These two children were born in the declining era when the once glorious Austro-Hungarian Empire went into decline. Austria once dominated the fate of Europe, but now Prussia has taken its place as the dominant force in Germany. The Austrian emperor ruled a large territory and ethnic groups from Bosnia to Ukraine. This empire is huge, weak and clumsy, and the greatest wish of its aristocratic elite is to save themselves and enjoy the prosperous and elegant lifestyle of Vienna.
The Viennese novelist Robert Musil commented: "We have no ambition of world market or world hegemony." . "Despite spending huge sums of money on armaments, it can only maintain the status of the Austro-Hungarian Empire as the last among the great powers ... The state institutions are managed by the best bureaucrats in Europe in an enlightened and restrained way. Their only shortcoming is that they regard the genius and outstanding initiative without the support of noble blood and senior officials as arrogant and presumptuous."
However, Austria is indeed full of talents. Sigmund freud revealed the sexual psychosis of the upper class in Vienna; Gustav klimt decorated the Viennese family with intricate new art, but it was replaced by the avant-garde fashion of Adolf Luce, a pioneer of modernism. Ohannes brahms still haunts the salons of the rich; Gustav mahler offended Vienna's elegant taste with unrestrained music; Arnold Schoenberg stunned the audience and musicians; Arthur schnitzler described bourgeois hedonism, satire, cynicism and conceit; The satirist karl kraus attacked the hypocrisy and corruption of the bourgeoisie. 1Ludwig Wittstein, one of the two children born in April, 889, grew up in this ideological turmoil. He is a member of a wealthy family in Vienna. Facing the rising anti-Semitism, the family tried to cut off the connection with Jewish roots by converting to Christianity. Ludwig's father, Carl Wittgenstein, owned a steel factory, but he became one of the richest men in Austria-Hungary by forming a cartel with the rothschild family. These two families produced more than 60% of the steel in the empire and controlled the railway and tire industries.
Although nominally Catholic, the Jewish descent of the Wittgenstein family is well known. The atmosphere at home is pure elegant culture. Brahms is a frequent visitor to the family music salon. So is Mahler. pablo casals plays the cello there. Carl Wittgenstein is a patron of visual arts. He not only appreciates Klimt's sensory effects, but also likes Oscar Kokosika's avant-garde expressionism.
Ludwig's knowledge was taught by private tutors until he was 14 years old, but in 1904, his father decided to get rid of this pampered and elegant cultural atmosphere and send him to a national school in a remote province. The reason here is unknown, but one of Ludwig's brothers Hans committed suicide in 1902, and the other brother Rudolf committed suicide in 1904. They are all homosexuals, and Rudolph despaired of his "abnormal temperament" in his desperate letter. Ludwig, a thin boy with a sharp voice and stuttering, grew up to be a doctor.
Active homosexuals.
Carl Wittgenstein registered him at Linzl School, which is 0/00 miles away from/kloc. Ludwig lodged with a teacher. According to his biographer, his first impression when he saw his classmates was that they were all regarded as "smelly dung". They think he is a nasty pretender. He felt very unhappy, did poorly in his lessons and stayed there for a short time.
However, this is not an episode that can be forgotten because of pain and ultimately insignificant. On the contrary, Lille School in Linz is very important, because the behavior of another student there will usher in a new era of the twentieth century, which of course refers to Adolf Hitler from Braunau.
Hitler was born in a very different social class from Wittgenstein's family, and he was ashamed of his family. His family originally came from Wald Viertl, a remote and desolate area in northern Austria. "Inbreeding is very common among farmers, and Hitler's family is no exception. Many family members are deformed children and mental patients, "Ronald Hyman wrote in Hitler and Gerry, a book describing the Fuehrer's childhood.
His father alois is the illegitimate child of a farmer. He managed to become famous locally. As a customs officer, his family is very rich. As alois's maid, lover and third wife, his mother Clara played different roles in the family.
She doted on Adolf, who was young and sick, but did not interfere when the child was beaten by his father when he grew up. Hyman wrote that although she "loved, respected and obeyed" her husband, "young Hitler knew that bullying was an effective means."
When Hitler was a teenager, he went to Lille School in Linz to attend middle school, where he was regarded as a withdrawn student with poor grades. Just then, Wittgenstein came to this school in the second phase of 1904. In this way, the two most outstanding figures of the 20th century gathered in this school with only 300 failed students.
Although they are the same age, they are not in the same class, because Hitler stayed one grade and Wittgenstein jumped one. However, there are strange similarities between them. They are unhappy because they are far away from their families, and they all find it difficult to communicate with their classmates.
Both of them address their classmates as "Mr", while in general, students call each other "Du". Hitler did it out of arrogance, while Wittgenstein did it because he didn't know the difference between the two titles.
A photo of the school at that time showed that two 14 students were separated by only one arm. Hitler looked lonely and gloomy, while Wittgenstein stared at the camera eagerly.
Their respective interests are similar. Both of them are addicted to the power of architecture and language. Both of them showed great enthusiasm for Schopenhauer, a philosopher in the19th century. Wittgenstein recited Wagner's opera The Famous Singer, and so did Hitler. Both of them have the talent of whistling, and they can play their favorite music accurately for a long time. According to contemporaries, Hitler whistled with a strange and loud vibrato. Wittgenstein often corrects those who are even slightly out of tune.
Teenagers with the same thoughts and interests can often get together, but both boys have arrogant personalities, which made them omnipotent in the twentieth century. So conflict is inevitable.
Please compare Wittgenstein's report about his habit of correcting others with the following description of Hitler, the head of the war: "One night during the war, Hitler was whistling and playing classical music. When a secretary took the liberty of pointing out that the music he played was wrong, the Fuehrer flew into a rage and shouted, "I'm not wrong, but the composer made a mistake." "
More importantly, Hitler knew his art. When he was young, his clumsy paintings were modeled after the Austrian master Rudolf von Aart. Wittgenstein comes from a family whose walls are covered with Alte's works. Hitler often went to the opera house when he was a student, so did Wittgenstein. But it's a piece of cake for him to wear that expensive costume to the opera house. In addition, many bandleaders, composers and musicians visited his home. Hitler complained in his later years: "Jewelry pushed Brahms to the top. He is regarded as a celebrity in the salon. " As far as Brahms is concerned, the biggest salon is the Wittgenstein family.
In Mein Kampf, Hitler tried to deny that he came from an anti-Semitic family. Some critics blamed his persecution of Jews on the pamphlets he read after leaving school. But in my opinion, it seems ridiculous that just reading pamphlets can cause such deep-rooted hatred.
According to records, Kubisek, Hitler's only friend at school, once said that he was "obviously anti-Semitic" at school. The real clue comes from somewhere in Mein Kampf, when Hitler mentioned that there was a Jewish student in the school "we don't trust him very much".
He wrote, "All kinds of experiences make us doubt his judgment."
Although there are some other Jewish students in Lille School, Wittgenstein fully fits the above description. He is almost paranoid on the issue of honesty, and believes that honesty is the most important quality in interpersonal relationships. He feels that being honest with others is an urgent need, so sometimes he will take the initiative to confess to others. This is a common symptom of nervousness and loneliness, and people with this symptom regard confession as a means to establish intimate relationships.
Wittgenstein recorded "a conversation with his classmates about repentance" shortly after he went to Lille School in his password diary of his student days. However, this kind of brave behavior, which is regarded as shirtless by gentle and well-educated Viennese, may be disdainful in the eyes of less noble rural children, especially when this confession brings them trouble. Short, thin and stuttering gay teenagers are often abused at school, especially when they show their true feelings.
In the second volume of Mein Kampf, there is a long section attacking students' repentance and betrayal. Hitler finally concluded: "A boy who informs on his companion is betrayal, which reflects this mentality ... just like betraying his motherland. This kind of boy must not be regarded as a kind and decent child ... It is not uncommon for a little spy to grow into a villain. "
What is the connection here? Hitler's fierce father died, and the children began to behave badly. He was ordered to drop out of school at the end of the year.
In Mein Kampf, Hitler also tells the story of his later contact with other Jews, trying to defend his anti-Semitism. However, the Jewish student in Lille School was described as the first and only person he met, not that type. Something must have happened between Hitler and Wittgenstein at school. I think what we are facing is a shocking possibility, that is, the quarrel between these two middle school students may have completely changed the development process of the twentieth century.
If I am not mistaken, Wittgenstein's complex and irritable personality is part of the reason for a series of anti-Semitic incidents, which eventually led to the attempt to exterminate the Jewish nation in Europe. Hitler's complex and irritable personality was rejected by Wittgenstein's personality, so he imposed the defects of Wittgenstein's specific personality on the whole Jewish nation.
Closely related to Hitler's anger towards Jews, the Wittgenstein family's unparalleled wealth and power in Austrian industrial and cultural life is in sharp contrast with Hitler's bumpkin background in Braunau town.
The description of Hitler's anti-Semitism in the past assumed that he didn't know any rich Jews. Now the problem is quite clear-as early as a sensitive teenager-among his classmates are the most important family members in the industrial sector controlled by Jews in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Hitler will never be unaware of this, nor will he notice the extravagance and debauchery of Carl Wittgenstein when he was on holiday in the south of France-my struggle also condemned this. He would never fail to know that Karl Wittgenstein was the most active artistic athlete at that time, that is, the main sponsor of the "Vienna Separatists" headed by gustav klimt. One of Klimt's famous paintings is ludwig wittgenstein's sister. When this school of art later split, Hitler was an artist struggling to survive in Vienna; He soon became a die-hard follower of the anti-Wittgenstein school.
He seems to have collected more information about the Wittgenstein family from the newspaper, which is also shown in the second half of Mein Kampf. He viciously attacked Jews who converted to Christianity and married Aryans (the Wittgenstein family pretended to have German nobles in their ancestors); Jews who manipulate the stock market (Wittgenstein's father often faces such public condemnation); Jews who cheated the public (Wittgenstein's father had a column in Hitler's must-read newspaper); Jews who control the economy (Wittgenstein-Rothschild family is a complete "Jewish monopoly capital").
Hitler dreamed of turning Linz into a bigger art center than Vienna all his life. Art treasures are continuously transported from all over Europe to the Hitler Museum here. This is not only helping his hometown, but also pushing the Wittgenstein family's nose into the mud. As for the Wittgenstein steel company, Hitler established the Hermann G?ring steel plant in Linz and annexed the Wittgenstein cartel's factory.
The plan of Linz and Hitler Museum is a comfort to the Fuehrer who hid in the underground reinforced concrete bunker in Berlin in the spring of 1945 because of the approaching Soviet artillery fire. This is the unfinished business of his life-as for the Jews-he taught them a painful lesson. They can't laugh at him now and never will.
However, the real ending of this story took place in Cambridge in A.D. 1930. After graduating from high school, Wittgenstein went to Berlin and Manchester to study engineering. This aroused his interest in mathematics and logic, and finally brought him to Cambridge, where the philosopher Bertrand Russell considered him a genius.
During the First World War, he wrote his thoughts on logic and ethics in the form of reading notes out of reckless courage when serving in the Austrian army. After the defeat of Austria and Germany, these notes were published in the book Philosophy of Logic. This extremely difficult book is regarded as a classic by later generations. It discusses how language and human thought are possible. In the words of British philosopher Brian Magee, it "emphasizes that almost all important things cannot be clarified at all, and can only be expressed in words at most." In that way
At that time, and in the following decades, people thought it expressed the opposite meaning.
Wittgenstein became one of the richest men in postwar Austria through inheritance, but he gave up his wealth and chose poverty instead of academic status, preferring obscurity. After donating most of the money, he became a teacher in a rural primary school. He also gained a reputation as a leftist and talked to a friend about "fleeing to Russia".
Vienna is a place where rival political factions compete. The experience of the British Left in the11930 s is almost the same as that of those who had to endure life in Vienna in the mid-1920 s, but Wittgenstein did not go to Russia, but returned to Cambridge University as a philosophy lecturer. The reason why he did this is still puzzling, because critics agree that he hates academic life and the scholars of Trinity College.
He had several particularly interesting contemporaries in Trinity College, including Kim philby (1929), Guy Burgess (1930 10) and Anthony Brent (1932), who later became a spy. Donald McLean is studying in Trinity Hall nearby. Shortly after Wittgenstein returned to Cambridge, these people all believed in productism.
Of course, the simple fact that they are all at Trinity College doesn't mean anything-but Wittgenstein knows that all of them, either through academic work, or through the ideological turmoil that dominated Cambridge in the 1930s, or through his homosexual tendencies-and more importantly, through secret thoughts, "communicate" with the group "theApostles".
Wittgenstein is not only known as a leftist, but also known as a Stalinist. I don't want to make a fuss about this, but the following question has never been answered satisfactorily: who is the Soviet spy who recruited troops and organized a spy network in Cambridge? Some people have put forward various lists, but one possible assumption is that this mysterious figure is Wittgenstein. It was this long-sought member of Trinity College's gay Apostolic Society who recruited Brent and other Cambridge spies.
In the past, all investigators who tracked recruiters focused on teachers or sympathizers of party member University who were born openly. However, based on this assumption, 50 years of meticulous detective work has not found any clues. People have different views on this mysterious recruiter, but everyone agrees that he is an extraordinary figure: but no one doubts that he may be the most outstanding thinker in the twentieth century.
Although Wittgenstein is a loyal defender of Stalin, as far as we know, he is not party member; But he has influenced many people's lives. There is no doubt that all his students were moved by his speech and responded to the extraordinary power of his majestic and charming personality. "People just think that he is the representative of God on earth," said a member of the Apostolic Society at that time.
Among the teachers in Trinity College, who can make students regard him as a god? How many people can fully realize the root of Hitler's hatred of Jews and what kind of person is Hitler? When the Nazi movement rose in Munich, how many of them worked in Bavaria on the border? How many people have witnessed Nazi anti-government armed riots, or strikers lying dead on the streets? How many people have seen desperate and frustrated Jewish refugees pouring into Austria?
This person must think, "I can help, and I will choose those who can promote international production in my opinion, because the latter is the only international organization that advocates armed resistance to Hitler." Wittgenstein studied Russian, went to the Soviet Union and once wanted to live there. How many teachers in Cambridge will actively welcome the society living under Stalin?
Wittgenstein's name is associated with many actors in Cambridge spy war plays in various ways. If this suspicion is correct, then his disciples transferred the top secret information of Britain to Stalin in World War II, and the "Jews" who became Hitler's nightmare really contributed to his downfall. If this assumption is correct, then Wittgenstein is the most outstanding spy recruiter in the twentieth century. Like philby, Burgess, McLean and Brent, he escaped from the executioner's clutches, while his old classmates and opponents shot themselves in Berlin.