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THE ROBITSCHEK CORRESPONDENCE PROJECT |  |
| July 30, 1917 - written to Miss Frida Robitschek from Praskoles(y), then in Austria but subsequently in Czhechoslovakia. | ||
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The picture has been cut from an illustration printed on card stock. It shows a woman on a formal terrace overlooking an idealic scene - a large body of water with far shores and mountains beyond. But the position of her apron suggests that she is looking back along the terrace to whatever lies beyond the viewer. If she is the truth and the law, revealed in a fountain of light, standing in an ideal world of God's conception, then the viewer of this scene must be the aspairing Judge who is charged with maintaining the world in all its beauty and purity?
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Der Richter muss ein Reiner sein,
Der Wahrheit und dem Recht Vermählter Ein Quell des Lichts, ein Feind dem Schein Ein Gottgesandter, Auserwählter. Sein Feld muss frei von Disteln sein, Gepflägt, geggt, der Saat gewogen, Der Schoss empfänglichrein von Nein, Zum Segen und zur Frucht gezogen. Er muss ein Friedensrufer sein, Den Hass verscheuchen, Zwiste heilen Dann wird er Frei im Volkeshain Ein grosser, nicht Entthronter, weiter. |
The judge must be a clean one
Married to the truth and law, A fountain of light, an enemy of sham A messenger from god, chosen. His field must be free of thistles well kept, harrowed, the seed weighed The shoot unpolluted of No, Grown for the blessing and the fruit He must be a caller of peace To drive away hate , to heal discord The he will be free in the peoples grove A great one, not removed from the throne, further | |
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Am vierten Jahrestage des grauenvollen Völkermordens fliehen
die unzähbaren Russenheer in regelloser Zerüttung vor den Siegerkolonnen der Deutschen und Österreicher, ist das grosse Russenreich bis in sein innerstes Mark erschüttert und sein Tzar des Thrones und Herrschaft entsetzt, ein vebauter und Machtloser. Bände können den psychologischen Inhalt dieser Weltscheining nicht erschöpfen und diese Spaltseite soll nur die Frage aufwerfen ob der übergewaltige Beherrscher aller Russen von der Vohrsehung berufen war, inden von fern keichhund England gewaltsam aufgeworfenen Gegensatz zu dem friedlichen Deutschland und Österreich seiner ganzen Heeres Kraft eingerufen? |
On the fourth anniversary of the terrible people killing flee the
uncountable Russian armies in unruly ruin before the winning German and Austrian columns; the great Russian Empire is shaken to the core and their Tsar removed from rule and the throne, ruined and powerless. Tomes could not fathom the psychological meaning of this world image and this division can only bring up the question, if the mighty ruller of all Russians was called by providence, while from afar ?---? England forcible throws up opposition against peaceful Germany and Austria, to commit his Army's entire might. | |
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Here we have three of the great forces in the Austrian world of 1917. The Crown, the Monarchy, monolithic and powerful, an empire out of joint with time, symbolically reduced to a 10 heller crown, and surviving by sheer mass and momentum. And within this dying empire, fiercely independent peoples with their own idea of the world and of history - Tirol for the Tiroleans! We're spreading our wings and will not be denied!
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And elsewhere, the German cultural movement, young and full of vitality right in the heart of the capital, Vienna. And what of the Emperor? Why he's fighting a world war while the sand is shifting beneath his feet.
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THE ROBITSCHEK CORRESPONDENCE PROJECT | |