Hugo Ganz

Hugo Ganz was born on 24 April 1862 in Mainz as the son of Moritz and Karoline Ganz (née Diehl). Like his younger brother Alfred, he grew up in a family that ran a kosher butcher's shop. Hugo, however, took a wholly different path from his brother: he studied at the universities of Leipzig and Giessen, where in 1880 he matriculated at the Ludwig University and read history and German studies. While still a student he served as a trainee teacher at the Grand-Ducal Gymnasium, where he taught Latin, German and physical education. In 1885 he was awarded a Dr. phil. for his dissertation "Stein, Schön und die Entstehung des Ediktes vom 9. Oktober 1807".

As a grammar-school teacher in Giessen, Hugo developed reform ideas about physical education, which he published in 1888 in the pamphlet "Turnsaal und Exercierplatz" — a plea against military drill and for the education of the individual towards "the highest possible capability and harmony of body and soul". In a school strictly aligned to old traditions, however, he ran into resistance. In 1889 he left teaching and turned to journalism. He joined the staff of the "Pester Lloyd" and became a Budapest correspondent for the "Frankfurter Zeitung". There he married Marie Török (1872–1926). In 1893 their daughter Margit was born — she later married the director and actor Jakob Feldhammer — and in 1898 their son Josef, the future automotive pioneer.

From 1899 Hugo was an editor at the "Neue Freie Presse" and from 1902 at the Vienna newspaper "Die Zeit". In 1904 he became Vienna correspondent and theatre and literary critic for the "Frankfurter Zeitung". In 1907 he took over the leadership of the feuilleton section, but already returned to his role as correspondent in 1908. His Vienna address was at Peter Jordanstrasse 72 in the 19th district. In the literary Vienna of his time, Hugo was in contact with Arthur Schnitzler, who occasionally mentioned him in his diary — the relationship remained distant throughout their lives but was mutually noted.

In 1904 Hugo undertook an extensive journey through the Russian Tsarist empire. He gathered his impressions in the much-noted book "Vor der Katastrophe. Ein Blick ins Zarenreich" ("Before the Catastrophe. A Glance into the Tsarist Empire"), which was also translated into English and French. According to a short biography published by the Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, the work "reads today like a prophecy". His drama "Der Rebell" ("The Rebel") also enjoyed considerable success at the Raimundtheater in Vienna.

For an optimist who had imagined a better, more humane world, the lost war of 1918 brought a world crashing down. Hugo's health failed and he had to undergo an operation. He laid down his work and moved with his wife Marie to Switzerland. In the summer of 1919 they spent restful weeks with his younger brother Alfred at the Villa Solina near Lucerne. There Hugo took up once more the thread of his early reform pamphlet "Turnsaal und Exercierplatz". On 10 January 1920 the Frankfurter Zeitung published his article "Friedensvertrag und Turnunterricht" ("Peace Treaty and Physical Education"), in which he again opposed the idea of giving physical education the role of military preparation.

Hugo Ganz died on 2 January 1922 in Frankfurt am Main. The "Neues Wiener Tagblatt" honoured him as a man of "manly conviction" and "great journalistic gifts", whose writings bore witness to "an honest drive for truth, thorough research and a free spirit".