Minna Kautsky (1837 – 1912) was born in Graz and moved with her parents to Prague. She only gets one year of school education. But with the help of her father and well filled book shelves she can accomplish a kind of a private study. Her reading comprises theatre plays too and she develops a passion for the theatre. Minna becomes an actress. Marriage being 16, theatre engagements in Bohemia, Moravia and Germany, in-between children. Her first child is the “later leading theorizer of Marxism” Karl Kautsky. She cannot keep up such a demanding life for long, she collapses and gets a severe lung disease. Has to give up her theatre life being only 24. 1863 she moves with her husband and their children to Vienna. Her husband has got a position at the Hofburgtheater (imperial court theatre) as set painter.
During her illness she proceeds with her self study among others with reading Darwin. Finally she can learn – together with her children. The disease will remain to a certain extent forever but Karl’s enthusiasm gets transferred to Minna. She feels “young again, with inner power and a strong will.” [1] “And at my side I saw the young man who did only concentrate on how he could understand the theories of the great Master [Marx] profoundly; how he could develop himself and others to fighters for the right mission. He should not have had an impact on his mother? It was the beginning of an wonderful time, energy awakening, the life had beauty and a meaning [...]. I started to write, I had something to say.” [2] Read the rest of this entry »
Vienna – wrong time, right place.
You have a dream. Live it? But if I can’t live on my dream?
