Biography
Before his birth, Rudolf Kassner's family emigrated to Moravia (at the time part of Austro-Hungary) from Silesia. His father, Oskar Kassner, was a landowner and factory owner, descended from government officials and businessmen. His maternal ancestors were peasants.Kassner regarded himself as a German-Slavic mixture, having inherited German Blut (German: blood) from his mother and a Slavic Geist (German: spirit) from his father (Das physiognomische Weltbild, 116ff.).
The seventh of 10 children, Rudolf Kassner was born on 11 September 1873 in Gross-Pavlowitz in southern Moravia, near Znaim. Shortly after Kassner's birth, his father moved the family to the countryside near Nikolsburg, where he leased imperial property, profitably cultivated beets, and ran a sugar factory.
Kassner contracted poliomyelitis at nine months of age, which affected both his legs and required him to use crutches for the rest of his life. He grew up in a strict Catholic milieu and was schooled at home. He and his siblings were educated by governesses. When he was a young adult, a tutor prepared him for annual state examinations that allowed him to attend the gymnasium in neighboring provincial town of Nikolsberg.
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