| Erik Von Kuehnelt-leddihn |
Article Index for Erik |
Website Links For Erik |
Information AboutErik Von Kuehnelt-leddihn |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT ERIK VON KUEHNELT-LEDDIHN | |
| austrian anti-communists | |
| austrian nobility | |
| austrian philosophers | |
| austrian roman catholics | |
| fascist---nazi era scholars and writers | |
| classical liberals | |
| conservatives | |
| 1909 births | |
| 1999 deaths | |
| polyglots | |
|
LIFE Kuehnelt-Leddihn was born in Austria . At the age of 16, he became the Vienna correspondent of '' The Spectator ''. From then on, he wrote for the rest of his life. He studied civil and canon law at the University Of Vienna at the age of eighteen. From there, he went to the University Of Budapest , from which he received an M.A. in Economics and his doctorate in Political Science . Moving back to Vienna, he took up studies in Theology . In 1935 , Kuehnelt-Leddihn travelled to England to become a Schoolmaster at Beaumont College , a Jesuit Public School (UK) . Subsequently he moved to the United States, where he taught at Georgetown University (1937-38), Saint Peter's College , New Jersey (head of the History and Sociology Department, 1938-43), Fordham University (Japanese, 1942-43), and Chestnut Hill College , Philadelphia (1943-47). After publishing books like ''Jesuiten, Spießer und Bolschewiken'' in 1933 (published in German by Pustet, Salzburg) and ''The Menace of the Herd'' in 1943, in which he criticised the National Socialists as well as the Socialists directly or between the lines, he could not return to Nazi-occupied Austria. After the in 1930-1931, and eventually travelled to every state in the United States . Von Kuehnelt-Leddihn wrote for a variety of publications, including '' Chronicles '' and the '' Catholic World ''. He also worked with the Acton Institute , who declared him after his death "a great friend and supporter."1 WORK His socio-political writings dealt with the origins and the philosophical and cultural currents that formed Nazism . He endeavored to explain the intricacies of Monarchist concepts and the systems of Europe , cultural movements such as Hussitism and Protestantism , and what he perceived as the disastrous effects of an American policy derived from anti-monarchical feelings and a concomitant ignorance of European culture and history. Kuehnelt-Leddihn directed some of his most significant critiques towards Wilsonian foreign policy activism. Traces of Wilsonianism could be detected in the foreign policies of Franklin D. Roosevelt ; specifically, the assumption that Democracy is the ideal political system in any context. Kuehnelt-Leddihn believed that Americans misunderstood much of Central European culture, including but not limited to the Austro-Hungarian Empire , which Kuehnelt-Leddihn claimed was one of the contributing factors to the rise of Nazism. He also highlighted characteristics of the German society and culture (especially the influences of both Protestant and Catholic mentalities) and attempted to explain the sociological undercurrents of Nazism. Contrary to the common historical view, Kuehnelt-Leddihn asserted that Nazism was a Leftist , Democratic movement ultimately rooted in the French Revolution that unleashed forces of Egalitarianism , Identitarianism , Materialism and Centralization . He essentially argued that Nazism, Fascism and Communism were essentially democratic movements, based upon inciting the masses to revolution and intent upon destroying the old forms of society. Furthermore, Kuehnelt-Leddihn claimed that all democracy is basically Totalitarian and that all democracies eventually degenerate into Dictatorship s. In ''Liberty or Equality'', his is not based on party rule, and it "fits organically into the ecclesiastic and familistic pattern of Christian society". Thus he concluded that monarchical government is actually more "liberal", in that it provides greater liberty. As modern life becomes increasingly complicated across many different sociopolitical levels, Kuehnelt-Leddihn submits that the Scita — the political, economic, technological, scientific, military, geographical, psychological knowledge of the masses and of their representatives — and the '''Scienda''' — the knowledge in these matters that is necessary to reach logical-rational-moral conclusions — are separated by an incessantly and cruelly widening gap and that democratic governments are totally inadequate for such undertakings. QUOTATIONS
WRITINGS Novels
Socio-political works
NOTES AND REFERENCES SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
|
|
|