515:, John Mann argues that the contentions that so riled up the book's many critics were simply a clever ruse by Cornish designed to attract more readers. Mann writes: "Cornish is clever enough to know if he wrote a book on his 'no ownership' theory of language it would not have a wide readership. If he says this 'no ownership' theory was taught by Wittgenstein, learned and twisted for his own ends by Hitler, and actually needs Cornish to explain it all in great detail for the rest of the book he has the book reviewed in every paper and even serialised in the Sunday Times. ... If you’re looking for a book which offers history, politics, magic and philosophy, try
500:
and when the relevant Soviet archives are examined. But I am myself as confident as without such knock-down decisive verification it is possible to be that Mr
Cornish is right. On the other hand, 'On the very first page of Part III, Mr Cornish explains that the essence of this doctrine was expressed by Emerson in his restatement of the original Aryan doctrine of consciousness: '… the act of seeing and the thing seen, the see-er and the spectacle, the subject and the object is one'. I confess, not very shamefacedly, that confronted with such doctrines I want to quote Groucho Marx: 'It appears absurd. But don't be misled. It is absurd.'"
281:, a state school of about 300 students, and were there at the same time only from 1903 to 1904, according to Wittgenstein's biographers. While Hitler was just six days older than Wittgenstein, they were two grades apart at the school—Hitler was repeating a year and Wittgenstein had been advanced a year. Cornish's thesis is not only that Hitler knew the young Wittgenstein, but that he hated him, and that Wittgenstein was specifically the one Jewish boy from his school days referred to in
418:(1999), called Cornish's book important, writing: "For one thing, at the K.u.k. Realschule in Linz, Wittgenstein met Hitler and may have inspired in him a hatred of Jews which led, ultimately, to the Holocaust. This, naturally enough, weighed heavily on Wittgenstein's conscience in his later years ... It is overwhelmingly probable that Hitler and Wittgenstein did meet, and with dire consequences for the history of the world."
350:, and again in the thirties, either to work as a labourer or as a philosophy lecturer. Cornish argues that given the nature of the Soviet regime, the possibility that a non-Marxist philosopher (or even one over whom the government could exert no ideological control) would be offered such a post, is unlikely in the extreme.
499:
offers a mixed review: "Mr
Cornish contends that the reason why the government of the USSR treated Wittgenstein with such peculiar generosity was that he had been the recruiter of all the Cambridge spies. The question whether or not this hypothesis is true or false can be definitively settled only if
376:
in a perversion of early Aryan religious doctrines about the ultimate nature of man". Cornish also suggests that Hitler's oratorical powers in addressing the group mind of crowds and
Wittgenstein's philosophy of language and denial of mental privacy, are the practical and theoretical consequences of
291:
Likewise at school I found no occasion which could have led me to change this inherited picture. At the
Realschule, to be sure, I did meet one Jewish boy who was treated by all of us with caution, but only because various experiences had led us to doubt his discretion and we did not particularly
273:
photographic evidence unit in
Australia examined the photograph and confirmed that it was "highly probable" the boy is Wittgenstein. German government and U.S. sources date the photograph to 1901, slightly after Hitler's arrival at the school, but two years prior to Wittgenstein's enrollment.
487:
should have written it. It is not just that there are weak links in the theory. There are no links in the theory. No evidence that Hitler, in his final unhappy year, even knew a boy two years above him. If they did know each other, there is no evidence that he was the boy Hitler distrusted, no
425:
where Hitler seems to be raging against Jews in general it is the individual young Ludwig
Wittgenstein whom he has in mind', and to suggest that Wittgenstein 'may have inspired … (the) hatred of Jews which led, ultimately, to the Holocaust'. It is exactly this sort of sloppy, irresponsible,
492:
calls it "a stupid and dishonest book", and says " intention is to claim
Wittgenstein for his own brand of contemplative mysticism, which he defines as the great insight that IndoEuropeans (or, as he unregenerately terms them, Aryans) brought to Hinduism and Buddhism."
463:
was indirectly responsible, at least in part, for the
Holocaust. Cornish tries to deflect the implications of his argument thus: 'Whatever 'the Jews' may have done, nothing humanly justifies what was done to them.' But he then offers 'a thought that might occur to a
445:, I found myself wondering how on earth Cornish had confected so strange a piece of work. I found it by turns puzzling, funny, challenging and outrageously nutty... Cornish calls his book 'pioneer detective work', but I think it is really pioneer detective fiction."
306:
Cornish argues further that Hitler's anti-Semitism involved a projection of the young
Wittgenstein's traits onto the whole Jewish people. Wittgenstein did have three Jewish grandparents but Wittgenstein himself, and his mother and father, were Roman Catholics.
358:
Other sections of the book deal with
Cornish's theories about what he claims are the common roots of Wittgenstein's and Hitler's philosophies in mysticism, magic, and the "no-ownership" theory of mind. Cornish sees this as Wittgenstein's generalisation of
413:
One of the main issues of contention is the claim that Wittgenstein triggered or substantially contributed to Hitler's antisemitism while they were at school together. It is a view that has some support. British professor Laurence Goldstein, in his
437:, one of Wittgenstein's biographers, concentrates on the inconsistencies in Cornish's theory that Wittgenstein was the head of the Cambridge spy ring, asking why Cornish has apparently not bothered to verify any of his theories by checking the
29:
468:
Jew, and that is more fittingly a matter for Jewish, as opposed to gentile, reflection: the very engine that drove Hitler's acquisition of the magical powers that made his ascent and the Holocaust possible was the Wittgenstein
363:'s account of the Unity of the Will, in which despite appearances, there is only a single Will acting through the bodies of all creatures. This doctrine, generalized to other mental faculties such as thinking, is presented in
371:
who was one of Wittgenstein's electors to his Cambridge chair. Cornish tries to tie this to Wittgenstein's arguments against the idea of "mental privacy" and in conclusion says "I have attempted to locate the source of the
346:) when ideological conformity was at a premium amongst Soviet academics and enforced by the very harshest penalties. Wittgenstein wanted to emigrate to Russia, first in the twenties, as he wrote in a letter to
421:
Reviewing Goldstein's own book, Mary McGinn called it a sloppy and irresponsible argument: "ne is amazed at the sheer looseness of thought that allows him to assert that 'at certain points in
269:) in Linz, Austria, on his book cover. That boy in the top-right corner is undisputedly Hitler (see above right). Cornish alleges that Wittgenstein is the boy on the bottom left; he says the
488:
evidence that Hitler's remarks on snitching related to specific incidents at the Linz Realschule, no evidence that Wittgenstein informed on his fellow pupils." In the same journal,
426:'plausible' style of thought that Wittgenstein's philosophy, by its careful attention to the particular and to not saying more or less than is warranted, is directed against."
406:, there is no evidence that Wittgenstein was amongst the higher-level Soviet spies in the UK, or that he was a Soviet agent, or that he had pro-Soviet sympathies at all.
455:
as a "revisionist tract masquerading as psycho-history". He wrote, "Cornish correctly identifies 'the twist of the investigation' as the thesis that 'Nazi
385:
The book proved controversial, with reviewers criticizing it for drawing unwarranted connections between disparate events. The main criticisms were that:
395:
There is no evidence that there was a personal antagonism between them, or that Hitler's dislike of Wittgenstein shaped the course of Nazi anti-Semitism.
459:, as discernible in Hitler's writings... is nothing but Wittgenstein's theory of the mind modified so as to exclude the race of its inventor'. So the
812:
483:: "There is something heroic about this argument and it would be a good subject for a novel about the dangers of creating theories out of nothing.
842:
832:
837:
807:
113:
817:
802:
392:
Hitler and Wittgenstein did attend the same school at the same time, but there is little evidence that they knew each other.
776:
670:
235:, which resulted ultimately in the Nazi defeats on the Eastern Front and liberation of the surviving Jews from the camps.
332:
338:
He writes that the Soviet government offered Wittgenstein the chair in philosophy at what had been Lenin's university (
448:
574:
Enter "Hitler" and "1901" into search boxes. The class is identified as "1B" and the teacher as "Prof. Oskar Langer"
193:
138:
is a 1998 book by Australian writer Kimberley Cornish, in which the author alleges that the Austrian philosopher
409:
Cornish misrepresents Wittgenstein's thought and his philosophical context, or simply does not understand him.
217:
822:
266:
151:
213:
470:
364:
360:
154:) in Linz, Austria, in the early 1900s. Cornish also alleges that Wittgenstein was involved in the
139:
58:
508:
239:
197:
368:
108:
725:
Flew, Anthony. "The Jew of Linz: Wittgenstein, Hitler and their Secret Battle for the Mind,"
507:
argues that Cornish overestimates Hitler's intellectual capacities and uses fraudulent talks
484:
339:
120:
270:
645:
Clear and Queer Thinking: Wittgenstein's Development and His Relevance to Modern Thought
416:
Clear and Queer Thinking: Wittgenstein's Development and His Relevance to Modern Thought
347:
324:
316:
243:
228:
155:
315:
Cornish also argues that Wittgenstein is the most likely suspect as recruiter of the "
827:
796:
232:
209:
476:
403:
367:'s "Essays". The doctrine, writes Cornish, was also held by the Oxford philosopher
221:
173:
143:
69:
511:
claims to have had with Hitler to prove Hitler's alleged occultist interest." In
242:, the key to which is Wittgenstein's "no-ownership" theory of mind, described by
602:
586:
496:
489:
456:
343:
238:
Both Hitler's oratory and Wittgenstein's philosophy of language derive from the
201:
587:"Hitler, As youth; with classmates in school picture; Linz, Austria; June 1901"
473:
violation'. At this point, the nonsensical shades into the downright sinister.
319:" spy ring. The author suggests that Wittgenstein was responsible for British
320:
283:
261:
205:
147:
28:
740:
Hitlers Gott. Vorsehungsglaube und Sendungsbewußtsein des deutschen Diktators
671:"The Jew of Linz: Wittgenstein, Hitler and Their Secret Battle for the Mind"
373:
185:
398:
Despite the wealth of material which has emerged from the archives of the
786:
434:
328:
465:
292:
trust him; but neither I nor the others had any thoughts on the matter.
227:
Wittgenstein was responsible for the secret of decrypting the German "
562:
177:
630:. University of California Press, 1988, p. 51, and Monk, Ray.
438:
399:
335:
that liberated the camps and ultimately overthrew the Reich.
603:"Secondary-school classmates of Adolf Hitler in Linz, 1901"
331:
and that he thereby enabled the Red Army victories on the
121:
742:, Zürich München: Pendo, 2001, p. 95 and footnote 456.
563:"The Digital Picture Archives of the Federal Archives"
751:
Mann, John. "The Jew of Linz by Kimberley Cornish,"
119:
107:
99:
91:
81:
64:
54:
46:
38:
287:. The last claim referred to the following quote:
787:Nearly the entire photo with 41 boys & 1 man
686:Johnson, Daniel. "What didn't happen in Linz,"
289:
277:Wittgenstein and Hitler both attended the Linz
634:. Penguin, 2001 (first published 1990), p. 15.
158:Soviet spy ring during the Second World War.
8:
441:archives. Ultimately, Monk says "As I read
21:
628:Young Ludwig: Wittgenstein's Life 1889-1921
301:, 1943 English translation by Ralph Manheim
212:, all students at Trinity—as well as
259:Cornish used a school photograph from the
75:Der Jude aus Linz: Hitler und Wittgenstein
27:
20:
200:, Wittgenstein recruited fellow Apostles
632:Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius
528:
180:, circa 1904, with Ludwig Wittgenstein.
172:The occasion for Adolf Hitler becoming
771:Wittgenstein: Biography and Philosophy
183:In the 1920s, Wittgenstein joined the
535:Davis, Douglas. "Hitler's pet hate,"
7:
688:The Sunday Times Literary Supplement
773:. Cambridge University Press, 2001.
615:first published in Germany in 1935
389:Cornish's evidence is contentious.
146:when they were both pupils at the
14:
813:Books about Ludwig Wittgenstein
176:was a schoolboy interaction in
18:1998 book by Kimberley Cornish
1:
68:Century Books, an imprint of
843:Australian non-fiction books
833:Jews and Judaism in Austria
656:McGinn, Mary. "Hi Ludwig!"
354:No-ownership theory of mind
859:
838:20th-century history books
777:"Magnates and metaphysics"
605:. U.S. Library of Congress
589:. U.S. Library of Congress
402:since the collapse of the
323:technology for the German
33:Cover of the first edition
658:Times Literary Supplement
196:don, and a member of the
142:had a profound effect on
83:Published in English
77:(1998) by Ullstein Verlag
26:
808:Books about Adolf Hitler
647:. Duckworth, 1999, p.164
342:) at a time (during the
769:Klagge, James C. (ed.)
231:" code being passed to
220:—to work for the
818:English-language books
803:1998 non-fiction books
729:, Issue 32, July 1999.
304:
267:lower secondary school
152:lower secondary school
660:, 26 May 2000, p. 24.
643:Goldstein, Laurence.
738:Rissmann, Michael.
626:McGuinness, Brian.
365:Ralph Waldo Emerson
361:Arthur Schopenhauer
140:Ludwig Wittgenstein
59:Ludwig Wittgenstein
23:
509:Hermann Rauschning
327:code reaching the
311:The Cambridge Five
240:hermetic tradition
198:Cambridge Apostles
548:Strawson, Peter.
503:German historian
369:R. G. Collingwood
131:
130:
42:Kimberley Cornish
850:
783:, 14 March 1998.
756:
749:
743:
736:
730:
723:
717:
710:
704:
697:
691:
690:, 17 April 1998.
684:
678:
667:
661:
654:
648:
641:
635:
624:
618:
614:
612:
610:
598:
596:
594:
581:
575:
573:
571:
569:
559:
553:
552:. Methuen, 1958.
546:
540:
539:, 20 April 1998.
533:
505:Michael Rissmann
485:Vladimir Nabokov
430:Selected reviews
302:
123:
31:
24:
22:The Jew of Linz
858:
857:
853:
852:
851:
849:
848:
847:
793:
792:
791:
765:
763:Further reading
760:
759:
755:, 19 June 1998.
750:
746:
737:
733:
724:
720:
711:
707:
703:, 3 March 1998.
698:
694:
685:
681:
668:
664:
655:
651:
642:
638:
625:
621:
608:
606:
601:
592:
590:
585:
582:
578:
567:
565:
561:
560:
556:
547:
543:
534:
530:
525:
517:The Jew of Linz
453:The Jew of Linz
443:The Jew of Linz
432:
383:
377:this doctrine.
356:
313:
303:
296:
271:Victoria Police
257:
194:Trinity College
169:
164:
135:The Jew of Linz
92:Media type
84:
72:
34:
19:
12:
11:
5:
856:
854:
846:
845:
840:
835:
830:
825:
820:
815:
810:
805:
795:
794:
790:
789:
784:
774:
766:
764:
761:
758:
757:
753:Philosophy Now
744:
731:
718:
716:, 5 June 1998.
712:Kaveney, Roz.
705:
699:French, Sean.
692:
679:
662:
649:
636:
619:
617:
616:
599:
576:
554:
541:
537:Jerusalem Post
527:
526:
524:
521:
513:Philosophy Now
449:Daniel Johnson
431:
428:
411:
410:
407:
396:
393:
390:
382:
379:
355:
352:
348:Paul Engelmann
317:Cambridge Five
312:
309:
297:Adolf Hitler,
294:
256:
253:
252:
251:
244:P. F. Strawson
236:
225:
214:Donald Maclean
190:
181:
168:
165:
163:
160:
156:Cambridge Five
129:
128:
125:
117:
116:
111:
105:
104:
101:
97:
96:
93:
89:
88:
85:
82:
79:
78:
73:In Germany as
66:
62:
61:
56:
52:
51:
48:
44:
43:
40:
36:
35:
32:
17:
13:
10:
9:
6:
4:
3:
2:
855:
844:
841:
839:
836:
834:
831:
829:
826:
824:
823:Pseudohistory
821:
819:
816:
814:
811:
809:
806:
804:
801:
800:
798:
788:
785:
782:
781:The Economist
778:
775:
772:
768:
767:
762:
754:
748:
745:
741:
735:
732:
728:
722:
719:
715:
714:New Statesman
709:
706:
702:
701:New Statesman
696:
693:
689:
683:
680:
676:
672:
666:
663:
659:
653:
650:
646:
640:
637:
633:
629:
623:
620:
604:
600:
588:
584:
583:
580:
577:
564:
558:
555:
551:
545:
542:
538:
532:
529:
522:
520:
518:
514:
510:
506:
501:
498:
494:
491:
486:
482:
481:New Statesman
479:wrote in the
478:
474:
472:
467:
462:
458:
454:
450:
446:
444:
440:
436:
429:
427:
424:
419:
417:
408:
405:
401:
397:
394:
391:
388:
387:
386:
380:
378:
375:
370:
366:
362:
353:
351:
349:
345:
341:
336:
334:
333:Eastern Front
330:
326:
322:
318:
310:
308:
300:
293:
288:
286:
285:
280:
275:
272:
268:
264:
263:
254:
249:
245:
241:
237:
234:
233:Joseph Stalin
230:
226:
223:
219:
215:
211:
210:Anthony Blunt
207:
203:
199:
195:
191:
188:
187:
182:
179:
175:
171:
170:
166:
161:
159:
157:
153:
149:
145:
141:
137:
136:
126:
124:
122:LC Class
118:
115:
114:0-7126-7935-9
112:
110:
106:
102:
98:
94:
90:
86:
80:
76:
71:
67:
63:
60:
57:
53:
49:
45:
41:
37:
30:
25:
16:
780:
770:
752:
747:
739:
734:
726:
721:
713:
708:
700:
695:
687:
682:
677:, Sept 1998.
674:
665:
657:
652:
644:
639:
631:
627:
622:
607:. Retrieved
591:. Retrieved
579:
566:. Retrieved
557:
549:
544:
536:
531:
516:
512:
504:
502:
495:
480:
475:
460:
452:
447:
442:
433:
422:
420:
415:
412:
404:Soviet Union
384:
357:
337:
314:
305:
298:
290:
282:
278:
276:
260:
258:
247:
246:in his book
222:Soviet Union
218:Trinity Hall
216:from nearby
184:
174:anti-Semitic
144:Adolf Hitler
134:
133:
132:
74:
70:Random House
15:
669:Monk, Ray.
550:Individuals
497:Antony Flew
490:Roz Kaveney
477:Sean French
461:Jew of Linz
457:metaphysics
344:Great Purge
248:Individuals
202:Guy Burgess
797:Categories
423:Mein Kampf
321:decryption
299:Mein Kampf
284:Mein Kampf
279:Realschule
262:Realschule
255:Realschule
206:Kim Philby
148:Realschule
127:B3376.W564
727:Free Life
381:Reception
374:Holocaust
186:Comintern
65:Publisher
675:Quadrant
471:Covenant
435:Ray Monk
329:Red Army
295:—
162:Contents
47:Language
466:Hasidic
451:viewed
250:(1958).
167:Summary
55:Subject
50:English
609:13 May
593:13 May
568:13 May
325:Enigma
229:Enigma
39:Author
523:Notes
340:Kazan
192:As a
100:Pages
95:Print
828:Linz
611:2011
595:2011
570:2011
208:and
178:Linz
109:ISBN
87:1998
519:."
439:KGB
400:KGB
103:298
799::
779:,
673:,
204:,
613:.
597:.
572:.
265:(
224:.
189:.
150:(
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
