1903–1906: Realschule in Linz

Realschule in Linz

The Realschule in Linz

Wittgenstein was taught by private tutors at home until he was 14 years old. Subsequently, for three
years, he attended a school. After the deaths of Hans and Rudi, Karl relented, and allowed Paul and
Ludwig to be sent to school. Waugh writes that it was too late for Wittgenstein to pass his exams for the
more academic Gymnasium in Wiener Neustadt; having had no formal schooling, he failed his entrance
exam and only barely managed after extra tutoring to pass the exam for the more technically oriented
k.u.k. Realschule in Linz, a small state school with 300 pupils.[55][56][c] In 1903, when he was 14, he
began his three years of formal schooling there, lodging nearby in term time with the family of Dr. Josef
Strigl, a teacher at the local gymnasium, the family giving him the nickname Luki.[57][58]

On starting at the Realschule, Wittgenstein had been moved forward a year.[57] Historian Brigitte
Hamann writes that he stood out from the other boys: he spoke an unusually pure form of High German
with a stutter, dressed elegantly, and was sensitive and unsociable.[59] Monk writes that the other boys
made fun of him, singing after him: "Wittgenstein wandelt wehmütig widriger Winde wegen
Wienwärts"[39] ("Wittgenstein wanders wistfully Vienna-wards (in) worsening winds"). In his leaving
certificate, he received a top mark (5) in religious studies; a 2 for conduct and English, 3 for French,
geography, history, mathematics and physics, and 4 for German, chemistry, geometry and freehand
drawing.[57] He had particular difficulty with spelling and failed his written German exam because of it.
He wrote in 1931:

My bad spelling in youth, up to the age of about 18 or 19, is connected with the whole of the rest of my
character (my weakness in study).[57]

Faith

Wittgenstein was baptized as an infant by a Catholic priest and received formal instruction in Catholic
doctrine as a child, as was common at the time.[32][page needed] In an interview, his sister Gretl
Stonborough-Wittgenstein says that their grandfather's "strong, severe, partly ascetic Christianity" was a
strong influence on all the Wittgenstein children.[60] While he was at the Realschule, he decided he
lacked religious faith and began reading Arthur Schopenhauer per Gretl's recommendation.[61] He
nevertheless believed in the importance of the idea of confession. He wrote in his diaries about having
made a major confession to his oldest sister, Hermine, while he was at the Realschule; Monk speculates
that it may have been about his loss of faith. He also discussed it with Gretl, his other sister, who
directed him to Schopenhauer's The World as Will and Representation.[61] As a teenager, Wittgenstein
adopted Schopenhauer's epistemological idealism. However, after his study of the philosophy of
mathematics, he abandoned epistemological idealism for Gottlob Frege's conceptual realism.[62] In later
years, Wittgenstein was highly dismissive of Schopenhauer, describing him as an ultimately "shallow"
thinker:
Schopenhauer has quite a crude mind ... where real depth starts, his comes to an end.[63]

Wittgenstein's relationship with Christianity and with religion in general, for which he always professed a
sincere and devoted sympathy, changed over time, much like his philosophical ideas.[64] In 1912,
Wittgenstein wrote to Russell saying that Mozart and Beethoven were the actual sons of God.[65]
However, Wittgenstein resisted formal religion, saying it was hard for him to "bend the knee",[66]
though his grandfather's beliefs continued to influence Wittgenstein – as he said, "I cannot help seeing
every problem from a religious point of view."[67] Wittgenstein referred to Augustine of Hippo in his
Philosophical Investigations. Philosophically, Wittgenstein's thought shows alignment with religious
discourse.[68] For example, he would become one of the century's fiercest critics of scientism.[69]
Wittgenstein's religious belief emerged during his service for the Austrian army in World War I,[70] and
he was a devoted reader of Dostoevsky's and Tolstoy's religious writings.[71] He viewed his wartime
experiences as a trial in which he strove to conform to the will of God, and in a journal entry from 29
April 1915, he writes:

Perhaps the nearness of death will bring me the light of life. May God enlighten me. I am a worm, but
through God I become a man. God be with me. Amen.[72]

Around this time, Wittgenstein wrote that "Christianity is indeed the only sure way to happiness", but he
rejected the idea that religious belief was merely thinking that a certain doctrine was true.[73] From this
time on, Wittgenstein viewed religious faith as a way of living and opposed rational argumentation or
proofs for God. With age, a deepening personal spirituality led to several elucidations and clarifications,
as he untangled language problems in religion—attacking, for example, the temptation to think of God's
existence as a matter of scientific evidence.[74] In 1947, finding it more difficult to work, he wrote:

I have had a letter from an old friend in Austria, a priest. In it he says that he hopes my work will go well,
if it should be God's will. Now that is all I want: if it should be God's will.[75]

In Culture and Value, Wittgenstein writes:

Is what I am doing [my work in philosophy] really worth the effort? Yes, but only if a light shines on it
from above.

His close friend Norman Malcolm wrote:

Wittgenstein's mature life was strongly marked by religious thought and feeling. I am inclined to think
that he was more deeply religious than are many people who correctly regard themselves as religious
believers.[32][page needed]

Toward the end, Wittgenstein wrote:

Bach wrote on the title page of his Orgelbüchlein, 'To the glory of the most high God, and that my
neighbour may be benefited thereby.' That is what I would have liked to say about my work.[75]

Influence of Otto Weininger

Austrian philosopher Otto Weininger (1880–1903)

While a student at the Realschule, Wittgenstein was influenced by Austrian philosopher Otto Weininger's
1903 book Geschlecht und Charakter (Sex and Character).

Weininger (1880–1903), who was Jewish, argued that the concepts male and female exist only as
Platonic forms, and that Jews tend to embody the Platonic femininity. Whereas men are basically
rational, women operate only at the level of their emotions and sexual organs. Jews, Weininger argued,
are similar, saturated with femininity, with no sense of right and wrong, and no soul. Weininger argues
that man must choose between his masculine and feminine sides, consciousness and unconsciousness,
Platonic love and sexuality. Love and sexual desire stand in contradiction, and love between a woman
and a man is therefore doomed to misery or immorality. The only life worth living is the spiritual one – to
live as a woman or a Jew means one has no right to live at all; the choice is genius or death. Weininger
committed suicide, shooting himself in 1903, shortly after publishing the book.[76] Wittgenstein, then
14, attended Weininger's funeral.[77] Many years later, as a professor at the University of Cambridge,
Wittgenstein distributed copies of Weininger's book to his bemused academic colleagues. He said that
Weininger's arguments were wrong, but that it was the way they were wrong that was interesting.[78] In
a letter dated 23 August 1931, Wittgenstein wrote the following to G. E. Moore:

Dear Moore,

Thanks for your letter. I can quite imagine that you don't admire Weininger very much, what with that
beastly translation and the fact that W. must feel very foreign to you. It is true that he is fantastic but he
is great and fantastic. It isn't necessary or rather not possible to agree with him but the greatness lies in
that with which we disagree. It is his enormous mistake which is great. I.e. roughly speaking if you just
add a "~" to the whole book it says an important truth.[79]

In an unusual move, Wittgenstein took out a copy of Weininger's work on 1 June 1931 from the Special
Order Books in the university library. He met Moore on 2 June, when he probably gave this copy to
Moore.[79]

Jewish background and Hitler

Further information: History of the Jews in Austria

Despite their and their forebears' Christianization, the Wittgensteins considered themselves Jewish. This
was evident during the Nazi era, when Ludwig's sister was assured by an official that they wouldn't be
considered as Jews under the racial laws. Indignant at the state's attempt to dictate her identity, she
demanded papers certifying their Jewish lineage.[80]

In his own writings, Wittgenstein frequently referred to himself as Jewish, often in a self-deprecating
manner. For instance, while criticizing himself for being a "reproductive" rather than "productive"
thinker, he attributed this to his Jewish sense of identity. He wrote: 'The saint is the only Jewish "genius".
Even the greatest Jewish thinker is no more than talented. (Myself for instance).'[81]

There is much discussion around the extent to which Wittgenstein and his siblings, who were of 3/4
Jewish descent, saw themselves as Jews. The issue has arisen in particular regarding Wittgenstein's
schooldays, because Adolf Hitler was, for a while, at the same school at the same time.[82] Laurence
Goldstein argues that it is "overwhelmingly probable" that the boys met each other and that Hitler
would have disliked Wittgenstein, a "stammering, precocious, precious, aristocratic upstart ..."; Strathern
flatly states they never met.[83][84] Other commentators have dismissed as irresponsible and
uninformed any suggestion that Wittgenstein's wealth and unusual personality might have fed Hitler's
antisemitism, in part because there is no indication that Hitler would have seen Wittgenstein as Jewish.
[85][86]

Wittgenstein and Hitler were born just six days apart, though Hitler had to re-sit his mathematics exam
before being allowed into a higher class, while Wittgenstein was moved forward by one, so they ended
up two grades apart at the Realschule.[55][d] Monk estimates that they were both at the school during
the 1904–1905 school year, but says there is no evidence they had anything to do with each other.[59]
[88][e] Several commentators have argued that a school photograph of Hitler may show Wittgenstein in
the lower left corner,[59][93][g]

Class photograph at the Realschule in 1901, a young Adolf Hitler in the last row on the right. In the
penultimate row, third from the right, a student who is believed to be Ludwig Wittgenstein.

While Wittgenstein would later claim that "[m]y thoughts are 100% Hebraic",[97] as Hans Sluga has
argued, if so,

His was a self-doubting Judaism, which had always the possibility of collapsing into a destructive self-
hatred (as it did in Weininger's case) but which also held an immense promise of innovation and genius.
[98]
By Hebraic, he meant to include the Christian tradition, in contradistinction to the Greek tradition,
holding that good and evil could not be reconciled.[99]