George Saiko

George Saiko's grave

George Saiko , actually Emanuel Georg Josef Saiko, (born February 5, 1892 in Seestadtl , Bohemia , Austria-Hungary , † December 23, 1962 in Vienna ) was an Austrian writer and art historian .

Life

Georg Saiko came to Mödling near Vienna with his family in 1910 and studied art history, classical archeology, philosophy and psychology at the University of Vienna from 1912 . In 1924 he was with the dissertation The early Baroque palace in Vienna where his doctorate .

In Vienna he got to know Franz Theodor Csokor , who helped him to get the first opportunity to publish. The stories "The Last Goal" (1913) and "The Merciless City" (1914) were published. He became friends with Hermann Broch and got to know Robert Musil . In 1913/13 he was also a member of Ida Orloff's acting troupe at the "Deutsches Theater" in Saint Petersburg .

As a result, he devoted himself to art historical topics for English and American art magazines and to his writing. After the annexation of Austria , since he did not belong to the Reichsschrifttumskammer , he was banned from writing in 1939 and assigned to the Albertina graphic collection as an official, where he was involved in the war-related outsourcing of the art collections. From February 1945 to March 1946 he provisionally headed the Albertina with Heinrich Leporini . On November 30, 1950, he was dismissed from the Albertina without notice because of personal differences with the director Otto Benesch . Afterwards he worked as a freelance writer with great material difficulties.

Saiko's grave is in the urn grove of the Simmering fire hall . It is one of the grave sites of the city of Vienna that are dedicated or taken into custody on account of honor.

Literary work

His novel Auf dem Floß (1948) and the comedy Hof- und Personalnachrichten (written in 1931/32, first performance in 1938 prevented by the Anschluss, first performance in 1988 at the Theater in der Josefstadt ) dealt with the fall of the Habsburg monarchy . The novel Der Mann im Schilf (1955) is about the July coup of 1934. The novel was filmed in 1978 under the title of the same name .

Awards and memories

1955 Theodor Körner Prize
1959 Prize of the City of Vienna for Literature
1962 Grand Austrian State Prize for Literature

In 1966 the Saikogasse in Vienna- Donaustadt (22nd district) was named after him.

From 1987 to 1992 the complete works of Saiko appeared in a five-volume edition in Residenz-Verlag . In 1997 the author's estate went to the Austrian Literature Archive of the Austrian National Library.

Since 2000, the heirs have awarded the George Saiko travel grant to Austrian authors every two years ; previous winners have been Oswald Egger , Brigitta Falkner , Josef Winkler (2004), Olga Flor , Ann Cotten , Sabine Scholl (2010), Dimitré Dinev , Thomas Stangl , Marianne Jungmaier (2016) and Barbi Marković (2018).

Fonts (selection)

On the raft . 1948. 2nd revised edition Hamburg 1954.
The man in the reeds . Hamburg 1955.
Giraffe under palm trees - Stories from the Mediterranean , Hans-Deutsch Verlag, Vienna Stuttgart Basel 1962.
Complete works , volumes 1–5. Edited by Adolf Haslinger . Residenz-Verlag Salzburg, Vienna 1987–1992.

literature

Renate S. Posthofen: Flotsam. The forgotten work of George Saiko . Böhlau, Vienna 1995, ISBN 3-205-98234-7 .
Michael Hansel, Klaus Kastberger (Ed.): George Saiko: Texts and materials . Special number, Vienna 2003, ISBN 3-85449-212-X .
Michael Hansel: George Saiko or: Reality has double bottom . Special number, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-85449-330-3 .
Milan Tvrdík: "I am happy in some landscapes in Italy - as far as a person can say that about himself". The Italian motifs in George Saiko's narrative . In: Manfred Müller, Luigi Reitani (Ed.): From the cultural landscape to the place of critical self-confidence. Italy in Austrian literature . Lit, Vienna / Berlin / Münster 2011, ISBN 978-3-643-50357-2 , pp. 139–155.
Pia Schölnbeger: "Air protection celebrates orgies here". The rescue operations of the Albertina graphic collection under George Saiko . In: Pia Schölnberger, Sabine Loitfellner (Hrsg.): Salvage of cultural property under National Socialism (= series of publications of the Commission for Provenance Research 6). Vienna, Böhlau 2016, ISBN 978-3-205-20093-2 , pp. 129–148.
George Saiko , in: Jürgen Serke : Bohemian Villages. Wanderings through a deserted literary landscape . Vienna: Paul Zsolnay, 1987 ISBN 3-552-03926-0 , pp. 450–453

Web links

Literature by and about George Saiko in the catalog of the German National Library

George Saiko in the Vienna History Wiki of the City of Vienna

Entry on George Saiko in the Austria Forum (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )

Entry on George Saiko in the database of the state's memory for the history of the state of Lower Austria ( Museum Niederösterreich )

George Saiko in the literary archive of the Austrian National Library

Individual evidence

↑ Unpublished; Doctoral file .
↑ www.friedhoefewien.at - Graves dedicated to honor in the fire hall Simmering cemetery (PDF 2016), accessed on March 7, 2018.
↑ derStandard.at: George Saiko travel grant to Marianne Jungmaier . Article dated December 2, 2015, accessed December 21, 2017; orf.at: Barbi Markovic receives George Saiko travel grant . Article dated March 6, 2018, accessed March 6, 2018 .;

personal data
SURNAME	Saiko, George
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Saiko, Emanuel Georg Josef (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Austrian writer and art historian
DATE OF BIRTH	February 5, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH	Seestadtl
DATE OF DEATH	December 23, 1962
Place of death	Vienna

[1] Unpublished; Doctoral file .

[2] www.friedhoefewien.at - Graves dedicated to honor in the fire hall Simmering cemetery (PDF 2016), accessed on March 7, 2018.

[3] derStandard.at: George Saiko travel grant to Marianne Jungmaier . Article dated December 2, 2015, accessed December 21, 2017; orf.at: Barbi Markovic receives George Saiko travel grant . Article dated March 6, 2018, accessed March 6, 2018 .;