Fischer, Josef, Doc., PhDr.

The personal fonds of Doc. PhDr. Josef Fischer, a prominent Czech philosopher, sociologist, translator, and participant in the domestic anti-Nazi resistance, is a valuable source for understanding his personality and work, for understanding the intellectual and spiritual atmosphere of the interwar Czechoslovakia, and for studying the issues of the domestic non-communist resistance. The documents related to the resistance activities of the author, especially the letters and secret messages of doc. J. Fischer from prison are a valuable source. The fodns also contains the extensive correspondence from1914-1938, including, among others, the correspondence of doc. J. Fischer with important intellectuals of Jewish origin of that time, e.g. with Moritz Kornfeld (1852-1934), the owner of a spinning mill and dyeing house in Prague, a well-known expert on philosophical and religious texts; with Hugo Siebenschein (1889-1971), a literary historian, Germanist, university teacher and lexicographer; with Felix Weltsch (1884-1964), a Czech-Jewish journalist, writer and philosopher, one of the most influential Zionists in the Czech lands; and with Arnošt Kraus (1859-1943), a university professor of German studies, literary historian, theatre critic and translator from Scandinavian languages. The fonds also contains part of the editorial archive of the Student Magazine from 1923-1926, which was a magazine of the secondary school youth in the interwar Czechoslovakia. Leading representatives of Czechoslovak culture of Jewish origin also contributed to the magazine. This part of the fonds contains, for example, correspondence and messages of the editor of the Student Magazine, Jaroslav Sochor (1885-1941), addressed to J. Fischer. As far as the biographical archival material is concerned, we can point out the following Judaica in the fonds: a copy of Josef Fischer's birth certificate from the 1908 registry of the Jewish community in Kolín and a notice of Josef Fischer's resignation from the Jewish Church dated 3 March 1919.

Roughly arranged are: biographical archival materials; diary entries; correspondence; letters and secret messages of J. Fischer from prison; letters of Milena Fischerová (J. Fischer's wife) from prison; documents related to the scientific and literary activities of the author (dissertation, habilitation work, articles, poems, speeches, preparatory material); documents related to the public and political activities of J. Fischer; documentation (newspaper clippings, almanacs); documents relating to the family of Milena Balcarová-Maříková (mother of Milena Fischerová-Balcarová, mother-in-law of J. Fischer); correspondence of Hermina Fischerová-Krásová (mother of J. Fischer); photographs.