The life and work of Elza Kučera. On her birthday (22 October 1883 – 22 October 2022) // Luka Boršić and Ivana Skuhala Karasman

Elza Kučera was a daughter of the famous Croatian astronomer, professor, populator of science and writer Oton Kučera and Vilhelmina (Vilma) Julie Stenczel. Little is known about her mother: she was born in Neudorf (Vinkovačko Novo Selo) in 1862. She received an exceptionally good education for a woman of her time: she wrote and conversed in Croatian, German, and Hungarian. Vilma Stenczel died in 1890 in Požega.

Oton Kučera was born in Petrinja in 1857. After his initial education, he moved to Vienna where he studied physics, mathematics, and astronomy. After finishing his studies, he returned to Croatia and got employed as a teacher at the Gymnasium in Vinkovci, Požega and finally in Zagreb. While working in Požega Kučera founded the first school astronomical observatory in these parts of Europe. He received his doctoral degree from the University of Zagreb in 1899 with a thesis about Croatian renaissance mathematician and physicist Marin Getaldić. Thereafter he became a lecturer of higher mathematics and theoretical physics with mechanics at the “Forest Academy” in Zagreb where he worked till his retirement in 1915. He was twice president of Observatory in Zagreb (in 1903, 1920 till 1925). Kučera was also the president of Matica hrvatska (Matrix Croatica), the most important Croatian cultural and national institution from 1909 till 1917. Kučera played a significant role in popularizing technology and science in Croatia.

Oton Kučera was married twice and had four children: daughters Elza (from first marriage), Nevenka and Mara, and son Vlaho (from second marriage). Vlaho Kučera (1898 – 1983) followed his father’s steps and became an astronomer, however without having finished any formal higher education. Oton Kučera’s daughter Nevenka (1896 – 1987), married Crnčić, was a pharmacist, and the youngest daughter, Mara, was a physician (1899 – 1939). Oton Kučera died in Zagreb on 29 December 1931.

Elza Kučera was born on 22 October 1883 in Vinkovci. Her mother died when she was seven years old. She finished elementary school in Bakar in 1894. From school year 1894/5 till 1901/2 she attended Female lyceum in Zagreb. Her teacher, among others, was a famous Croatian writer and pedagogue Jagoda Truhelka (1864 – 1957). Writer Natalie Wickerhauser (1853 – 1906) who encouraged founding of the Female lyceum in Zagreb, was her English teacher. Her German teacher in Lyceum and long-life friend was writer and translator Camilla Lucerna (1868 – 1963). According to her high school reports, from her early education she was more interested in natural science then in humanities and social sciences. She passed the final exam (matura) in 1902.

The same year she went to Vienna where she attended the Privatschule für Kaufmännische Lehrfächer für Mädchen und Frauen (Private school for commercial subjects for girls and women). Anyhow, she did not find herself in studying economics. In 1902 she switched to philosophy and psychology at the University of Vienna. However, her Viennese studies, for not completely clear reasons, were a disappointment and she returned to Zagreb. From 1903 till 1905 she continued her studies at the University of Zagreb. Her Zagreb professors were the most prominent Croatian scholars of the time: philosophers Franjo Marković (1845 – 1914), Gjuro Arnold (1853 – 1941), Albert Bazala (1877 – 1947), art historian and politician Isidor Kršnjavi (1845 – 1927), and chemist Gustav Janeček (1848 – 1929), all of whom were also her family friends and acquaintances. She also attended her father’s lectures. However, again out of not completely clear reason, she decided to leave Zagreb and move to Zurich. From 1905 till 1908 she studied special philosophy and psychology at the University of Zurich. Her mentor and the person who influenced her intellectual development the most was the psychology and philosophy professor Gustav Wilhelm Störring (1903 – 1946). During her Zurich times, they worked together on the experimental research in the field of the psychology of thinking. The results of this experimental research were published in Archive für die gesamte Psychologie in 1908 and 1909. She received her doctoral degree in 1909 at the University of Zurich with a thesis Die Erkenntnistheorie von Thomas Brown. Eine historische Studie (The Epistemology of Thomas Brown. A Historical Study). Her thesis was published in 1909 in Zagreb.

Elza Kučera died in Zagreb on 22 June 1972 and was buried at the Mirogoj cemetery, sharing the grave with her friend and a former teacher Camilla Lucerna.

Elza Kučera was the first women librarian in Croatia. After having received her doctoral degree, Kučera returned to Zagreb. She had no opportunity to work as experimental psychologist in Zagreb, because of her speech impediment working as a teacher was not an option. The only remaining possibility for her as a woman was to work as a librarian. However, at the time, women in Croatia were still not admitted to this position. In order to break the ice, Kučera used her wits as well as her family connections and obtained the state permit to get employed as a state clerk at the library in 1912. Kučera was the first woman to receive this permit. After her employment at the National and University Library in Zagreb she remained there until her retirement in 1944. From 1920 till 1942 she served as a vice director of the library. Moreover, in 1948 she cofounded the Croatian Librarian Association. She also published some works on women librarians: Die Frau als Bibliotekarin (The Women as Librarian, 1911) and Ženski rad u bibliotekama (Women’s Work in the Libraries, 1912). She authored the booklet Počeci saradnje jugoslavenskih biblioteka (The Beginnings of Cooperation of the Yugoslav Libraries). Her article about first professional Croatian librarian Ivan Kostrenčić (1844 – 1924) remained in manuscript. Elza Kučera also served as a member of the Examination Board of National Exam of Librarians.

Besides being the first woman public clerk and librarian, Elza Kučera was the first Croatian women philosopher to receive a doctoral title in philosophy. Although she worked as librarian and published only one work on philosophy, Die Erkenntnistheorie von Thomas Brown, her entire professional life and work was impregnated with philosophy. From 1924 till 1930 Kučera organized sixty-four philosophical colloquia in Zagreb. From her manuscripts it is evident that she intended to write more extensively on logic, epistemology, and history of philosophy. She also had intense contacts with contemporary Croatian philosophers such as Vladimir Dvorniković (1888 –1956), Zdenko Vernić (1885 – 1944), and Pavao Vuk-Pavlović (1894 – 1976).

Besides being the first woman librarian and the first woman Doctor of Philosophy, Elza Kučera was also the first women experimental psychologist in Croatia. During her Zurich times, she partially followed Willhelm Wundt. Two unpublished Kučera’s works on Wundt are preserved at the National and University Library in Zagreb: Wundt in der Psychologie der Gegenwart (Wundt in the Psychology of the Presence) and Zum methodologischen Problem der Wundschen und der Strukturpsychologie (On the Methodological Problem of Wundt and Structural Psychology), which means that she mostly relied on experimental results in psychology, and, on the other hand, she accepted a more theoretical approach of the so-called Würzburg school of psychology. From 1910 till 1914 in her Zagreb apartment Kučera established a small private laboratory for experimental psychology. In 1922 she stayed at Psychological Institute in Bonn where she was engaged in research on volition activity. She continued to work on experimental testing on volition activity at the Psychological Laboratory on Institute of Physiology at the University of Zagreb. Kučera adjusted Binet-Simon test to Croatian conditions, and together with Mathilda Kelchner and Zofja Korczynska she put together the test for testing the characteristics of certain nation. From 1933 till 1936 she volunteered at the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Zagreb. In 1927 she was cofounder together with Albert Bazala, Ramiro Bujas (1879 – 1959) and Zdenko Vernić of the Revija za filozofiju i psihologiju (Journal of Philosophy and Psychology). In year 1953 Kučera participated in the founding of the Association of Psychologists of the SFRY – Section of the Republic of Croatia.

Besides her professional activities and publications, Elza Kučera published also on the topics related to the women’s issues such as women librarians, bibliographies of books of female writers in Yugoslavia, the philosophical basis women’s emancipation etc. She published two books on her friend, the Croatian writer and translator Camilla Lucerna: Camilla Lucerna. Ein Frauenbildnis (Camilla Lucerna. A Woman’s Portrait, 1928) and O životu i radu Camille Lucerne (About Life and Work of Camilla Lucerna, 1938). Together with the Austrian writher and librarian Julius Franz Schütz (1889 – 1961) she edited a sort of Lucerna’s “Festschrift”: Camilla Lucerna 1868 – 1938 (1938). Kučera was active in the Zagreb section of the Yugoslav Association of University–Educated Women. She also organized the exhibition of female writers held in Dubrovnik in year 1936.

Elza Kučera was a pioneer in three areas in our country: she was the first women librarian, first woman philosopher born in Croatia and first women experimental psychologist. With her work and contributions in these areas, she contributed to the struggle for equality of women in Croatia. With her own example, as she used to stress in several interviews she gave to the papers of the time, she gave an example to other women and showed them that they can also participate in the scientific and cultural life. Privately, she had an unconventional lifestyle, which was almost exclusively dedicated to her professional job of a librarian, and, so to say, her “hobbies”, the things she was passionately interested in throughout her whole life – psychology and philosophy.