Raoul Hausmann and the Welteislehre: Science and Identity

Arndt Niebisch

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Chapter 19 Raoul Hausmann and the Welteislehre: Science and Identity

In: Cannibalizing the Canon

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Arndt Niebisch

Arndt Niebisch
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 493–509

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004526747_021

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Abstract

Raoul Hausmann, a Berlin-based Dadaist who was born in Vienna, understood himself as an universal genius such as Goethe or Leonardo Da Vinci, embracing not only art but also science. Through Dada, Hausmann developed an interest in multisensorial art – an art that would simultaneously speak to all the senses, and he coined the term “optopohentic” to describe these synaesthetic experiments. However, these experiments were not only rooted in an aesthetic interest but in a scientific fascination with theories of the a aether.

In the early twentieth-century, the a aether was still assumed as the medium, in which light and radio waves would propagate and Hausmann dived deeply into all kinds of different a aether theories that surfaced at the time. The most popular theory that Hausmann dealt with was the Welteislehre by the Austrian engineer Hans Hörbiger. This theory had an enormous public impact and constitutes a great publication project with numerous monographs and journals, mostly controlled by the right-wing thinker Hanns Fischer. Hausmann was in contact with him and Hörbiger. However, he had great ideological issues with the Welteis circle around Fischer, because they understood it as an Austrio-German paradigm that opposed “Jewish” physics, namely the theory of relativity.

In my article, I will discuss how Hausmann engaged with this group that proposed a nationalist approach to science. Hausmann challenged the political and scientific foundation of their beliefs, of course, he failed with his attempts to educate the WEL disciples. However, his letters to Hanns Fischer are unique documents that display the interconnection between science and identity politics, and show how in the early twentieth-century the search for a common nationalistic identity transgressed into all fields of life and society.

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Cannibalizing the Canon

Dada Techniques in East-Central Europe

Series: Avant-Garde Critical Studies, Volume: 42 and Avant-Garde Critical Studies, Volume: 42

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004526747

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 16 Jan 2024

Subjects
- Literature and Cultural Studies

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Chapter 19 Raoul Hausmann and the Welteislehre: Science and Identity

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Cannibalizing the Canon

Dada Techniques in East-Central Europe

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