The Journal and its Editors

Die Zeit was founded in October 1894 by Isidor Singer, professor of economics at the University of Vienna, Heinrich Kanner, formerly an editor at the Frankfurter Zeitung, and Hermann Bahr, an enterprising writer on literature and the visual arts who oversaw cultural contributions to the paper. Bahr, who had settled in Vienna only three years earlier, had previously helped found two other journals devoted to the work of young artists, Die freie Bühne für modernes Leben in Berlin and Moderne Dichtung in Brünn (now Brno). In his inaugural essay in Die Zeit, Bahr declared that the paper would attempt a "revolution" by refusing to cater to the public's taste and views. "Those people who think differently from today's masses," he wrote, "and who flatter themselves that tomorrow the whole world will think in the same way, will voice their convictions here, unconcerned with pleasing [their readers]. . . . They will issue directives, not take them. They will lead the subscribers, not follow them" ("Der Abonnent," 7).

Die Zeit featured an impressive roster of contributors, including the writers Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Arthur Schnitzler, Hermann Hesse, Oscar Wilde, Leo Tolstoy, and Henrik Ibsen. Its editorial offices were a meeting place for many of Vienna's most promising young intellectuals (Daviau, 1991, p. xxiii).

Die Zeit and Schenker

Between September 7, 1895 and September 5, 1896, Schenker devoted his critical energies almost exclusively to Die Zeit. Unquestionably, this was the most influential and renowned journal for which he wrote. Schenker's correspondence with Singer reveals that he was eager to accept an invitation to write for the journal (OJ 14/25). Over the course of the year he wrote for Die Zeit, Schenker penned forty-six articles, nearly half of his total critical output. In contrast to those he published in the Musikalisches Wochenblatt, the articles he published in Die Zeit were mostly short reviews of concerts and newly published books.

While the surviving correspondence between Schenker and Bahr is sparse, there can be little doubt that Bahr, a notoriously combative critic, appreciated Schenker's opinionated disposition. He seems to have had some trouble, however, with the Schenker's prose. On one occasion, Bahr cautioned the writer: "I sincerely regret that I have apparently misunderstood you. But if even I, who after all read you more closely and thoughtfully than the average reader, can misunderstand you, how will you be misunderstood when the public sees it?" (OJ 9/10a, July 25, 1895). Though prolific, Schenker's work for Die Zeit was short-lived, and within a year he returned to the staff of the Neue Revue. While the circumstances of his departure are unknown, Schenker's replacements on the staff of Die Zeit, Richard Wallaschek and Max Graf, held views that were much more closely aligned with Bahr's own passion for experimental art.

Correspondence with Schenker

Only three letters from Die Zeit to Schenker are known to survive: two from Bahr (OJ 9/10a: 1895), one from Singer (OJ 14/25: 1895), and none from Schenker to Die Zeit or either editor.

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