Jakob Lippowitz, publisher and chief editor of the Neues Wiener Journal, committed suicide, according to official reports here today. No reason was given for his act.
Lippowitz, who was sixty-nine years old, was an avowed Jew, who strenuously denied, in the pages of his own newspaper, allegations that he had been baptized.
He was one of the most determined opponents of socialism in Austria and was equally outspoken in his indictment of Nazism, as exemplified in Hitler’s Germany.
SUPPORTED HEIMWEHR
His paper’s policy was to support the Heimwehr and to invoke the assistance of Fascism in fighting anti-Semitism. No publication in Austria was fiercer in its denunciation of both Nazism and Marxism.
Lippowitz was born in 1865 in Leipzig. His father was an important manufacturer and exporter of textiles.
Jakob studied at the University of Leipzig, where he specialized in the study of history, literature, economics and philosophy. He began his journalistic activities while he was still at the high school in Leipzig.
He was dramatic critic for the Leipzig Tagesanzeiger, which later became the Generalanzeiger. At the same time he was correspondent for the Berlin Tagesblatt.
ALSO CORRESPONDENT
In 1888 he was called to form the Hamburg Generalanzeiger and to become its chief editor, a position which he kept for five years, simultaneously serving as Hamburg correspondent of the Figaro of Paris and the Neue Freie Presse of Vienna.
During Bismarck’s retreat to Friedrichsruh he interviewed a spokesman for the Chancellor for the Reich. The resulting story was quoted in newspapers throughout the world.
In 1893 he went to Vienna to become the director of the Neue Wiener Journal, which had been founded that year.
SET ASIDE PRIZES
In 1924 he set aside 100,000,000 Austrian kronen for the creation of an editorial prize, the first of its kind, which is awarded annually by Concordia, the journalists’ and writers’ league of Vienna, for the outstanding editorial on a specific topic, chosen by the league.
A second endowment of his, that of the Concordia Burgtheater Ring, was made in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the foundation of the Burgtheater. Interest from a fund of 30,000 schillings is used for the ring. It has been given on several occasions to deserving members and artists of the ring. Arthur Schnitzler was one of its recipients.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
