Heinz Politzer

Heinz Politzer (December 31, 1910 – July 30, 1978) was an internationally recognized academic and author. As a young man he was forced to flee Nazism first to Palestine and then to the United States, where he taught German language and literature as a professor at the Bryn Mawr College, Oberlin College, and the University of California, Berkeley. He was a literary scholar, published poet, and prominent editor, particularly of Franz Kafka. As a close associate of Kafka's protégé, Max Brod, Politzer coedited with Brod the first complete collection of Kafka's works in eight volumes, published initially by the Schocken publishing house of Berlin during the early years of the Nazi dictatorship and subsequently by the successor firm Schocken Books in New York.
Life.
Politzer was born in Vienna to Marie (née Löwenthal) and Moritz Sigmund Politzer, a courtroom lawyer. After completing secondary schooling at a humanities-focused Gymnasium in 1929, he enrolled at the University of Vienna and studied German and English literatures. He transferred in 1931 to the Charles University in Prague, where he began dissertation research on Kafka. In 1933-35, he collaborated with Max Brod, comparing the already published versions of Kafka's books with the original manuscripts in order to prepare volumes 1-4 of Kafka's collected works for publication. He also worked on parts of volume 5 prior to emigrating.
Fleeing fascism, Politzer moved to Palestine in 1938. There he befriended Martin Buber and enrolled from 1938 to 1940 at the Hebrew University. He was involved with the American Guild for German Cultural Freedom in 1938-39, prior to relocating to the U.S. in 1947, where he matriculated at Bryn Mawr College. He taught there as an instructor, completed a Ph.D. in 1950 with a dissertation on Kafka (work for which had begun in Prague), and advanced to an assistant professorship. He was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1952 and in the same year converted from Judaism to Episcopalianism. In 1976, he converted to Roman Catholicism.
Politzer taught and conducted research as an associate professor at Oberlin College starting in 1952, and then in 1960 received an appointment as a full professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where he held tenure until his retirement in 1978. His scholarly focus was on the writings and influence of Franz Kafka, German and Austrian literature, Fin-de-Siecle Vienna, and the psychoanalytical approach to literary interpretation. During the last decade of his life, he became immersed in the works of Sigmund Freud, resulting in his volume "Freud and Tragedy," which appeared posthumously (German edition 2003, English version 2006). He was a highly respected teacher, especially beloved by the graduate students who took part in his advanced seminars.
With his first wife, Ilse née Schröter, he had one daughter, Maria. He was survived by his second wife, Jane née Horner, with whom he had four sons, Michael, David, Stephen, and Eric, as well as his sister Kate. In recognition of his many contributions to the study of Austrian literature and culture, his ashes are interred at the historic Petersfriedhof in Salzburg, Austria.
Awards and honors.
Among many prizes and honors, he was three times a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship (1958, 1966, 1974). In 1963, the Commonwealth Club of California awarded him its Silver Medal. In his homeland, he received the Austrian Cross (1966), the Grillparzer Ring (1972), and the Vienna Humanities Prize (1974) as well as an invitation to deliver the inaugural address at the 1976 Salzburg Music Festival. He also was awarded the key to the City of Vienna. Germany conferred upon him an Officer's Cross, and on his 65th birthday his colleagues presented him with a "Festschrift".