December 4

© 1997, 1998 by Paul A. Schons

December 4, 1875

Birth of Rainer Maria Rilke in Prague, Austria-Hungary (now in the Czech Republic). Rilke is the most known and respected of the Austrian poets of the 20th century. His life was a series of wanderings and experiments with new poetic structures. He called Munich, Paris, Rome, Russia, Switzerland, Austria, and Sweden home. He was significantly influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche. No doubt he was given many insights into the thought of Nietzsche during the years of friendship with Lou Salome, who had been a close friend of Nietzsche. Some of his most respected works include, Das Stundenbuch (1905), Das Marienleben (1913), Duineser Elegien (1923) and Sonette an Orpheus (1923). Rilke died of lukemia in 1926.

December 4, 1932

Through a series of calculated political moves Kurt von Schleicher forces the chancellor Franz von Papen to resign and is able to succeed him in the position. (In an attempt at revenge, von Papen will make a deal with Hitler allowing the Nazi leader to take the position of Chancellor. Von Papen believes he will be able to control him.)

December 4, 1933

Death of the lyric poet, Stefan George, in Minusio, Switzerland.

December 4, 1948

Founding of the Free University of (West) Berlin.

December 4, 1952

Death of Karen Horney in New York. She earned her M.D. from the University of Berlin. After several years of practice in psychiatry she immigrated to the U.S. She challenged many of Freud's ideas, holding that neuroses are caused by problems in interpersonal relationships. She was primarily disturbed by Freud's concepts of libido, the death wish and penis envy. She founded the Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis.

December 4, 1975

Death of Hannah Arendt in New York (born in Hannover, Germany). Arendt earned her doctorate at the University of Heidelberg. In 1933 she fled the new Nazi government first to France and then to the U.S A. In New York she became the director of the Conference on Jewish Relations, the chief editor of Schocken Books and the executive director of Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, Inc. Later she became a professor at the University of Chicago and the New School for Social Research in New York. Her books include, Origins of Totalitarianism, Eichmann in Jerusalem, On Violence and On Revolution.