Eugen Relgis | |
|---|---|
_Relgis.JPG) Photograph of Eugen Relgis | |
| Born | Eisig D. Sigler (Siegler, Siegler Watchel) (1895-03-22)22 March 1895 Iași orPiatra Neamț, Romania |
| Died | 24 May 1987(1987-05-24) (aged 92) |
| Other names | Eugenio Relgis, Eugène Relgis, Eugene Relgis |
| Academic background | |
| Influences | Henri Bergson,Manuel Devaldès,Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi,Remy de Gourmont,Jean-Marie Guyau,Georg Friedrich Nicolai,José Enrique Rodó,Romain Rolland,Moses Schwarzfeld,Rabindranath Tagore |
| Academic work | |
| Era | 20th century |
| School or tradition | Humanitarianist,Anarchist,Pacifist,Socialist,Neo-Malthusian |
| Main interests | self-help,Jewish studies,Latin American studies,eugenics,medical sociology,sexology |
| Notable works | Umanitarism și eugenism (1934–1935) Esseuri despre iudaism (1936) Eros în al treilea Reich (1946) Las aberraciones sexuales en la Alemania nazi (1950) Perspectivas culturales en Sudamérica (1958) Historia sexual de la Humanidad (1961) |
| Influenced | Gaspare Mancuso,Llorenç Vidal Vidal |
Eugen D. Relgis (backward reading ofEisig D. Sigler; first name alsoEugenio,Eugène orEugene, last name alsoSiegler orSiegler Watchel;[1] 22 March 1895 – 24 May 1987) was a Romanian writer,pacifist philosopher andanarchist militant, known as a theorist ofhumanitarianism. Hisinternationalist dogma, with distinct echoes fromJudaism andJewish ethics, was first shaped duringWorld War I, when Relgis was aconscientious objector. Infused withanarcho-pacifism andsocialism, it provided Relgis with an international profile, and earned him the support of pacifists such asRomain Rolland,Stefan Zweig andAlbert Einstein. Another, more controversial, aspect of Relgis' philosophy was his support foreugenics, which centered on thecompulsory sterilization of "degenerates". The latter proposal was voiced by several of Relgis' essays andsociological tracts.
After an early debut withRomania's Symbolist movement, Relgis promotedmodernist literature and the poetry ofTudor Arghezi, signing his name to a succession of literary and political magazines. His work in fiction and poetry alternates the extremes ofExpressionism anddidactic art, giving artistic representation to his activism, his pacifist vision, or his struggle with ahearing impairment. He was a member of several modernist circles, formed around Romanian magazines such asSburătorul,Contimporanul orȘantier, but also close to the more mainstream journalViața Românească. His political and literary choices made Relgis an enemy of bothfascism andcommunism: persecuted duringWorld War II, he eventually took refuge inUruguay. From 1947 to the moment of his death, Relgis earned the respect ofSouth American circles as an anarchist commentator and proponent of solutions toworld peace, as well as a promoter ofLatin American culture.
The future Eugen Relgis was a native ofMoldavia region, belonging to thelocal Jewish community. His father, David Sigler, professed Judaism,[2] and descended fromtanners settled inNeamț County.[3] Eisig had two sisters, Adelina Derevici and Eugenia Soru, both of whom had careers inbiochemistry.[4] Born in eitherIași[1][2][5][6][7][8][9] orPiatra Neamț,[10] Eisig was educated in Piatra Neamț, where he became friends with the family of novelist andZionist leaderA. L. Zissu. It was in Zissu's circle that Relgis probably first met his mentor, the Romanian modernist author Tudor Arghezi; at the time, Arghezi was married to Constanța Zissu, mother of his photographer sonEli Lotar.[11] The young writer later noted that he and Zissu were both touched by the wild landscape of theCeahlău Massif and Piatra'sshtetl atmosphere.[3] In another one of his texts, Relgis recalled having been influenced in childhood by selective readings from the Romanian Jewish scholarMoses Schwarzfeld and hisAnuarul pentru Israeliți journal (he told that, during later years, he had collected the entireAnuarul collection).[12]
Taking his first steps in literary life, Eisig Sigler adopted his new name through forms of wordplay which enjoyed some popularity among pseudonymous Jewish writers (the case ofPaul Celan, bornAncel).[13] He was from early on a promoter ofSymbolist and modernist literature, a cause into which he blended hisleft-wing perspective and calls forJewish emancipation. Writing in 2007, literary historianPaul Cernat suggested that Relgis, like fellow humanitarian and Jewish intellectualIsac Ludo, had a "not at all negligible" part to play in the early diffusion of Romanian modernism.[14] Relgis' main contribution in the 1910s was the Symbolist tribuneFronda ("The Fronde"), the three consecutive issues of which he edited, in Iași, between April and June 1912.[15]
Like Ludo's reviewAbsolutio (which saw print two years later),Fronda stood for the radical branch of theRomanian Symbolist movement in Iași, in contrast to both the left-leaning but traditionalist magazineViața Românească and the more conventional Symbolism ofVersuri și Proză journal.[16] Its editorial board, Relgis included, went anonymous, but their names were known to other periodicals of the day and to later researchers. According to Cernat, Relgis was "the most significantFrondiste", seconded by two future figures in Romanian Jewish journalism: Albert Schreiber and Carol Steinberg.[11] Like Ludo and poetBenjamin Fondane, theFronda group represented those Romanian Jewish aficionados in Iași who followed the Symbolist-modernist school of Arghezi, and who promoted Arghezi's poetry in northern Romania:Fronda's writers were noted for salutingViața Românească when it too began hosting poems by Arghezi.[17]
Fronda put out three issues in all, after which time Relgis became an occasional contributor to more circulated periodicals, among themRampa (founded by Arghezi and the socialist agitatorN. D. Cocea) andVieața Nouă (led by Symbolist criticOvid Densusianu).[11] In 1913, he collected his loose philosophical essays, or "fantasies", in the volumeTriumful neființei ("The Triumph of Non-Being").[2][18][19] He published his first two books of poems duringWorld War I, but before the end ofRomania's neutrality period. The first one was a collection ofsonnets,Sonetele nebuniei ("Sonnets of Madness"), printed at Iași in 1914; the second was published in the capital,Bucharest, asNebunia ("Madness").[20] Some of these poems were illustrated with drawings in Relgis' own hand.[2][18]
After training in architecture, Relgis was enrolled at theUniversity of Bucharest, where he took courses in Philosophy.[1][2] During the period, he first left Romania on a trip to theOttoman Empire andKingdom of Greece.[6] He interrupted his studies shortly afterRomania entered the war, in the second half of 1916.[1] Back in Iași after theCentral Powers stormed into southern Romania, he was reportedly drafted into theRomanian Land Forces, but refused to take up arms as aconscientious objector; briefly imprisoned as a result, he was in the end discharged for his deafness.[6]
Resuming his publishing activity upon the end of war, Eugen Relgis began publicizing his humanitarianist and pacifist agenda. In summer 1918, Relgis became one of the contributors to the Iași-based reviewUmanitatea ("The Humanity" or "The Human Race"). HistorianLucian Boia, who notes thatUmanitatea was published when Romania'stemporary defeat seemed to announce sweeping political reforms, believes that the magazine mainly reflected the "nebulous" agenda of a senior editor, theBessarabian journalistAlexis Nour.[21] In addition to Relgis and Nour,Umanitatea enlisted contributions from Ludo andAvram Steuerman-Rodion.[22] The short-lived magazine, Boia writes, supportedland reform,labor rights and, unusually in the context of "pronounced Romanianantisemitism", Jewish emancipation.[22] On his own, Relgis published a magazine of the same title, issued during 1920.[1][18][23] According to one account,Umanitatea was closed down by Romania's military censorship, which kept a check on radical publications.[1][6] In 1921, an unsigned chronicle in theCluj-basedGândirea journal recognized in Relgis "the kind and enthusiastic young man who was propagating [...] the religion of man throughUmanitatea magazine".[24]
Relgis resumed his literary activity early in theinterwar period. He authored his ideological essayLiteratura războiului și era nouă (Bucharest, 1919); another such piece,Umanitarism sau Internaționala intelectualilor ("Humanitarianism or the Intellectuals' Internationale"), taken up byViața Românească in 1922.[18][20][25]Viața Românească also published Relgis' abridged translation ofThe Biology of War, a pacifist treatise by German physicianGeorg Friedrich Nicolai.[24] 1922 witnessed the birth of Relgis' manifestoPrincipiile umanitariste ("Humanitarianist Principles"), which offered Relgis' own conclusions onworld peace, while reaffirming the need to create an international pacifist forum of intellectuals.[5][10][18][25] It carried a preface by Nicolai.[5]
Relgis also set up the First Humanitarianist Group of Romania,[1][5][6][18] as well as a leftist library,Biblioteca Cercului Libertatea ("Freedom Circle Library").[1][23] Joined in such efforts by the veteran anarchistsHan Ryner andPanait Mușoiu,[1] Relgis also circulated anApel către toți intelectualii liberi și muncitorii luminați ("Appeal to All the Free Intellectuals and the Enlightened Workers").[18] Before 1932, the Humanitarianist Group created some 23 regional branches inGreater Romania.[6] Beginning 1925, Relgis also represented Romanian pacifists within theWar Resisters' International.[1][5][6][7]
In the meantime, he continued to publish sporadic poems, such asAscetism ("Asceticism"), featured inGândirea.[26] The year 1923 witnessed the beginnings of a friendship between Relgis and the aspiring pacifist authorGeorge Mihail Zamfirescu. Relgis prefaced Zamfirescu's bookFlamura albă ("The White Flag"), and contributed to Zamfirescu's magazineIcoane Maramureșene ("Maramureș Icons").[27] A prose volume,Peregrinări ("Wanderings"), saw print withEditura Socec the same year.[20] Relgis also published, in 1924, the 3 volumes of his main novelPetru Arbore (aBildungsroman named after its main protagonist).[28] Two new volumes of his topical essays saw print in later years: the first one, published by the printing offices of fellow journalistBarbu Brănișteanu, wasUmanitarism și socialism ("Humanitarianism and Socialism", 1925); the second, printed in 1926, was titledUmanitarismul biblic ("Humanitarianism in theBible").[2][25] His press activity included contributions to Zionist papers: a writer forȘtiri din Lumea Evreiască, he was also briefly on the staff of Zissu'sMântuirea.[25]
Also during the early 1920s, Eugen Relgis came into contact with the Bucharest-basedSburătorul circle, which stood for modernist literature andaesthetic relativism. The eponymous magazine published samples of hislyrical poetry.[23] With his humanitarian literature, Relgis was a singular figure among the manySburătorul factions, as later noted by literary historianOvid Crohmălniceanu in discussing the studied eclecticism ofSburătorul doyenEugen Lovinescu.[29] Another Romanian researcher,Henri Zalis, notes that Relgis was one of the many Jewish intellectuals whom Lovinescu cultivated in reaction to the tradition ofethno-nationalist discrimination.[30] However, according to criticEugen Simion, Lovinescu also greatly exaggerated Relgis' literary worth.[31]
Relgis' contribution toRomanian literature was renewed in 1926, when he publishedMelodiile tăcerii ("Melodies of Silence") and the collectionPoezii ("Poems"), followed in 1927 byGlasuri în surdină ("Muted Voices").[20] The latter novel, later republished with a foreword by Austrian authorStefan Zweig,[6][32][33] chronicled Relgis' own difficulties with hispost-lingual deafness.[34]
At that stage in his career, Eugen Relgis was also a contributor to the Bucharest left-wing dailiesAdevărul andDimineața, part of a new generation of radical or pacifist authors cultivated by the newspaper (alongside Zamfirescu,Ion Marin Sadoveanu and various others).[27] His pieces forAdevărul include insights intomedical sociology, such as the September 1922Înapoi, la biologie! ("Back to Biology!").[35] TheAdevărul publishing house issued his 1925 translation ofKnut Hamsun's storySlaves of Love.[36] At around the same time, the Căminul Library, publishers ofpopular education books, issued Relgis' translation fromThus Spoke Zarathustra, the classic novel of German philosopherFriedrich Nietzsche.[37] It endured as one of two Romanian-language versions of Nietzsche's main works to be published before the 1970s, together with George B. Rateș'sThe Antichrist.[38] Relgis' work as a translator also included versions of writings by Zweig,Émile Armand,Selma Lagerlöf,Emil Ludwig andJakob Wassermann.[2][6]
After editing the short-lived gazetteCugetul Liber ("Freethought"),[5][7][25] Eugen Relgis put out the political and cultural reviewUmanitarismul ("Humanitarianism"). It enlisted contributions from the Romanian writersIon Barbu,Alexandru Al. Philippide andIon Vinea, and was positively reviewed by other cultural figures (Tudor Arghezi,Enric Furtună,Meyer Abraham Halevy,Perpessicius).[39] He published his work in a variety of periodicals, from Vinea's modernist mouthpieceContimporanul,[40] Ludo'sAdam review[25][41] and the ZionistCuvântul Nostru to the Romanian traditionalist journalCuget Clar.[42] With his publishing house Editura Umanitatea, Relgis also contributed a 1929 book of interviews, based on texts previously featured inUmanitarismul:Anchetă asupra internaționalei pacifiste ("An Inquiry about the Pacifist International").[43] The same year, Relgis lectured at the Zionist Avodah circle about the opportunities ofJewish return to theLand of Israel.[2]
The Romanian writer traveled extensively to promote his ideas of social change. By 1928, he was in regular correspondence with French writer andhuman rights activistRomain Rolland, who answered in writing to Relgis' various inquiries.[44] He was a delegate to pacifist reunions inHoddesdon, England andSonntagberg, Austria (1928).[1][5] Relgis also exchanged letters with various other prestigious left-wing intellectuals: Zweig,Upton Sinclair,Henri Barbusse,Max Nettlau etc.[6][23] His various inquiries also enlisted positive replies from other international supporters of pacifism: physicistAlbert Einstein, biologistAuguste Forel, writerHeinrich Mann and anarchist militantPaul Reclus.[23] He became a contributor toSébastien Faure'sAnarchist Encyclopedia, with the "Humanitarianism" entry.[6] In 1929, Delpeuch company published his French-language essayL'Internationale pacifiste ("The Pacifist International"),[45] reissued the same year inValencia, Spain, asLa Internacional Pacifista.[5][8]
Around 1930, Relgis was in Paris, where he met with Han Ryner,[1] and in Berlin, where he conversed with his mentor Nicolai.[46] In its new translated editions,Apel către... was signed by a number of leading pacifist intellectuals of various persuasions, among them Zweig, Sinclair, Barbusse,Campio Carpio,Manuel Devaldès,Philéas Lebesgue,Rabindranath Tagore.[5] While in France, where his work was notably popularized byL'En-Dehors magazine andGérard de Lacaze-Duthiers'sBibliothèque de l'Artistocratie book collection,[1][6] he was for a while close to Barbusse'sClarté circle, but left it after discovering itscommunist militancy andSoviet connections.[23] His Intellectuals' Internationale therefore took distance from both theComintern and theInternational Working Union of Socialist Parties.[5]
In 1932, he published the German-language collection of interviewsWege zum Friede ("Path toward Peace").[7] His other travels intoBulgaria, where he represented Romanianvegetarians at an international congress, were discussed in his 1933 volumeBulgaria necunoscută ("Unknown Bulgaria").[6][47] The volumeCosmometápolis, about the creation of aworld government,[48] was first published in Bucharest by Cultura Poporului imprint, and reissued in Paris by Mignolet et Storz.[49]
Relgis' participation in left-wing causes was attacked at home by the antisemitic and proto-fascistNational-Christian Defense League, whose press organÎnfrățirea Românească alleged that "squire Siegler" and hisUmanitarismul, together with theWomen's International League for Peace and Freedom, were fostering communist agitation.[50] After the 1933 establishment of aNazi regime in Germany, Relgis' books of interviews became subject toceremonial burnings.[23]
By that moment in his career, Relgis became a contributor toVremea newspaper and toIon Pas' political and art magazine,Șantier.[51] The latter periodical was close to theRomanian Social Democratic Party, and had a stronglyanti-fascist agenda.[52] It published, in 1932, the Relgis essayEuropa cea tânără ("Young Europe"), which talked about civilization,imperialism and war.[53] Relgis' contributions toȘantier also include a January 12, 1934 essay about "anonymous works" and their impact on art history, which was later quoted inViața Românească.[54] The same year, Relgis published the novelPrieteniile lui Miron ("Miron's Friendships") withEditura Cugetarea.[20][55]
In his subsequent activity as a journalist and publisher, Relgis combined his humanitarianism with topical interests. He was by then an advocate ofeugenics, an interest reflected in his 1934 (or 1935) tractUmanitarism și eugenism ("Humanitarianism and Eugenism"), published by Editura Vegetarianismul company.[56] In 1936, he also released the collectionEsseuri despre iudaism ("Essays onJudaism") with Cultura Poporului.[2][10][25][57] He was at the time active within the Jewish Cultural Institute, an annex of theBucharest Choral Temple.[25] His international activity peaked during theSpanish Civil War, when he helped organize anarchist support for theSpanish Republican regime, elected Councilor of theInternational Antifascist Solidarity.[6]
Eugen Relgis was still active on the literary scene during the first two years ofWorld War II, before Romania formalized its military alliance with theAxis Powers. ThePhoney War caught him in France, but he returned to Romania shortly after, exposing himself to persecution by the growing Romanian fascist movements.[6] In February 1940, he gave a retrospective lecture, republished by the newspaperL'Indépendence Roumaine, on the work of AustrianpsychoanalystSigmund Freud.[58] Another book of his political prose,Spiritul activ ("The Active Spirit"), saw print the same year.[20]
The emergence of antisemitic and fascist regimes (seeRomania in World War II,Holocaust in Romania) signified the beginning of Relgis' marginalization. During the short-livedNational Legionary State, established by theIron Guard fascists between 1940 and early 1941, the author lived in seclusion.[6] HisBiblioteca Cercului Libertatea was banned in 1940, but Relgis secretly moved the books into a stable.[23] After the Guard fell from power, theIon Antonescu dictatorship still included Relgis on a nationally circulated list of banned Romanian Jewish authors,[59] but Relgis continued to write. His texts of the time include a posthumous praise of his pacifist disciple Iosif Gutman, the son of a Bucharestrabbi, who had been killed during theBucharest pogrom.[10][23] The essay was planned as part of Rabbi Gutman's volumeSlove de martiri ("Notes by Martyrs"), which, although anti-Guard, was not given Antonescu's imprimatur.[23] Relgis was however able to publish an article in the Jewish-only magazineRenașterea Noastră, on the occasion of Iosif'syahrtzeit, where he compared the Gutmans toLaocoön and His Sons.[60] Relgis' own son fled Romania in 1942, and settled in Argentina.[1]
A final period in Relgis' Romanian activity came after theAugust 1944 Coup toppled Antonescu and denounced Romania's Axis alliance. In 1945, he was dedicated a public celebration at the Jewish Cultural Institute, which included a speech byChief RabbiAlexandru Șafran.[61]Slove de martiri was eventually published that year,[23] and a revised Romanian edition ofPetru Arbore saw print in 1946.[32] Also then, he completed work on an essay aboutNazism,The Holocaust and sexuality:Eros în al treilea Reich ("Eros in the Third Reich").[62] Relgis was again active in the political press, lending his signature to several independent newspapers:Sebastian Șerbescu'sSemnalul,Tudor Teodorescu-Braniște'sJurnalul de Dimineață etc.[63] He described himself as diametrically opposed to the process ofcommunization, as well as to theSoviet occupation of Romania.[8]
Withrefugee status,[32] having reportedly been singled out for arrest by theRomanian Communist Party officials,[6] Relgis departed from Romania in 1947, shortly before thecommunist regime took hold. After a brief stay in Paris,[6] he spent some time in Argentina, with his son and his female companion Ana Taubes.[1] He later went toMontevideo, inUruguay, where he lived the remainder of his life.[1][5][10][25][32] At home, his works were included in an officialPublicații interzise ("Works Forbidden from Publishing") list, published by thecommunist censorship apparatus.[64]
During his last decades, Eugen Relgis dedicated himself to sociological research and political activism. He embarked on a series of university lectures, which carried him throughout Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil.[1][25] In 1950, he founded an international anarchist archive in Montevideo, reportedly one of the few political libraries inSouth America at the time of its creation.[65] The effort was supported by the exiledSpanish anarchistAbraham Guillén, and received documentary funds from Europe, but reputedly drew suspicion fromUruguay police forces, and was consequently shut down.[1]
With noted help from anarchist translator Vladimiro Muñoz,[1] Relgis began his new career as aSpanish-language writer and publicist with a succession of works.Umanitarism și eugenism was translated into a Spanish edition:Humanitarismo y eugenismo, Ediciones Universo,Toulouse, 1950.[5][8][66] The same imprint released his essayLas aberraciones sexuales en la Alemania nazi ("Sexual Aberrations in Nazi Germany"), which discussed in some depth the characteristics ofNazi eugenics.[5] Also in 1950, with his Montevideo printing office Ediciones Humanidad, Relgis released a Spanish edition of hisPrincipiile, a version ofMax Nettlau'sWorld Peace volume,[6] as well as reissuingCosmometápolis.[48] Two years later, Ediciones Humanidad published Relgis' biographical essayStefan Zweig, cazador de almas ("Stefan Zweig, the Soul Hunter"), followed in 1953 by aHachette version ofDe mis peregrinaciones europeas ("From My Wanderings in Europe").[5][8] Relgis also tried to get his contributions translated intoPortuguese, asking anarchist philosopherJosé Oiticica for assistance.[1] He was at the time employed byEl Plata daily, editing its Wednesday literary page, and helping to discover, in 1954, the twelve-year-old poetTeresa Porzecanski.[67]
In 1954, Relgis printed another biographical study, on Romain Rolland:El hombre libre frente a la barbarie totalitaria ("A Free Man ConfrontsTotalitarian Barbarity").[5][8][68] The following year, he gave a public lecture at theUniversity of the Republic, titled "A Writer's Confession", and reissuedEsseuri despre iudaism asProfetas y poetas. Valores permanentes y temporarios del judaísmo ("Prophets and Poets. The Permanent and Timely Values of Judaism").[5][8][10][18][25] A Spanish version ofUmanitarism sau Internaționala intelectualilor was published, asEl Humanitarismo, by Editorial Americalee inBuenos Aires (1956).[8][32] One edition of the latter was prefaced by Nicolai, who was at the time living in Argentina.[69] In November 1956, the same company issued Relgis'Diario de otoño ("Autumn Diary"), a collection of notes he had kept during the war years.[8] Another tract,Albores de libertad ("Dawns of Freedom"), was prefaced byRudolf Rocker, theanarcho-syndicalist thinker.[69]
In 1958, the University of the Republic published Eugen Relgis' acclaimed political essayPerspectivas culturales en Sudamérica ("Cultural Perspectives in South America"), for which he received a prize from theUruguayan Ministry of Public Instruction and Social Prevision.[32] Relgis' reputation was consolidated in the intellectual circles and, in 1955, his name was unsuccessfully advanced for theNobel Peace Prize.[1][5][8][18][70] The same year, a volume of his collected Spanish texts and studies on his work was published in Montevideo, asHomenaje a Eugen Relgis en su 60º aniversario ("Homage to Eugen Relgis on His 60th Anniversary").[8][10]
Relgis returned to poetry in 1960 and 1961, with the volumesEn un lugar de los Andes ("Some Place in theAndes") andLocura ("Madness"), both translated by Pablo R. Troise.[5] They were followed by two other booklets, also in Troise's translation:Corazones y motores ("Hearts and Engines", 1963),Últimos poemas ("The Last Poems", 1967).[5] His completeObras ("Works") were published over the next decades,[4] while the essay¿Qué es el humanitarismo? Principios y acción ("What Is Humanitarianism? Principles and Action") went through several successive editions[8] and featured a prologue byAlbert Einstein.[69] Another one of Relgis' Spanish-language volumes,Testigo de mi tiempo ("A Witness of My Time"), with more essays on Judaism, came in 1961.[25] His leading eugenics andsexology treatise,Historia sexual de la Humanidad ("The Sexual History of Humanity"), was also published in 1961 (Libro-Mex Editores,Mexico City),[71] and, in 1965, his biography of Nicolai saw print in Buenos Aires.[72]
In 1962, Eugen Relgis visited Israel andJerusalem, tightening his links with the Romanian Israeli community, including the Menora Association and Rabbi David Șafran.[73] It was in Israel that Relgis published another volume of memoirs, in his nativeRomanian language:Mărturii de ieri și de azi ("Testimonies of Yesterday and Today").[25] In 1972, he was made an honorary staff member of theHebrew University of Jerusalem.[18]
From the early 1960s, Relgis was in correspondence with figures in the Italian radical circles, such as the anarchistGaspare Mancuso.[5][7][33] In 1964, Mancuso and Regis' other Italian disciples founded the political journalQuaderini degli amici di Eugen Relgis ("The Friends of Eugen Relgis Notebooks").[7][33] He also became an occasional contributor toMujeres Libres, the Spanishanarcha-feminist tribune in the United Kingdom.[74] During the 1960s and '70s, as a spell ofliberalization occurred inNicolae Ceaușescu's Romania, Relgis was again in contact with Romanian intellectuals. Before themassive earthquake of 1977 devastated Bucharest, he was in regular correspondence with scholar Mircea Handoca.[10]
Eugen Relgis lived the final decade of his life as a pensioner of the Uruguayan state—in 1985, a law raised hispensión graciable to 20,000new pesos a month.[5] In the 1980s, Relgis was exchanging letters with Romanian cultural historianLeon Volovici, and entertained thoughts about a recovery of his work by Romanian critics and historians.[10] He died before this could happen, in Montevideo, at age 92.
Throughout his career, Relgis was the proponent ofanarchism. The Romanian writer spoke about the negativity of "statefetishism", seeking to overturn it and create "universal fraternity",[75] and, inDiario de otoño, postulated a necessary distinction between Law ("which may be interpreted for or against") and Justice ("elementary" and unavoidable).[8] Relgis likewise believed that war could be overcome once humanity shall have toppled "the three idols: State, Property, Money."[8] Political philosopherÁngel Cappelletti argues: "Relgis was not an anarchist militant, but was always close tolibertarian ideas".[69]
According toStefan Zweig, Relgis fought "tirelessly for the great goal of spiritual fraternity."[32] The sentiment was echoed byRomain Rolland, who recognized in Relgis his disciple: "There is no other European man in whose hands I could place, with as much confidence, [...] my pacifist anduniversalist idea, for it to be passed on into the future. For none other has such far-reaching intelligence to this goal, and none other would feel this idea so intimately connected to his being."[76] Speaking from the cultural mainstream, Romanian literary historianGeorge Călinescu observed Relgis'anti-establishment andanti-artistic rhetoric, but described it as mere "idealist reverie", "without any daring proposals that would threaten ourself-preservation instincts".[75] Contrarily, scholar William Rose sees Relgis as "an idealist deeply preoccupied by social problems", "a practical and not autopian thinker", and a theorist aware that social or economic evolution was needed before his goals could be achieved.[32]
Relgis'humanitarianism (also known ashumanism or pan-humanism;Spanish:humanitarismo)[77] was a practical extension ofanarcho-pacifism. William Rose describes this doctrine as both "universalist and pacifist", noting that one of its leading purposes was to eliminate those things "which separate man from man and cause wars".[32] Relgis himself spoke of his movement as a form of "active thought", and "a critical method applied to natural, human and social realities",[10] while expressing admiration for thenonviolent resistance tactics advocated inBritish India byMohandas Karamchand Gandhi orRabindranath Tagore.[5][53] At the time, he attacked all forms ofpan-nationalism, fromPan-Germanism toPan-European nationalism, defining pan-humanism as "the only 'pan' that can be accepted as a natural law of the human species".[53] InEl humanitarismo, he called allinternationalist movements, except his own, corrupted by "the practice of violence and intolerance".[8]
Writing in 1933, the leftist literary columnistIon Clopoțel stressed that Relgis' vision combined humanitarianism with "a lively, dynamic and innovatingsocialism".[78] Although left-wing, Relgis' vision also incorporated militantanti-communism. As noted by literary historianGeo Șerban, he was from early on skeptical about the outcome of "social revolutions" andBolshevik insurgency.[23] In the first issue ofUmanitarianismul, Relgis criticized both thefar right and thefar left, noting that his ideology was "apolitical, in fact antipolitical".[23] InEuropa cea tânără, he referred to theSoviet Union as the home of "proletarianimperialism".[53] These thoughts were detailed byDiario de otoño, which drew a direct comparison between theRed Army, pushing Romania into an "armed peace", and theWehrmacht.[8]
Beginning in the late 1920s, Relgis was also a supporter ofZionism, convinced that the path ofJewish assimilation was unsatisfactory for the affirmation of Jewish talents.[2] He also adhered to philosopherMartin Buber's ideas about reuniting the three paths chosen bydiaspora Jews: universalism, Zionism andConservative Judaism.[10] In his 1929 Avodah conference, he analyzed the ongoing Jewish resettlement into theLand of Israel, and investigated the causes of violent clashes between Jewish migrants and thePalestine Arabs.[2] In other public statements, Relgis proudly stated his Judaic faith, noting that he had never actually left Judaism, "being integrated into its vast reality by the very reality of my own preoccupations, sociological and ethical, humanitarianist and pacifist."[10] However, he explained to Iosif Gutman that joining a Zionist organization was not worth the effort, since membership was a form of captivity, and elsewhere suggested that Zionism was justified only as long as it did not follow "the restrictive methods of vulgar nationalism."[57] The writer also described himself as committed toRomanian culture, and, as late as 1981, noted thatRomanian was still his language of choice.[10]
His essays on Judaism (some of which were dedicated to his father David)[2][12] speak about the threat ofsocietal collapse, which the author connected with mankind's spiritual decline afterWorld War I. His theory on "dehumanization" postulated: "the spiritual evolution of mankind has proceeded to descent just as mankind is progressing in material terms."[2] As a reversal of this trend, Relgis proposed a return to the roots of Judaism, in whosemonotheism andMessianism he decoded the basic representation ofmoral responsibility, and the immediate precursors ofChristianity.[2][10] The Romanian writer was interested in those aspects ofJewish ethics which anticipated humanitarianism or pacifism, citing theBible as "that most humane book", and identifying himself with the lament ofMalachi 2:10 ("Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, profaning the covenant of our fathers?").[2] He later wrote that Jews, and Israelis in particular, were entrusted with keeping alive "the ancient wisdom, poetry and faith", with creating "new values from the old ones".[10] Defining in his own terms the relationship between Biblical proto-universalism and 20th century humanitarianism, Relgis wrote: "Judaism is comprised into modern humanitarianism like a flame within a crystal globe."[4][10][18]
In tandem, he rejected those aspects of Judaism or Christianity which he believed wherebigotry, and his pacifist discourse criticized all religions as potential instigators or ideological props of hawkish rhetoric.[2][23] He reserved special criticism for the notions of a "vengeful God" and "Jewish chosenness", arguing that they are "primitive", and expressed more sympathy forBuddhist universalism.[23] His texts, including the 1922Apel către..., are thought by some to be purposefully reusing the pro-universalist vocabulary ofFreemasons.[5]
Relgis' Judaic-themed tracts cover a wide range of subjects. In several of them, Relgis concentrates on the Biblical prophetMoses, in whom he sees the symbol of "great human aspirations".[10] Some texts trace the impact of Moses' teaching on more modern authors (fromBaruch Spinoza toCharles Darwin), others talk aboutsecular Jewish culture, and still others focus on individual Jewish personalities: Buber,Edmond Fleg,Theodor Herzl.[2] As a critic, he also investigated the survival of ancient Judaic themes in themodern art ofMarcel Janco,Lazăr Zin orReuven Rubin, and in the literature of Zweig,S. Ansky,Mendele Mocher Sforim and evenMarcel Proust.[10] Other such writings are individual portraits of Romanian Jewish men of letters, fromA. L. Zissu andIosif Brucăr toAvram Steuerman-Rodion andEnric Furtună.[10] According to Geo Șerban, Relgis spent much of his later career promoting "a more fertile awareness of the links between Judaism and the modern world."[10]
A critic ofantisemitism, Eugen Relgis also dedicated some of his main works in the essay genre to the cause ofanti-fascism. Early on, he exposed claims aboutJudeo-Masonic domination as canards, and noted that antisemitism was a negative reaction to the Jews' own status as natural innovators in both politics and culture.[2] He wrote: "I take antisemitism to be that psychological disease whose manifestations display the characteristics of aphobia, that is to say anobsession. When someone is obsessed with an image, an individual or even a collective entity, these become the center of their world—and all causes and effects, no matter how far apart and different from each other, are connected to the initial obsession."[10][12]
Writing in 1946, shortly after the scale ofThe Holocaust became known to Romanian Jews, Relgis gave credit to the popular, but since challenged rumor thatNazis fabricated human soap.[79] Historian of ideasAndrei Oișteanu analyzes Relgis' text as more of a reaction to Nazism's own obsessive take on cleanliness, and writes that, at that time, Jews and Christians in Romania had been collecting certain brands of German soap and burying them as human remains.[80]
After his move to Uruguay, Relgis developed a personal theory onLatin America as a "neohumanist" continent.[81] Earlier, inEuropa cea tânără, Relgis had claimed that the European continent needed to revisit its "pathetic history" of violence and imperialism, and reconvert by combining the lessons ofEastern philosophy and United States models ofindustrialization.[53] Both models, he warned, carried risks: Asia's "spiritual renunciations" were mirrored by a "cancer of machinism" inNorth America.[53]
WithPerspectivas culturales en Sudamérica, he expanded on a distinction between civilization and culture: the former as a transitory phase in human development, the latter as a permanent and characteristic sum of ideas; civilization, he argued, was in existence within the New World, but aLatin American culture was still ahead.[82] Relgis identified this as a merit, describingSouth America in general and Uruguay in particular as exceptionally fertile and a "healthier" example for the whole world, offering safe haven to independent thinkers and defying the ideological divisions of theCold War era.[83] Summarizing the future links between the Latin American regions and Europe as envisaged by Relgis, William Rose wrote: "the cultural mission of America consists in a careful selection of the eternal and universal values of Europe and their assimilation [...] to create typically American values that later, transcending the limits of this continent, will carry their message of peace and fraternity to the entire world."[46] Latin America, Relgis cautioned, should leave behind its own traditions of dictatorial government, fanaticism and "utilitarian mentality", while fighting the "false moral" of North America; it could thus contribute to the cultural renaissance of a Europe corrupted by totalitarianism and imperialism.[83] Also important in Relgis' assessment was Latin America's capacity to resist modern dehumanization by granting a social role to its intellectuals, an idea impressed upon him by the writings of Uruguayan humanistJosé Enrique Rodó.[84]
Relgis' theory was received with interest by some of his South American colleagues. One wasArgentine poet and historianArturo Capdevila, who wrote about Relgis as a "meritorious" visionary with a "grave and vital message", assuring him: "You can say from now on that you did not suffer in vain, gravely and deeply, the sorrows of the spirit. Your voice will be heard; all of your lesson will be applied."[32] Those Uruguayan public figures who paid homage to Relgis on his 60th anniversary includedSocialist Party leaderEmilio Frugoni,Colorado Party politicianAmílcar Vasconcellos, Zionist academicJoel Gak and poetCarlos Sabat Ercasty.[8] While comparing Relgis' pacifist message with the legendary warnings ofAntigone, Frugoni's praise was somewhat skeptical, noting that the Romanian's projects, however grand, could find themselves in disagreement with "the constricting reality".[8] Reviewing such appraisals, Uruguayan philosopher Agustín Courtoisie calls Relgis "eccentric and genial", and sees in him a real-life version of characters inJorge Luis Borges'fantasy literature.[8]
Like other intellectuals of his generation, Eugen Relgis believed that biology served to explain the background of "social and cultural problems that influence the intellectual movement."[35] Controversially, he merged his anarchist perspective with support foreugenics, advocating universalbirth control andcompulsory sterilization in cases of "degeneration".[5][66][85] According to Agustín Courtoisie: "Anarchist pacifism and the once fashionable eugenics seem to be the concepts one can associate with [Relgis]".[8] In favoring this option, Relgis identified himself with those of his anarchist forerunners who were also dedicatedneo-Malthusians, and especially withManuel Devaldès. He praised Devaldès' call forvasectomy as a regulatory practice, calling the procedure "a true revolution" in population growth.[85] His works defended other anarchists who recommended the practice, including the tried anarchist eugenists Norbert Bardoseck andPierre Ramus.[86] According to Romanianbiomedicine historian Marius Turda, Relgis was among the social scientists who, in 1930s Romania, "forced [eugenic sterilization] into the realm of public debate".[87]
Turda also notes thatUmanitarism și eugenism went beyond sterilization advocacy to propose theinvoluntary euthanasia of "degenerate" individuals: those with "pathological characteristics or incurable diseases."[87] Relgis' call to action in eugenics came with a provision: "It is, however, preferable, from all points of view, that degenerates should not be born, or, even better, not conceived."[87] His views on this subject included an economic rationale, since, he argued, the community could not be expected to provide for sexually "prolific", but otherwise "degenerate", individuals.[5] To this goal, he supportedabortion, both for eugenic andpro-choice reasons.[5] Relgis also argued: "Instead ofnatural selection, man should practice rational selection."[88] WithLas aberraciones sexuales..., Relgis condemnedNazi eugenics as barbaric, but agreed that those identified as "sub-humans" needed to be reeducated and (if "incurable") sterilized by non-Nazi physicians.[5]
In this context, Relgis identifiedmultiracial society as a positive paradigm. The emergence of an exemplary Latin American culture was conceived by Relgis as running parallel to afuture American racial type. In this, Relgis saw the "integral man" of his humanitarianism, "healthy and strong", with a mind unbound by "super-refined culture", and without the traumatic experience of "tyrannical ideologies".[46] The idea, Rose noted, was somewhat similar to, but "more universal" than, theCosmic Race theory of Mexican academicJosé Vasconcelos.[46]
Eugen Relgis blended a critique ofcapitalism, advocacy of internationalism andmodern art interest with all his main contributions to literature. In his essays and "all too cerebral" novels, George Călinescu argues, Eugen Relgis was "obsessed with humanitarianism" andself-help techniques.[75] With his 1934 piece forȘantier, Relgis divided the experience and nature of art into a primordial, collective, form and a newer,individualist one: in the past, Relgis noted, creativity was consumed into creating vast anonymous works ("thepyramid, the temple, the cathedral"), often demanding "the silent and tenacious effort of successive generations."[54] Presently, he thought, the combat against the "imperative of Profit" and "vulgar materialism" justified the "ethical andaesthetic individualism". Relgis' essay describedindustrial society in harsh terms, as directed by "the bloody gods" of "Capitalism and War", and cautioned that the advocacy of anonymity in modern art could lead tokitsch ("serialized production, without the significance it used to carry in bygone days").[54] Elsewhere, however, Relgis also argued that books needed to have a formative value, and that literature, unlike journalism, "needs to be the expression of length and depth."[4]
Some of Relgis' preferences were shaped from his time atFronda. Itsart manifestos, described byPaul Cernat as "virtually illegible", announced radical ideals, such asart for art's sake throughNeronian destruction:Qualis artifex pereo.[11]Leon Baconsky, a historian of Romanian Symbolism, notes that allFrondistes were at the time enthusiastic followers of French literary theoristRemy de Gourmont, to whom Cernat adds philosopherHenri Bergson andEpicurean thinkerJean-Marie Guyau (both of them dedicated "prolix-metaphoric commentary" in the review's pages).[11] In matters ofpoetics, the group declared its deep admiration for the loose Symbolism ofTudor Arghezi (whose poems were amply reviewed by all threeFronda issues) and, to a lesser extent,Ion Minulescu—according to Baconsky,Fronda was the first-ever voice in literary criticism to comment on Arghezi's work as an integral phenomenon.[11]
The cause of pacifism infused Relgis' work as a writer: a contemporary, the literary criticPompiliu Păltânea, believed that, with his contribution toRomanian literature, Relgis was part of a diverseanti-war "ideological" group of writers (alongsideFelix Aderca,Ioan Alexandru Brătescu-Voinești,Barbu Lăzăreanu and some others).[89] According to Călinescu, Relgis' literary ideal became "the living book", the immediate and raw rendition of an individual's experience, with such "idols" as Rolland, Zweig,Henri Barbusse,Heinrich Mann andLudwig Rubiner.[75] An additional influence was, according to poet-critic Boris Marian, EuropeanExpressionism, in fashion at the start of Relgis' career.[2]
In addition to political essays and fiction, Relgis' prose includes contributions totravel literature, deemed "his most characteristic works" by William Rose.[32] These writings include attempts by Relgis to illustrate in plastic terms the application of his ideology:Ion Clopoțel noted that, in his volume about interwarBulgaria, Relgis went beyond the facade of "savage" Bulgarianmilitarism to depict the humanist, vegetarian and "Tolstoyan" civil society of that age.[90]Bulgaria necunoscută also worked as a manifesto ofanti-intellectualism, chastising the "demagogue" academics and praising the simplicity of "collective life".[78] In a similar way, Relgis' scatteredmemoirs, among themStrămoșul meu, "David Gugumanul" ("My Ancestor, 'Nitwit David' "), shed intimate light on his ideas about Judaism.[3][10]
Other suchdidactic texts detail Relgis' advice on the art of living.Glasuri în surdină is noted for depicting the disorientation of a young man who becomes deaf: Relgis'alter ego, Miron, finds that such a disability has turned his old friends into opportunistic exploiters, but his imaginative spirit and his (minutely chronicled) self-determination allow him to rebel and start over in life.[91] However, deaf studies experts Trenton W. Batson and Eugene Bergman write, Miron "is not really representative of the deaf majority", leading a life of isolation and, out of despair, seeking out a miracle cure for deafness.[92] Relgis' patronEugen Lovinescu was especially critical of the work, judging its "self-analyzing"internal monologue as burdensome.[93]
TheBildungsromanPetru Arbore is noted byGeo Șerban as a "rarity" in Romanian literature, "instructive despite its excessive rhetoricism."[23] Eugen Lovinescu notes its traditional theme of social "inadaptation", which, to him, echoes theright-wing didacticism ofSămănătorul writers.[94] Over the three volumes, the idealistic Arbore falls in love with women of various conditions, and, to the backdrop of World War I, tries to build a business as an army supplier.[94] Relgis himself warned that the book should not be seen as hisautobiography, but as the "spiritual mirror" of each reader.[4] Lovinescu believed the work to be heavily influenced by Rolland'sJean-Christophe, lacking "inventiveness".[95]
Called a "sweet volume of essays" by Clopoțel,[55]Prieteniile lui Miron chronicles love and desire in relation to age and sex. The work shows a young girl losing and then regaining her faith in true love, a daring young man, "who mistakes love for sport", being rejected by his female companions, and lastly a mature couple whose love has undergone the test of friendship.[55] Clopoțel praised the text for its "seriousness", "finesse" and "reflections enlightened by knowledge and responsibility", concluding: "[This is] a literature of moral health."[55]
These characteristics were also discerned by critics in his various contributions toLatin American literature. Courtoisie foundDiario de otoño, a book that is "miscellaneous, multithematic, [moving] between the poetic and the everyday", comparable to theFermentario essays of Uruguay'sCarlos Vaz Ferreira.[8] According to critic William T. Starr,El hombre libre frente a la barbarie totalitaria and other such recollections reveal "more about Relgis than about Rolland".[96]
During his time atFronda, Eugen Relgis and his fellow writers publishedcollective,experimental and unsigned poems, largely echoing the influence of Arghezi and Minulescu, but, according to Cernat, "aesthetically monstrous".[11] This perspective is echoed by Șerban, who notes that Relgis' debut as a poet was largely without "convincing results".[23] InTriumful neființei, the main stylistic reference was, according to Lovinescu, the Romanian Symbolistprose poetDimitrie Anghel, imitated to the point of "pastiche".[97]
With time, Relgis developed a style deemed "the poetry of professions" by George Călinescu. According to Călinescu's classification, Relgis the poet is similar in this respect to fellow SymbolistsAlexandru Tudor-Miu andBarbu Solacolu, but also toSimona Basarab,Leon Feraru,Cristian Sârbu andStelian Constantin-Stelian.[75] The same critic notes that Relgis "attempted, with some beautiful poetic suggestions, to establish a modern-era mythology with abstract gods [...] and other machinist monsters."[98] Lovinescu describes the poet in Relgis as one who "survived" through humanitarian propaganda, returning "in a compactVerhaeren form, rhetorical and accumulative."[99] Lovinescu includes the resulting works in a category of "descriptive" and "social" poems, relating Relgis to Feraru,Alice Călugăru,Aron Cotruș,Vasile Demetrius,Camil Petrescu andI. Valerian.[100]
Relgis' poems, Călinescu notes, were individual portraits of industrial machinery ("The Elevator", "The Cement Mixer") or workers ("The Builder", "The Day Laborer"), as temples and deities; by "natural association", the critic suggests, Relgis applied the same technique in his lyrical homages to the very large animals ("The Giraffe", "The Elephant"), but "this requires greater means of suggestion".[101] In one piece quoted by George Călinescu, Relgis showed a bricklayer contemplating the modern city from the top of ascaffolding structure:
De sus, pe schelele ușoare | Up there, on flimsy scaffolds, |
The political ideas of Eugen Relgis were largely incompatible with the totalitarianism prevalent in Romania between World War II and theRomanian Revolution of 1989: as Rose notes, the scholar was persecuted by "four dictatorial regimes in his native country".[32] Before this, Șerban writes, Relgis' intellectual contacts may have stimulated public debate, even though the writer himself could not claim the status of "opinion maker".[23] Likewise, Boris Marian describes Relgis as "almost forgotten" by Romanians after his self-exile.[2] In addition to Iosif Gutman, Relgis' Jewish Romanian disciples includedFălticeni journalist Iacob Bacalu, founder of a Relgis Circle.[102] According to journalist Victor Frunză, Relgis' targeting bycommunist censorship had a paradoxical antisemitic undertone, as one of the repressive measures which touched Jewish culture in general.[64]
Attempts to recover Relgis' work were made during the latter half of Romanian communist rule and after the 1989, several of them from within the Romanian Jewish community. In April 1982, the Jewish cultural journalRevista Cultului Mozaic publishedLeon Volovici's note about Relgis and Judaism.[4][10] Late in the 1980s, Volovici also contacted Relgis' surviving sisters, then Relgis himself, becoming curator of the manuscripts left behind by the philosopher upon his relocation to South America.[4][10] These were later donated to the Philippide Institute of theRomanian Academy, where they are kept as the Eugen Relgis library fund.[4][10]
Relgis enjoys a more enduring reputation abroad. Initially, his anarchist eugenics enjoyed some popularity amongSpanish anarchists;[5][103] his pacifism also inspiredLlorenç Vidal Vidal, theBalearic poet and educator.[104] Some of his tracts have been reissued after 2001, with theAnselmo Lorenzo Foundation (Confederación Nacional del Trabajo).[5]Italian-language versions of his novels, poems and political tracts, includingCosmometápolis, were published byGaspare Mancuso and his Libero Accordo group, over the 1960s and '70s.[33]
By then, Relgis' works had been translated into fourteen languages, although they still remained largely unknown in the United States;[32]Principiile umanitariste alone had been translated into some 18 languages before 1982.[10][25] The popularization of Relgis' ideas in America was first taken up by reviews such asThe Humanist andBooks Abroad, whileOriole Press reprintedMuted Voices.[105] A second revised edition ofProfetas y poetas, prefaced by the Spanish intellectualRafael Cansinos-Asséns, saw print in Montevideo (1981).[8] At around the same time, in Mexico, his poems were being reprinted inAlfonso Camín'sNorte literary review.[106]
In addition to the Philippide Institute collection, part of Relgis' personal archive is being preserved inJerusalem, at theNational Library of Israel.[5][7][10] His other notebooks and letters are kept in the Netherlands, at theInternational Institute of Social History.[5][7] Relgis' likeness is preserved in drawings byMarcel Janco,[2][76]Lazăr Zin,[107]Louis Moreau[10] andCarmelo de Arzadun.[8]
