Franz Marek

Franz Marek (1913–1979) was an Austrian communist politician who edited Weg und Ziel, a monthly journal of the Communist Party of Austria. British historian Eric Hobsbawm described Franz Marek as the hero of the 20th century.[1]

Franz Marek
Born
Ephraim Feuerlicht

18 April 1913
Przemyśl
Died28 June 1979(1979-06-28) (aged 66)
Years active1930s–1970
Political partyCommunist Party of Austria (1934–1970)
SpouseTilly Spiegel (div. 1974)

Early life

He was born Ephraim Feuerlicht in Przemyśl, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, on 18 April 1913 into a Jewish family.[1][2] They moved to Vienna, and he was raised there in the St. Leopold district.[2][3] He was one of the founders of a youth organization targeting Zionist junior high school students.[2] Next he became a member of the Hashomer Hatzair, a socialist and Zionist youth movement.[2]

Career and views

In 1934 Marek joined the Communist Party.[3] He exiled to France in 1938 when Austria became part of the Nazi Germany.[1] He was one of the leaders of the French resistance movement[1] and coedited a publication entitled Nouvelles d’Autriche–Österreichische Nachrichten.[2] When France was occupied by the Nazis Marek was arrested and sentenced to death and was freed only after the liberation of Paris in 1944.[1] He could return to Austria in 1946.[1] He assumed several posts in the Communist Party and was appointed editor-in-chief of Weg und Ziel, party's theoretical journal, in 1946.[2][4] He also edited Wiener Tagebuch.[3] In 1948 Marek was made a member of the political bureau of the Communist Party.[2]

Marek first adhered to the Stalinist approach.[3] In 1960s he became a critic of it and proposed to develop a European version of communism termed as Eurocommunism.[2][3] Due to these views and his stance against the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union he was removed from the Communist Party in 1970.[3][5]

Personal life and death

Marek was married to Tilly Spiegel who was also a resistance member.[6] They divorced in 1974.[6] Marek died of a heart attack on 28 June 1979.[3]

Legacy

In 2017 Marek's memoirs were edited by Maximilian Graf und Sarah Knoll and published under the title Franz Marek. Beruf und Berufung Kommunist by the Mandelbaum Verlag.[7]

References
  1. Eric Hobsbawm (12 December 2009). "My hero Franz Marek". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 February 2022.
  2. Karlo Ruzicic-Kessler (2019). "A Forgotten Protagonist of European Communism: Franz Marek and the Transnational Communist Debate". Qualestoria. 47 (1): 71–93. hdl:10863/12113.
  3. "Franz Marek (1913–1979)". Austrian Academy of Sciences. Archived from the original on 18 February 2022. Retrieved 18 February 2022.
  4. R. Neal Tannahill (Winter 1976). "Leadership as a Determinant of Diversity in Western European Communism". Studies in Comparative Communism. 9 (4): 357. JSTOR 45367151.
  5. Jiri Valenta (1991). Soviet Intervention in Czechoslovakia, 1968: Anatomy of a Decision. Baltimore; London: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 224. ISBN 978-0-8018-4117-0.
  6. "Tilly Spiegel. Eine politische Biografie" (in German). University of Vienna. Retrieved 18 February 2022.
  7. "Franz Marek. Beruf und Berufung Kommunist". Mandelbaum Verlag. Retrieved 18 February 2022.
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