# 14. Max Burckhard

I'll let others judge the artistic value of "Bürgermeisterwahl" and "Katherl". I can't bring myself to list the reservations I have about these two plays here, given the impression I got of their author's personality. I would feel like a petty grumbler if I wanted to judge Max Burckhard's individual performances for their weaknesses, as I have seen the extent of what this man wants and how much energy he has at his disposal to enforce his will. You only need to have listened to him for an hour to appreciate the simple, grand style in which he lives and works.

The first thing that strikes you about him is his unbiased view of the things that interest him. And his horizons are broad. He is at home in broad areas of art, science, public education, the administration of justice and economics. He sees clearly and confidently everywhere. He sees the big picture. And he says what he has to say about things with the most ruthless candor. Such openness is one of the greatest rarities in our time. Up to now, Burckhard has been in positions that are not conducive to unreserved openness. None of these positions has apparently been able to divert him from the clear, straight path that his character and talent have marked out for him.

He has a keen eye for the damage of our time, both large and small, and a sound judgment of what can be done to improve it. Indulging in unattainable ideals, setting up nebulous utopias seems alien to him; but he knows how to indicate what is achievable. He has written a pamphlet entitled "On the reform of legal studies", which proves what I am saying on every page. In another essay, he purposefully judged the position of art within the social organism.

Burckhard will utilize every position he occupies, every task that circumstances present him with, in a way that corresponds to his nature. Whether he is the director of the Burgtheater, whether he is a councillor at some court, whether he lectures at a university: he will always work to ensure that social development is taken in a direction that he considers promising for the future. Every office he holds, every play he writes, will only be an opportunity for him to assert himself. The man in him will always be greater than any office, any individual achievement. He will imprint his essence on everything.

We need such personalities. It does not detract from their importance that they appear to be dilettantes in some of the things they accomplish. We have enough people who are characterized by their profession. There are few personalities whose individuality transcends any external imprint. Burckhard is one.

His appearance alone is symbolic. It is not appropriate for a Burgtheater director to wear a "Stößer", a top hat like those worn by Viennese hackney carriage drivers. Burckhard managed the Burgtheater for seven years with such a "Stößer" on his head. He must have found that it suited him; and what did it matter to him that it was not suitable for a Burgtheater director. And so he is in all things. If they make him - as they say - a court councillor, he will also do some things that are not suitable for a court councillor; but he will do what is suitable for Max Burckhard.

An almost naïve sense of truth is characteristic of Burckhard. That any position imposes considerations on people - that cowardly social excuse of so many weaklings - seems to be an idea that has never passed through Burckhard's mind. Everything he says and does is honest and genuine. The concept of posturing has never been invented for him.

And all the qualities I have described in him, he carries off with the kind of coziness that is native to Vienna. You literally have to force yourself to talk about them, because they come across to us with the most perfect naturalness. I don't think Burckhard can ever understand why people talk so much about his merits. He will hardly consider himself much more than a decent man. He doesn't hate the damage he castigates. It is basically a harmless irony with which he speaks of them. He treats people in such a way that they do not actually appear as villains, but merely as fools, as cowards, as imbeciles. He tells people that they are a "bagasche", but in a tone that also makes them understand: it's not your fault. He'll say the strongest things in the warmest, kindest way.

Burckhard really is above the things he deals with. In cases where a lesser mind would speak with fanatical fury, he speaks with a superior smile. I don't think he holds it against the people who forced him out of the Burgtheater, because he understands them... He knows that they could not do otherwise, and he has his proper judgment about this ability... He doesn't ask anyone to be more clever than he is.

I am of the opinion that it is precisely this peculiarity of Burckhard's that makes him appear to be a man whose work will be profound. He does not expect the impossible of things and people; that is why he will achieve what he wants. It is a pleasure to hear him speak of what he intends to do. Even if he only half succeeds in some things, or fails in others, it is all the same. He is so important that failure is out of the question for him. And when an Austrian (Alexander von Weilen in the "Zukunft" of January 8 [1898]) says: "Give him a large sphere of activity worthy of him, which will fill him completely", I would like to reply: put him where you want; he will always be what he must be: Max Burckhard. And that is enough.