Orientalia at the
Dorotheum auction house in Vienna from 1933. He had already left the Jewish Community of Vienna in 1908, and after a re-entry before his first marriage finally in 1921. At the request of his brother-in-law, he wrote a poem against Hitler in 1941, which was printed and distributed in the illegal KPÖ journal
Hammer und Sichel, which soon led to his arrest and for which he was sentenced to death by the People's Court of Vienna for "
Zersetzung der Wehrkraft" and "
Vorbereitung zum Hochverrat" (preparation for high treason) and executed on December 18
th, 1942 in the Vienna Regional Court.
Innozenz Grafe was able to rejoin the
Phaidon Press in England after the end of the war in 1946, which Horovitz had meanwhile moved to London. He lived with his family at 21 Cyril Mansions, Prince of Wales Dv., London S.W.11 and worked in the following decades as an editor, as a translator, and later as chief editor and one of the directors of the growing
Phaidon Press enterprise. His two daughters were also involved in publishing. He also served most recently as a freelance editor for the
Concise Oxford English Dictionary.
Innozenz Felix Grafe died on May 30
th, 1992 on a holiday trip though Switzerland.
Lit.: Archive of the University odf Vienna/enrollment forms ("Nationale") PHIL 1937–1938, final examination file and registry ("Rigorosenakt und -protokoll") PHIL 14517), graduation registry ("Promotionsprotokoll") PHIL 1931–1941, 2827; Lisl ALKER, Ed., Verzeichnis der an der Universitaet Wien approbierten Dissertationen 1937–1944, Vien na 1954, Nr. 1492; POSCH/INGRISCH/DRESSEL 2008, 395; Anna NYBURG, Emigres. The Transformation of Art Publishing in Britain. London 2014, 69–71, 186; Ernst FISCHER, Geschichte des deutschen Buchhandels 3.3.Suppl.: Verleger, Buchhaendler und Antiquare aus Deutschland und Oesterreich in der Emigration nach 1933. Ein biographisches Handbuch, 2. ueberarb. u. erw.. Auflage, Berlin u. Boston 2020, 163; www.genteam.at; www.ancestry.de.
Herbert Posch
