Friedrich Polleross

Materialien zu tschechisch-österreichischen Kunsthistorikern im Archiv des Instituts für Kunstgeschichte der Universität Wien

The article offers an overview of the material to be found in the archive of the Department of Art History at the University of Vienna relating to art historians of the ‘Vienna School of Art History’ who were born or were active in what is today the Czech Republic. In the ‘Department Archive’ proper, files on Max Eisler and Hans Tietze have been preserved. The archive of students’ files contains material on Karla Biehlolawek, Fr. Hadmar Anton Borowan, Hedwig Gollob, Felix Horb, Heinrich Klapsia, George Saiko, Heinrich Schwarz, and Magda Starkenstein. In the ‘Collection of Bequests Made to the Department’ there are some individual documents referring to the activities of Alois Riegl, Josef Strzygowski, and Hans Sedlmayr in Prague and Brno. The bequests left by Wolfgang Kallab, Oskar von Kutschera-Woborsky, and Oskar Pollak are presented in greater detail. The biogra- phy of Max Dvořák can be supplemented by information on his early life found in the archive. Of particular interest are photos and letters from his childhood, details about his studies in Prague, and documents relating to a so far unknown dispute on plagiarism with the Berlin literature specialist Konrad Burdach concerning work on Bohemian manuscript illumination. The documents relat- ing to the activity of Karl M. Swoboda at the University in Prague in 1936–1945 confirm that he had a good relationship with his Czech colleagues and fellow-students, but also that he cooperated closely with representatives of the Nazi academic world. Thus for example Swoboda supported and propagated their ideology of the primacy of art by Germans in the Slavic lands.

Friedrich Polleross: friedrich.polleross@univie.ac.at

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