Career Summary

Josef Redlich studied law at the University of Vienna and received his doctorate in 1891, thereafter pursuing a career in constitutional and administrative law. From 1901 he lectured in law at the University of Vienna, being appointed associate professor (außerordentlicher Professor) in 1907, and later full professor, and from 1908 he taught constitutional and administrative law at the Technical Hochschule in Vienna. In 1907 and 1911‒18 he served in the Austrian parliament, and was briefly Minister of Finance in 1918. In 1918‒19 he was a delegate in the provisional assembly for the formation of a German-Austrian state. 1931‒36 he was a deputy judge at the International Court of Justice in the Hague, and in 1931 served briefly again as Minister of Finance in the Austrian federal government. Between 1926 and 1935 he also taught at Harvard University.

He was a man of culture, in close touch with such leaders at Hermann Bahr, Hugo von Hoffmannsthal, and Theodor Herzl. His son was the musicologist Hans Ferdinand Redlich (1903‒68), specialist in the music of Monteverdi and of Austria in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Redlich and Schenker

Redlich is mentioned in Schenker's diary on November 6, 1906 ("At the home of Dr. Spieler (Grandmaster of the lodge): clarification given regarding his withdrawal from the lodge: for personal (Redlich-Gärtner) as well as substantive reasons, engaged in the most candid critique; stayed there for two hours."), December 29, 1926 ("Gärtner invites C.[?] Redlich; he declines."), and February 17, 1907 ("Exceptionally, at Privy Counselor Redlich's place, played with companions' quartet. Unbearable atmosphere; good looks made for bad playing.")