FRANK KNOPFELMACHER
SELECTED WRITINGS
Edited by Andrew Knopfelmacher
Paperback, 280 pages, $34.95
ISBN 9781923224001
Release Date: April 2024
In this compelling collection, delve into the profound thoughts and fearless observations of Frank Knopfelmacher, a true intellectual luminary and participant observer of the tumultuous 20th century. From his formative years marked by firsthand experiences of Hitler and Stalin regimes, Knopfelmacher emerges as a passionate anti-communist 'cold war warrior' with a broader role – a perceptive social commentator and influential educator. Rejecting pomposity and embracing self-irony, his unconditional sobriety resonates through his penetrating speeches, lucid writings that captivated students and ordinary minds alike. Unveil the legacy of a man who, beyond being a vigilant critic, dedicated his life to a singular duty – to warn against the inherent dangers threatening society's fabric.
In taking on the Communist left and their fellow-travellers, people like Richard Krygier, James McAuley, Peter Coleman, Bob Santamaria, Heinz Arndt and Frank Knopfelmacher were not only right in practice, they were right in principle and part of a noble and moral cause.
-- John Howard: Address to the Quadrant Magazine 50th Anniversary Dinner, October 3, 2006.
Many have learnt to understand the essence of totalitarianism through the writings of a Borkenau or a Hannah Arendt. I learnt it by speaking to – and reading – Frank. That reading, those conversations both changed and deepened my idea of politics.
-- B.A. Santamaria.
We are talking about courage, the necessary moral background to the pursuit of truth. Given the circumstances, given the universities, given intellectual life, it is the courage of standing virtually alone decade after decade, especially in the areas of politics and culture…precisely Frank’s areas of interest, as they were Max Weber’s. Standing alone in that particular way is the only source of authority in intellectual life…
-- John Carroll – Frank Knopfelmacher Retirement Dinner.
Dr Frank Knopfelmacher (1923-1995), philosopher, sociologist and psychologist was born in 1923 in Vienna and educated in Czechoslovakia and in England. During WW2 he worked in an Israeli kibbutz, then fought with the Eighth Army in the Western desert and the British Liberation Army in Western Europe. After the war, he lived and studied in Prague at Charles University where he experienced the communist takeover. Returning to England in 1948, he attained high academic distinction at Bristol University and University College London, from where in 1955 he was appointed to the University of Melbourne. There he combined academic teaching as a lecturer with activities as a publicist and controversialist in political affairs, was a frequent contributor to the weekly and quarterly press and a media personality. In 1965 he was the centre of a heated academic controversy when a unanimous recommendation by an academic selection committee to appoint him to a post in political philosophy at Sydney University was overruled in an unprecedented manner by the University's Professorial Board. An incisive critic of political parties and social institutions, he took a prominent part in the Vietnam controversy, supporting Australia's commitment. He lived to see the collapse of the Soviet Empire and returned twice to Prague in 1990 and 1991. In 1991 as a distinguished guest lecturer for a three month period at Charles University Prague where he had formerly studied under leading philosopher Professor Jan Patocka, a founding member of Charter 77.
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