[Wittgensteinkreis]. Elizabeth Anscombe, Rudolf Koder u. a.
12 autograph letters signed, 3 autograph cards signed, 2 typed aerograms signed, 1 typed letter and 1 telegram. Cambridge, Oxford, Wien u. a. O. Zusammen ca. 43 SS. Verschiedene Formate. Dabei: Widmungsexemplar von J. Zemperle, Zeit und Stunde. Ludwig Ficker zum 75. Geburtstag gewidmet (Salzburg: Otto Müller, 1956); Familienphotos Wittgenstein (Kopien); gedr. Todesanzeige von Ludwig Wittgenstein (.
$ 23,404 / 22.000 €
(80905/BN52797)
Partial estate of Ludwig Wittgenstein's close friend Ludwig Hänsel (1886-1959) and his son Hermann. The nucleus of the collection is formed by 6 letters, 2 postcards and 1 telegram from the British philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe (1919-2001), who studied under Wittgenstein, to Ludwig Hänsel, including a detailed account of Wittgenstein's death on 29 April 1951. Another part of the collection are letters from Wittgenstein's Austrian friends: 4 autograph letters from Rudolf Koder and 1 typed letter from Ludwig Hänsel to Wittgenstein, as well as 2 autograph letters from Felix Braun to Ludwig and Hermann Hänsel.
Furthermore, the collection comprises 1 correspondence card by Wittgenstein's eldest sister Hermine Wittgenstein (1874-1950) and 1 typed aerogram signed each by the American philosopher Alice Ambrose and the Finnish philosopher Georg Henrik Wright, Wittgenstein's successor at Cambridge. All but Ambrose's letter in German. - In the months before Wittgenstein's death Anscombe informed Hänsel about his health and living conditions. She mentions a visit to Oxford, where Wittgenstein had moved in April 1950, reporting that he was in poor health but improving and that he could not concentrate because of the thin walls of his simple room, and yet "he bears it all with kindness and almost never complains [...]" (Oxford, [summer 1950]). By the end of November 1950, Wittgenstein, who was suffering from prostate cancer, had moved in with his doctor Edward Bevan: "Of course you are aware that Wittgenstein is not well and, I can only tell you this because you already know! Now he stays here at Cambridge with his doctor [...] He's much better now than a few weeks ago [...]" (Oxford, 13 March 1951). After Wittgenstein's death, Anscombe immediately sent a telegram to Hänsel, later writing a long letter that details his last days and moments: "Thanks to the X-ray treatment, Mr Wittgenstein was almost entirely without pain during the last weeks of his life, but he was too weak and frail to survive even a minor disease. He worked a lot, his mental activity suddenly resurged. He continued writing until 27 April. That day he went for a walk at a time when it was suddenly very cold (it had been very warm before), and he went for a walk without being dressed properly. He caught a 'gastroenteritis' [...] and died within two days. One day before his death I had a very good discussion with him [...] On Saturday evening, knowing that he would soon die, he allowed his doctor to call his friends from Dublin, Derby and Oxford and, according to the doctor, was happy when he knew that we would come. We all arrived on Sunday [...] He was unconscious almost all day; for a few moments he would wake up from time to time [...] but he could not speak. I think he knew that we were there. He wanted his hand to be held and we stayed with him the entire day [...] The priest came and gave him conditional absolution and stayed with us, praying until the end [...]" (Oxford, n.d.). In two letters written after Wittgenstein's death, Anscombe provides details on his posthumous papers and announces the publication of the "Philosophical Investigations" in German and in her English translation in 1953. - In her letter to Hänsel's son Hermann, Anscombe describes her role in the inner circle of Wittgenstein's students regarding the famous "Blue and Brown Books": "Professor G. H. Wright has suggested to me that you might be interested in my intellectual-biographical portrait of Dr. Ludwig Wittgenstein which has just appeared in a book of essays, Ludwig Wittgenstein: Philosophy and Language [...] I was one of a small group to whom Wittgenstein dictated The Blue Book, and it was to Francis Skinner and me that he dictated The Brown Book. My study covers the three-year period I had with him in Cambridge (1932-35), a period about which little is written [...]" (Northampton, MA, 8 April 1972). - The letters by the music teacher Rudolf Koder can be dated to the immediate aftermath of the notorious "Haidbauer incident", when the 11-year-old schoolboy Josef Haidbauer had collapsed unconscious after being struck by Wittgenstein, then elementary school teacher in rural Austria, in April 1926. Wittgenstein quit his job and left the town immediately after the incident, possibly facing prosecution. In May 1926 Koder asks Wittgenstein if he has received a letter from the court but also reports that his discharge didn't receive as much attention as he would have expected. Wittgenstein was called to court once but no further proceedings are documented. At this time he worked as an assistant gardener at a monastery in Vienna before returning to Cambridge in 1929. Wittgenstein later personally apologized to some of his former pupils for hitting them. - Over all in good conditions. With occasional creases, brownstains and minor tears. The aerogram of Alice Ascombe with a deeper tear from opening..