Ilona Duczyńska, A family chronicle and a short account of his life

[55] Karl Polanyi was born on October 21st, 1886, in Vienna, where his father Mihály Pollacsek, a railroad engineer, and his wife Cecile Wohl who had come from Vilna were living at the time. Karl was their third child.

[…] [56] [57] [58] [59] The Russian underground people arriving in Vienna reported at the Klatschko family' three-room flat in the Belvedergasse. There they received financial aid, proof of their actual identities and travel documents to prove their assumed identities. The Polanyi boys soon gathered that the visitors arriving at the Belverdergasse had no name. [60] […] There came to Polanyi “two medical students, Rohonyi and Kende”, to ask for his advice. That well remembered incident may have been the point at which tat movement, dreamt about for so long, that “Russian” one, began to take practical shape in his mind. Let it be free in spirit, let it keep away from party politics, let it be dedicated, decent, let it appeal to the students who live in poverty in their thousands. Let it be a movement aiming to learn and to teach. […] Mach, of an Avenarius, and soon to Einstein and Freud. As to teaching… [61] [62] His outlook was deeply influenced by Tolstoi. He was like one who looks back on life, not forward it. The soul's [63] [64] [65]

Text Informations

Date: 1970
KPA: 29/12, 55-65