DLA019-0005  Transcription 

DR. JOSEF STRASSER

WIEN 1.

KOHLMESSERGASSE 5

27. October 1930.

Sir, –

I beg to submit to you a request with regard to a literary matter.

I am occupied in writing a psychological research work on the growth of the far-reaching decisions in the careers of leading personalities of modern civilization. From the personal statements of prominent men and women of our time I have tried to draw a picture of the inner psychological happenings. I asked them three questions, in order to deduct from their answers general psychological laws. Many complied with my request and answered these questions. I mention the names of the politicians: the former Federal Chancellor of Austria, prelate Dr. Seipel, the former Chancellor of the German Empire Scheidemann, the Counts Leopold Berchtold and Sforza, the General Lettow-Vorbeck; the scientist: Prof. Dr. Albert Einstein, Benedetto Croce, Count H. Keyserling, Dr. Wagner-Jauregg, Dr. S. Freud;the writers: G.B. Shaw, John Galsworthy, Thomas Mann, Paul Valéry, Selma Lagerlöf, Rabindranath Tagore; the artists: Furtwängler, Prof. Dr. A. Schönberg, W. Kienzl, Max v. Slevogt, u.a.m.

The leading position you hold in the field of art, suggested to me to ask you most humbly to be kind enough to answer the following questions:

1./ Which resolution reached by you seems to you the decisive and the farest reaching in your career?

2./ Did you come to this resolution spontaneously without a long inner struggle, without consulting others and without being influenced by them?

3./ Were you influenced in coming to the resolution by the prospect of a decisive success, or exclusively by a moral principle?

Should you comply with my request I beg you to consider in detail the individual points of view, impulses and sentiments, which influenced you.

Mine being a serious scientific work I shall be most grateful to you for any help you can give me by answering my questions.

Yours truly

Dr. Joseph Strasser

Editorial Note:

For de Laszlo’s reply, see DLA019-0004, letter from de László to Josef Strasser, 14 November 1930

SMDL

21/05/2018