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Wilhelm Schenker

born Wisniowczyk, March 12, 1862

Documents associated with this person:

Third (but first surviving) child ‒ of Johann Schenker and Julia, née Moser, hence Heinrich Schenker's elder brother. Wilhelm was married twice, first to Dodi, with whom he had a daughter (Wilma, born 1915); and second to Marie – neither maiden name known. Wilhelm was a fully-qualified medical doctor who practised for 43 years as a municipal doctor in three towns in Upper Austria.

Children and relationships

Before his first marriage, Wilhelm evidently formed a close attachment to a Mrs. Schimatowitsch, who had a son, Tonschl (father unknown), who himself in 1907 and 1911 had sons Tonerl and Karli (mother unknown); that Wilhelm was not Tonschl's father is established by Heinrich’s use of the word Adoptivsohn (“adoptive son”) to describe him (diary, June 27, 1915).) While precise chronology is unclear, Wilhelm, and Dodi took the two young boys into their home, helping educate them and seeking careers for them, in which activities his two brothers, Moriz and Heinrich Schenker were involved. Then in May 1915 Dodi gave birth to a daughter, Wilma, after which references to “the children” included Tonerl, Karli, and Wilma.

Wilhelm and his two wives

From at latest 1907 Wilhelm lived in Kautzen, where he and his first wife Dodi cared for Julia Schenker for the last three years of her life (1915–17). After Dodi's death in 1923, he moved to St. Bernhard bei Horn, 25 km (15 miles) from Waidhofen, where Julia Schenker was buried. From 1935 to 1938 he and his second wife Marie lived in Pernegg; subsequently they moved to a small apartment in Korneuburg upon his retirement.

Wilhelm is not mentioned in Heinrich's diary before 1914. Like his youngest brother Moriz, he was relatively well-off, and he figures in the diary as providing money to Julia (diary, September 1 and 3, 1914), and in 1918 is involved with funeral and gravestone arrangements for Julia. Like Heinrich, Wilhelm was diabetic: diets feature frequently in Heinrich’s letters to his brother.

Heinrich's diary for September 3‒5, 1927 records a penetrating portrait of a man who used cheerfulness as a device for avoiding life's difficulties and who had never fully tapped the "higher resources" that he possessed, a man aloof from his family, even unaware of Heinrich's growing stature as a musical thinker and writer. He no longer remembers the evening on which we left our father in Lemberg after the burial of our eldest brother [1880] and, returning to our lodging, shook hands and hugged each other – he doesn't remember our brother, not even his death! I recall with horror that hour in which I brought him, when he was a medical student, the sad news that our father had died [late 1887]. To me, a world full of trouble came into being, at any rate a new world; he seemed not to be taking any notice, as if even then he had decided once and for all to take no responsibility upon himself for those who remained, at least as far as his share was concerned.

The tone of his letters, on the other hand, suggests that the two brothers were on the best of terms, sharing their experiences with physicians, dentists, and eye doctors, and exchanging Jewish jokes that they had recently heard or read.

Correspondence with Heinrich and Jeanette

Eight letters from the 1930s from Wilhelm to Heinrich and his wife Jeanette are known to survive as OJ 14/6 (1930-39) and two as OC 44/38 and OC A/296;, the 106 letters and postcards from Heinrich to Wilhelm (OJ 5/38) are spread across nearly 40 years. Wilhelm maintained contact with Jeanette after Heinrich's death, his last surviving letter to her being dated June 1, 1939 (OJ 14/6, [8]).

Source:

  • private communication from Heribert Esser
  • Wiener Zeitung, March 30, 1920, p.5

Contributors:

  • Ian Bent and Marko Deisinger

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Correspondence

Diaries