Page - 215 - in Guido Adlers Erbe - Restitution und Erinnerung an der Universität Wien

© 2017, V&R unipress GmbH, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783847107217 – ISBN E-Lib: 9783737007214 BN: MyguessisthatAdler,personally,didn’thaveareligiousbackground,and wouldn’t haveworried about the ethnicity aspect until theNazis forced himintoit.Ontheotherhand,thereisastatementinhisautobiography,it begins with a statement about his religion. He talks about a kind of a broad, not specifically Jewish at all, religion. “MeineReligionbesteht in der Ehrfurcht vorGott, derAchtung jederKonfession, sofern siemora- lischenGesetzen, ethischenNormenentspricht, inderNächstenliebe, in der Liebe zur Natur.”39 It says nothing about Judaism at all, anywhere. PVB: No,butit’s interestinghementionsit,asif there’ssomereasontodothat. BN: That’s right, buthemakesapointof saying really that Ihave thisbroad view. It’s interesting thathe shoulddo it, butontheotherhand,he said thatbasically: Idon’thaveany real religion inaspecific sense. “Endlich Furchtlosigkeit vor dem Tode, Mut und Kraft in allen Lebenslagen, CharakterstärkeundWeichheit.”40ThiswaswrittenwhentheNaziswere alreadyaround,not yet inAustria, but inGermany. OntheCzechQuestion BN: IntheautobiographyhealsoemphasizesquiteabithisSudeten-German background fromsouthernMoravia. PVB: Which is a connectiontoMahler, of course. BN: Ofcourse, theywere fromthe same town, lived in the same town, Iglau. This may have also helped inmy father’s case: dwellers in the Czech Lands.InthosedaysinMoraviaandBohemia,theCzechswereinterlopers in some respects. I don’t know, for example, whether Adler spoke any Czech. PVB: In Iglauyoudidn’thave to. BN: No, thoughmy fatherwouldn’thavehadtoeither, living inHohenelbe,41 but in fact he did. As far as living in Praguewas concerned,Adler also livedinPrague.Inthosedaysyoudidn’thavetoknowmuchCzech.Ihave a feeling, however, thatAdlermust haveknownsomeCzech. Intelligent people tended topickupCzech. PVB: Even inMoravia it’s in theair. EthnicandRacialDistinctions PVB: Are there any things youwant to say about the “anxietyof influence.” I don’t think there are any such anxieties with Adler in some sense. In in1936.ShestudiedinTelAvivandtookherPh.D.at theUniversityofZürich.Herresearch rangedwidely, largelyover topics in Jewishmusic. 39 Adler:WollenundWirken(Anm.8),S. 1. 40 Ibid. 41 PaulNettl’s birthplace, todayVrchlab& in theCzechRepublic. Adler inAmerica–AConversation 215 Open-Access-Publikation im Sinne der CC-Lizenz BY-NC-ND 4.0