Wittgenstein Initiative

The Wittgenstein Initiative has lost one of its founders, a great man and a towering scholar. Allan Janik passed away on 21 March after a long illness. Without him, we would probably not exist. It was Allan who urged us to start the endeavour to honour Wittgenstein in his city of birth, truly. Nobody knew more than Allan about the connection, personal and philosophical, between Ludwig Wittgenstein and Vienna. He authored not only the seminal “Wittgenstein’s Vienna” (together with Stephen Toulmin in 1972), but also studied and extended our perception of Wittgenstein as an Austrian beyond anyone else.

Allan Janik leaves us in his debt and with the great responsibility to continue to uphold the ethical standards he taught us.

A good new article:
Saint Ludwig of Cambridge
"...It was a life that intersected with the great events of the twentieth century, and it showed many of the characteristics of saintliness: radical asceticism, carelessness of the opinions of the world, single-minded focus on how to live well in response to the gifts given him, desire to communicate those gifts to others, and a mode of living for which eccentricity is too moderate a word..."

The Lamp Magazine | Saint Ludwig of Cambridge On Wittgenstein and the Creed.

The Wittgenstein Villa in Neuwaldegg
(Ludwig's birthplace)

A lively and very interesting talk by our friends Maire-Theres Arnbom and Georg Gaugusch

at the Wittgenstein Week in Paais Schönborn in Vienna, on 23 October 2025

Die Wittgenstein Villa in Neuwaldegg The Wittgenstein Villa in NeuwaldeggDr. Marie-Theres Arnbom (Historikerin)DI Georg Gaugusch (Genealoge und Historiker)