Pavol Strauss

Pavol Strauss (30 August 1912, in Liptovský Mikuláš – 3 June 1994, in Nitra); was a Slovak medical doctor, writer, essayist and translator.
Biography
Strauss's autobiography, Kolíska dôvery, published in 1994, can be considered as an authentic guidebook through his remarkable life. Strauss studied at a „gymnazium“ in his birthplace, where he actively worked in the self-educational group of M. M. Hodža. After passing the „maturita“ he studied medicine in Vienna and finished his studies at the German university in Prague in 1938. From 1938 to 1939 he completed a one-year military service. He worked as a doctor in Palúdzka and Ružomberok. Strauss converted to Catholicism from Judaism after a two-year struggle in 1942. Before the war ended he had been in a concentration camp in Nováky. He subsequently worked as a surgeon in Bratislava and from 1946 to 1956 as a head surgeon in Skalica. Finally, from 1956 to 1982, he worked as a surgeon in the State hospital in Nitra.
Strauss spent his childhood and student years in the house of his grandfather, Doctor Bartolomej Kux, who was an educated, however sceptical Jew. Under his influence, young Strauss perceived God more pantheisticly, which gave him a feeling of fear and insecurity. After adolescence he had doubts about the value of the world, in which he saw severe social injustice. He saw many negative traits in a lot of his Jewish fellows, on the other hand the Judaism was enlightened by the example of Hasidic rabbis. At the end of his high school, Strauss was flirting with communism, by studying the work of Mehring, Engels, Lenin, Plechan, and Bukharin. He was under the strong influence of Breton´s and Eluard´s surrealism and poetism and dadaism as well. During his studies in Prague he was going through some enriching cultural experience, which when he looked back at, he thought of them as „...as a sticker, a band-aid for a scattered soul. The outer discomfort beyond more restless and sinful soul. The obscurity in moral viewpoints, the desire to stand out and the great hunger after the truth, the purity and the assurance, even besides the notorious social problems...“ Nevertheless, he found something in this all later and considered it as his first phase of the conversion to Christianity. He defined it as a challenge of remplacing himself for living with the others, living for the world, especially the world of future. The second phase of his conversion had started during his military service in Ružomberok, where he was very positively influenced by the converted family - „Munkovci“. They availed him of catholic literature, particularly the work of Lippert and Guardini. He excitedly read the other work of Maritain, Blondel, Gilson, Guitton, Rilke, Papini, Bergson and others. He could not have let go of the ideas of Nietzsche, Breton and of some published ideas in the magazine Psyché. In the third phase of Strauss´s conversion, starting in about 1940, he was accepting a challenge to be baptized by Jozef Kožár, which had been consecrating him into the New Testament for almost half a year. Just before the baptism he partook in the spiritual retreats under the guidance of a Jesuit Ján Dieška and eventually he completed interviews with then Jesuit provincial padre Jozef Mikuš. In the post conversion phase he strengthened his faith by reading religion literature, particularly Imitation of Christ, Filotey and by penetrating into the liturgical life of the Church. His wife Mária, maiden name: Loydlová was some kind of a spiritual manuduktor to him.
Bibliography
The translations of the titles in English listed next to the original title in square brackets [...], only indicative, given that to date have not yet been officially published in the English language versions of the works of Strauss.
Die Kanone auf dem Ei, 1936 (poems)
Schwarze verse, 1937 (poems)
Všetko je rovnako blízke (Kaleidoskop z cesty po Švajčiarsku) Everything is close evenly [A kaleidoscope of the journey through Switzerland], 1946
Mozaika nádeje [Mosaic of hope], Bratislava, 1948
Stĺpy [Columns], Ružomberok, 1948
Aforistické diárium [Aphoristic diaries], Ružomberok, 1960
Krížová cesta pre chorých [Stations of the Cross for the sick], Ružomberok, 1964
Postila dneška [Today's lent], Ružomberok, 1965
Zápisky diletanta [Amateur's memoirs], Bratislava, 1968
Zákruty bez ciest [Curves without roads], Bratislava, 1971
Roztrhnutá opona [A torn curtain], Ružomberok, 1972
Rekviem za živých [Requiem for the alive], Bratislava, 1991
Nádhera nečakaného. Úsmev nad úsmevom [The beauty of unexpected. Smile upon smile], (Ideas and aphorisms), Bratislava, 1992
Kvety z popola [Flowers from ashes], Martin, 1992
Mozaika nádeje [Mosaic of hope] (extended), Bratislava, 1992
Ecce homo, Bratislava,1992
Tesná brána [Narrow gate], Bratislava, 1992
A slovo zdúchal duch [And a ghost blew the word away], Bratislava, 1992
Krížová cesta (Mozaika meditácií) [Stations of the Cross (Mosaic of meditations)], Bratislava, 1993
Za mostom času [Beyond the bridge of time], Košice, 1993
Kolíska dôvery [A cradle of trust], Trnava, 1994
Odvrátený hlas. Poznámky ku všetkému i k životu [Reversed speech. Notes for everything even for life], Bratislava, 1994
Torzo ticha [A fragment of silence], Bratislava, 1995
Život je len jeden [Just one life], Bratislava, 1996
Človek pre nikoho [Man for nobody], Bratislava, 2000
Sme mocnejší než čas. Apokalyptické tiene [We are stronger than time. Apocalyptic shadows], Bratislava, 2005
Selected writings
volume 1: S výhľadom do nekonečna [With a view of eternity], Prešov, 2010
volume 2: Hudba plaší smrť [Music terrifies death], Prešov, 2010
volume 3: Rekviem za neumieranie [Requiem for not dying], Prešov, 2010
volume 4: Skalpelom a perom [By scalpel and by pen], Prešov, 2010.
volume 5: Ozveny vnútorných hlasov [Echoes of the inner voices], Prešov, 2010.
volume 6: Aforistické iskrenie [Aphoristic sparkles], Prešov, 2010.
volume 7: Život je provizórium [Life is temporary] Prešov, 2011.
volume 8: Slovenské básne [Slovak Poems], Prešov 2011.
volume 9: Nemecké básne [German Poems], Prešov, 2011.
volume 10: Preklady a korešpondencia [Translations and correspondence], Prešov, 2012.
Other publications about him
RYBÁK, P.: P. Strauss – The fighting bell of this era. In.: Hope and Life, 1992
BÁTOROVÁ, M.: Paradoxes of Pavol Strauss, Bratislava, 2006
A magazine: Letters from Pavol Strauss, Mikuláš, 2007 – 2010, no. 1–9
WEAG, G.: Strauss - two brothers, Live AID Bratislava 2013
LETZ, J.: Slovak Christian philosophy of 20th century and its prospects, Krakov/Trnava, 2010, p. 82–86, 96–98, 354.
External links
Spolok priateľov MUDr. Pavla Straussa (Association of friends Dr. Pavol Strauss)
1912 births
1994 deaths
Slovak poets
Writers from Liptovský Mikuláš
20th-century poets
20th-century Slovak physicians