Otto Felix Kanitz - Social Activity

Social Activity

As soon as in 1911, he engaged in Max Winter's election campaign, and beginning in 1912 he gave speeches before youth groups. From 1916, he was active in the Kinderfreunde movement where he was mentored by Hermine Weinreb and Anton Afritsch. Besides his involvement in the aforementioned movement, he prepared matura, wrote poems and theater plays and contributed to the Kinderland journal. In 1918, after his matura, he was employed by Kinderfreunde and started to study philosophy and pedagogy with Wilhelm Jerusalem who considerably influenced his development towards tolerance, albeit whilst strongly opposing institutionalized religion and any misuse of power. His goal was to eradicate the 'Dienermentalität' (servant mentality) which he felt was a characteristic of those of the supposed lower-classes under the Habsburg Monarchy. He had the opportunity to realize practical educational reforms together with Alfred Adler, Max Adler, Marianne Pollak, Josef Luitpold Stern and Otto Glöckel.

Kanitz was a proponent of the Kinderrepublik anti-authoritarian education movement. After successfully running two such holiday camps in 1919, in Gmünd, Lower Austria (the only such project ever to operate in Austria, which housed a total of some 700 children), he was appointed director of Kinderfreunde's newly to be founded Schönbrunn school:

When after the breakdown of the Habsburg Monarchy Vienna's Vice Mayor Max Winter succeeded in getting a considerable part of Schönbrunn Palace to establish a school for educators and teachers and a children's home, it was under the condition that they would start a project within a time period of three days.

Kanitz then moved in with 100 of the participants from the holiday camp.

Anton Tesarek was appointed director of the children's home in Schönbrunn Palace, while Kanitz was to lead the school. Meanwhile, Kranitz completed his PhD in 1922. Another one of his initiatives, a conference near Salzburg in 1922 with the co-founder of the German Kinderfreunde Kurt Löwenstein, resulted in founding the International Falcon Movement.