Austrian literature

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Franz Gaul : The Austrian Parnassus (1862)

The Austrian literature is a part of German literature . It describes the literary business in the Republic of Austria or works by Austrian authors. Writers from the Austrian monarchy from before November 1918 are also included, but it is difficult to distinguish them from other literatures.

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Language map of Austria-Hungary

Before the founding of the Republic of Austria in 1918, the term “Austrian literature” was mainly applied to authors who wrote in German and who were born in the Habsburg Monarchy and / or who lived there. However, since many of these authors were born outside of today's Austrian territory and came from German-speaking areas such as Bohemia , Hungary or Transylvania , the term “Austrian” can sometimes cause misunderstandings.

For the Middle Ages, it is usually difficult to determine exactly where a particular poet came from, if his name is known at all. Even in the period after that, the concept of the nation was hardly developed. In addition, Latin was the predominant supranational literary language anyway . It was not until the 19th century, in the wake of Romanticism and the beginning of the awakening of Eastern European linguistics and literary studies, that a differentiation between the state and the vernacular began .

In the multi-ethnic state of Austria, all the different nationalities lived together: Bosnians, Bulgarians, Germans, Italians, Croats, Romanians, Serbs, Slovaks, Slovenes, Czechs, Hungarians, Ukrainians as well as Szeklers and Rhaeto-Romans. The nationality conflict within the large state structure created a culturally tense atmosphere between commonality and enmity. As in music and architecture, this unique cultural area is also reflected in literature. The literary scholar Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler wrote:

"The literature from Austria is for the most part written in German, but due to the historical and social framework conditions it obeys completely different laws, also in the area of ​​pure form and content."

On the other hand, the older Austrian literature can also be seen as part of German literature. For the Austrian author Hugo von Hofmannsthal , for example, the idea of ​​Austrian literature was just a fiction:

"Because that is what all considerations of a supra-political nature that deal with the Austrian phenomenon seem to have to come down to: the fiction of Austrian music, Austrian literature - none of that exists, there is only German music and German literature, and in this the works produced by Austrians. Because these terms only have to do with the entire German nation as it was once represented in the Holy Roman Empire ... "

Today, German-speaking authors from South Tyrol are also included in Austrian literature.

Literature through the centuries

middle Ages

Early Middle Ages (around 750–1170)

In the early Middle Ages , poetry was almost exclusively disseminated orally. Because of this, much has been lost. Education and culture were limited to the monasteries and monasteries. The majority of the surviving writings therefore have a religious function. Various sources suggest that there was also historical tradition (heroic songs, storytelling songs, prince award) and lyrical “folklore” (dance, love songs, lamentations for the dead , magic spells ).

In the Carolingian period one can speak of the first impulses in German literature. The texts were mainly translations from Latin for a better understanding for the common people as well as penance, salvation and Mary poems, which increasingly appeared at the time of the Ottonians and early Salians .

The individual works were often summarized in so-called collective manuscripts and kept together. The oldest known works are the Wiener Hundesegen (end of the 9th to the beginning of the 10th century), the " Old German Genesis " (end of the 12th century) and the Millstatt manuscript (approx. 1200). The authors of most of the old texts are not known by name, traditional names from the area of ​​today's Austria are:

  • Ava (spiritual poet, oldest author known by name who wrote in German; * around 1060; † February 7, 1127)
  • The von Kürenberg or Der Kürenberger (middle of the 12th century) is the oldest known German lyric poet and one of the earliest representatives of minstrel . The Kürenberger was probably a Lower Austrian knight from the area around Linz in what is now Upper Austria .
  • Dietmar von Aist , minstrel who probably lived at the same time as Der von Kürenberg .
  • Heinrich von Melk (2nd half of the 12th century) was a lay brother who probably lived in the Melk monastery in Lower Austria in the middle of the 12th century . His satirical works represent a high point of the ascetic literature of his time.

High and late Middle Ages (1170–1500)

Walther von der Vogelweide (illustration from Codex Manesse , around 1300)

In the decades after 1150, German literature began to flourish. In individual courts of the feudal nobility, a cultivated literary practice based on the Romanesque model spread: so-called court literature . In the poetry of the minstrel and the song poetry developed . Reinmar von Hagenau and Walther von der Vogelweide worked at the Babenbergerhof in Vienna . Walther von der Vogelweide brought minstrelsong to its peak at the beginning of the 13th century . In contrast to Minnesang, Meistergesang could hardly gain a foothold in Austria. Numerous court epics in Middle High German were also written based on French models ( Chrétien de Troyes ) . The anonymous epic epic Nibelungenlied is assumed to have originated between Passau and Vienna.

Play poetry was a basic form of Austrian literature in the Middle Ages . Spiritual as well as secular games ( passion plays , mystery plays, carnival plays) were particularly widespread in the Alpine valleys. This tradition continued in the baroque era. The master poetry of the German area, on the other hand, was only marginally represented in Austria.

At the end of the Middle Ages, printing with movable type proved to be revolutionary . Finally, parchment could be replaced as a writing material by cheap paper .

Other authors:

  • Neidhart von Reuental (1st half of the 13th century) worked, among other things, at the court of the Babenberg Duke Friedrich II. He is considered one of the most successful songwriters of the Middle Ages and the creator of what is known as “courtly village poetry”. In his songs, he relocated the mostly rough and drastic love affair in a peasant setting and portrayed himself as the 'star' of the farm girls and the enemy of the farm boys.
  • The Burgrave of Lienz (13th century) came from the ministerial family of the Burgraves of Lienz (Lüenz) in Carinthia (Drau), Austria . He is the author of two day songs, which are contained in the Great Heidelberg song manuscript .
  • Jans der Enikel was a Viennese patrician , poet and chronicler of the late 13th century († after 1302), who was known for his world chronicle , a history of the world in around 30,000 Middle High German verses (rhyming pairs).
  • Wernher der Gartenaere (2nd half of the 13th century) created the first socially critical village history with the story of Meier Helmbrecht . It deals with the aberrations of a farmer's son, who feels called to higher things, against the background of the decline of knighthood and its decline to robbery knighthood.
  • Freidank (Vridanc) was a traveler of bourgeois origin who probably came from Swabia or Tyrol . He was born at the end of the 12th century. His work is a collection of didactic sayings. 1228-1229 he took part in the crusade of Frederick II . Presumably he died in Kaisheim in 1233 on a trip to Venice .
  • Brother Werner was about 1225-1250, primarily in Austria acting and in the interest of the Austrian rulers, of Walther von der Vogelweide influenced proverbs and held as these compounds to the Viennese court .
  • Heinrich von dem Türlin , an epic poet of Bavarian-Austrian origin, is known as the author of the epic Diu Crône (The Crown). This work is likely to have been made around 1230.
  • Ulrich von Liechtenstein (* around 1200; † January 26, 1275), minstrel and poet, wrote the first known autobiography in German women's service and the didactic women's book (Der vrouwen puoch) . In the first person he describes his life in women's service as the story of a knight wooing love.
  • Probably Der Stricker (1st half of the 13th century) can also be attributed to the Austrian environment. Due to the dialectal characteristics of his language, he is likely to come from Franconian, but his poetic career points to Austria.
  • Oswald von Wolkenstein (* around 1377; † August 2, 1445) probably came from South Tyrol and can be assigned to the late Middle Ages on the threshold of the Renaissance. His songs are also autobiographical; the original melodies have also survived.

Humanism, Reformation and Counter Reformation

The humanism is emanating from Italy mentality of the 15th century, all captured in the course of the 16th century Europe. Their aim was to revive ancient traditions.

In Tyrol, Eleanor of Austria (* around 1433, † 1480) and Nikolaus von Kues , Bishop of Brixen , first worked in the spirit of humanism. Eleonore translated the French adventure novel Pontus et la belle Sidonie ( Pontus and Sidonia ) , the central motifs of which are the repeated separation of lovers and the recapture of the empire from the power of pagans. Nikolaus von Kues traveled through Germany from 1450 to 1452 to reform the church and monasteries. One of his concerns was to give the people more knowledge about the faith. Testimony to this are the tablets with the Our Father and the Ten Commandments in the vernacular that still exist in some churches today.

Johannes Fuchsmagen (also Fuxmagen) (* around 1450; † 1510), who came from Hall and later moved to Vienna, first worked in Tyrol. Together with his friend Florian Waldauf von Waldenstein, he founded the oldest still existing cultural association in Tyrol, the Haller Stubengesellschaft .

In Vienna, Enea Silvio Piccolomini (later Pius II), secretary of Frederick III, was associated with humanism from 1437 . The period up to 1455 he spent primarily at the court of the emperor in Wiener Neustadt and Graz, among other things as the imperial secretary. Friedrich III. appreciated his services as well as his relaxed verses and crowned him " poeta laureatus ". During this time he gave lectures on the poets of antiquity at the University of Vienna and thus exerted a significant influence on humanism.

The appointment of Konrad Celtis to the University of Vienna as professor of rhetoric and poetics (1497) by Maximilian I led to a further spread of humanism. In his lyric works in Latin, Celtis imitated Ovid and Horace . His main works are the Quatuor libri Amorum (1502).

Baroque (around 1600-1720)

The horrors of the 17th century ( Thirty Years' War , Turkish wars , plague , cholera , ...) and the implementation of the heliocentric worldview led to a dualistic turmoil in the soul of the Baroque man between world affirmation and world negation, between joy in this world and longing for the hereafter. The courtyards were the cultural centers of that time.

Austria was a center of the baroque. The differences between Austrian and Bavarian and North German literature became clear. The latter adopted elements of the French classical period, while the south was influenced by the Italian and Spanish baroque. The separate religious development (Protestant North and Catholic South) is also reflected in the literature. The lives of saints, collections of legends, religious dramas by the Jesuits and the example literature of the counter- reformers played an important role. The range of baroque literature is very wide: from courtly poetry to folk-oriented novels, from imitating ancient models to personal adventure poetry, from carpe diem to vanitas motif. First opportunity poetry is created.

Large forms of drama are the pompous baroque theater and the religious drama, which impressed above all with its luxurious furnishings. In addition, the impromptu and buffoon game was very popular. This direction was represented in Austria by Josef Anton Stranitzky , Gottfried Prehauser , Joachim Perinet and Josef Felix von Kurtz .

Examples of baroque epics are the knight and picaresque novels by Johann Beer , which largely detach themselves from the symbolic world view of the baroque and represent a realistic representation of the reality of the time. Typical forms are the shepherd novel , state novel , picaresque novel , sonnets and epigrams .

Enlightenment (around 1720–1785)

Before the reign of Maria Theresa , the history of censorship was in the hands of the Jesuit- run universities . In the course of the Counter-Reformation , the fear and caution of authors and printers had become so great that book production in Austria lagged significantly behind that in other German countries. Books were imported from abroad as much as possible. The censorship was carried out in two ways: on the one hand by customs officers at the border and on the other hand by the censorship office of the state governments.

It was only Maria Theresa who relaxed the censorship. In order to be able to modernize the state, it had to accept the ideas of the Enlightenment, break away from the Counter Reformation and the supremacy of the church, and secularize the universities. She commissioned Gerard van Swieten (1700–1772) with the censorship . Her son Joseph II , whose form of government is called Enlightened Absolutism , adhered to the principle of van Swieten: The state should only be the worst, i.e. H. to hold back the most immoral reading. "Criticism, if only it's not diatribes, they can meet whoever they want, from the sovereign to the lowest" were not forbidden. The number of publications increased by leaps and bounds. This also led to the emergence of a separate literary class. Joseph II was less tolerant of the theater. In addition to grossian forms of popular theater, works that were critical of state politics were also prohibited. The works affected included Beaumarchais' Figaro and Goethe's Werther (ban lifted in 1786).

The book acquisition was affordable for the middle-class audience, a publishing with newspaper production and book market was born.

19th century

Romanticism (around 1799-1835)

Romanticism is a rather strange era for Austria. The immigrant German romantics ( Ludwig Tieck , August Wilhelm and Friedrich Schlegel , Clemens Brentano ) were viewed with suspicion or even disapproval by the Austrian authors. The turning away from antiquity and classical models does not take place in the same way as with German romantics.

Parallel to Romanticism, the Biedermeier trend on the one hand and Austrian classicism on the other , which is mainly represented by Franz Grillparzer , developed in Austria .

Biedermeier and Vormärz (around 1815–1848)

Scenery from Nestroys On the ground floor and first floor , the censorship is circumvented by means of parodistic antics

The Biedermeier period spanned the period from the political restoration after the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to the March Revolution of 1848/49 (Vormärz).

The time of the liberal attitude to critical works was over, and the successor of Joseph II, Leopold II , tightened censorship in 1790 to protect the church. Works that could disturb the general calm or reduce obedience were banned without exception. During the reign of Franz I (1792–1835) the restoration of the police station (1793) falls, to which the censorship office is subordinated a few years later. The General Censorship Ordinance of February 22, 1795 contained an exhaustive list of all censorship regulations of the time and was the basis for later censorship practice. It imposed draconian penalties for booksellers and printers who violated the rules.

The strict censorship in the Habsburg Empire not only fell victim to works by Nikolaus Lenau , Franz Grillparzer or Johann Nepomuk Nestroy ; a total of around 40,000 titles were on the Austrian prohibited lists. Every imported book, every article, every new publication has been reviewed and rated. These were works from all areas of life and knowledge.

Adalbert Stifter

The term Biedermeier refers on the one hand to the living culture and art of the bourgeoisie , which were considered "home-made" and " conservative ". The escape into the idyll was a reaction to the restrictive censorship policy of the Metternich era . The cultural and social life took place in private. Unproblematic topics such as historical novels or folklore and landscape poetry were published.

Dramatists who belong more or less to the Biedermeier era are Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872), Johann Nepomuk Nestroy (1801–1862) and Ferdinand Raimund (1790–1836). Grillparzer wrote tragedies in the spirit of the Weimar Classic, Nestroy and Raimund represented the Wiener Volksstück - the hub here was the Wiener Volkstheater . Friedrich Halm achieved great success with his declamatory dramas at the Burgtheater . Nikolaus Lenau (1802–1850) is best known as a poet .

The conclusion of the Biedermeier can generally be seen in the work of Adalbert Stifter . His first novel Der Nachsommer (which he himself called "Narrative") did not appear until 1857, but is still considered an outstanding work of the Biedermeier period.

The revolution of 1848/49

Ferdinand I lifted press censorship on March 15, 1848

In 1847/1848 there was a starvation winter. The economic hardship hit the already disadvantaged population groups in particular. Works like Alfred Meißner's Neue Sklaven or Karl Isidor Beck's poem Why we are poor give a vivid picture of the anger and despair that prevailed among the population.

Finally, it came on March 13, 1848 in Vienna with the storming of the estate and attacks on shops and factories in the suburbs. The first fatalities occurred after Archduke Albrechts ordered a demonstration to be fired at. On the evening of March 13, the now 78-year-old State Chancellor, Prince Metternich , the hated symbolic figure of the Restoration, resigned and fled to England . This event was thematized , for example, by Hermann Rollett's poem Metternich's Linde .

At the beginning of September, the constituent Austrian Reichstag resolved to exempt the peasants from inheritance . This was one of the revolution's few lasting achievements. The peasants' gratitude is documented, for example, in the new song from the all-venerated Emperor Ferdinand (1848).

In terms of culture, the year 1848 was marked by the brief lifting of censorship. On March 15, 1848, Emperor Ferdinand I made the first concessions. He promised the abolition of censorship and a state constitution. As a result, a large number of works were published, magazines shot up and disappeared, and the writing culture changed fundamentally. Friedrich Gerhards The press free! , MG Saphirs Der tote Zensor , the Zensorlied or Ferdinand Sauter's Secret Police give a picture of the spirit of optimism. There was also sharp criticism of the existing system. Examples of this can be found in Johann Nestroys Freiheit in Krähwinkel , sketches on Hell's Fear , Lady and Schneider and Die liebe Anverwandten (1848), political poems by Anastasius Grün and writings by Franz Grillparzer (The Fatherland, Thoughts on Politics) .

Realism (1848–1890)

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

In poetic or bourgeois realism, the authors avoided the major socio-political problems and turned to the closer, local homeland with its landscape and its people. The realists revolted primarily against the Classical and Romantic periods. One wanted to present facts as objectively as possible and outlawed the imagination; so the feelings and opinions of the poet should not flow into the texts. Art should be a reflection of reality. A characteristic of this realistic narrative is the frame narration .

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830–1916) and Ferdinand von Saar (1833–1906) are distinguished by their strong social awareness. Village motifs can be found in Ludwig Anzengruber (1839–1889) and, after the end of the era, in Peter Rosegger (1843–1918), whose work is considered to be a pioneer for vernacular and vernacular poetry.

Turn of the century

The years around 1900 were marked by intellectual unrest in Austria. Society was still unsettled by the battle of Königgrätz and the stock market crash in 1873. In this way, German naturalism passed Austrian literature practically without a trace, as there were simply no clearly defined opponents that one could have met. The older Austrian poets (all around 50 years old) such as Eschenbach, Rosegger or Anzengruber had almost anticipated naturalism in their works and their kind of realism. Therefore there was no fierce battle over these new ideas, but rather a creeping absorption of them. Otherwise traces of naturalism could be found sporadically in artist magazines (in beginnings in Bahr's time or the Wiener Rundschau ).

Viennese modernism

Hermann Bahr
(1904 by Emil Orlik )

The year 1890 marked the beginning of Viennese Modernism with the return of Hermann Bahr to Vienna and the establishment of the journal Moderne Dichtung . This marked the beginning of the most internationally influential era in Austrian art.

From this time on one can no longer speak of style epochs, since the styles overlapped and many authors changed styles in the course of their development. In Vienna, the beginning of modernism can be set in 1890, when Hermann Bahr began his work in Vienna (he himself only settled here in 1891). After stays in St. Petersburg, Paris and Berlin, familiar with the latest literary trends, he initially propagated naturalism together with the editors Eduard Michael Kafka and Julius Kulka in the new magazine Moderne Rundschau , but was already under the influence of Baudelaire and Barrès . A highlight was Henrik Ibsen's visit to Vienna with a performance of the crown pretenders and a gala banquet on April 11, 1891. The rejection after the performance in Vienna initiated by Burgtheater director Max Burckhard was so moderate that the poet thanked the Viennese audience for it. Before naturalism could gain a foothold, Bahr called for it to be overcome. In the essay Die Moderne (in Modern Poetry , January 1, 1890) the central motifs of the new epoch were already addressed: “the great dying”, the “death of the exhausted world”. In his novel Die gute Schule ( The Good School) (1890), free love also appeared as a matter of course, not as a scandal.

The literary café Griensteidl
The torch by Karl Kraus (1899)

Through his connections and contacts, Bahr became the “organizer of Austrian literature” (Peter de Mendelssohn). The loose group of young authors that formed around him was soon referred to as " Young Vienna ". You published in the journals Moderne Seal (1890), Moderne Rundschau (1891) and Die Zeit (from 1894), in which Bahr had a significant influence. Their meeting point was the Café Griensteidl . The most important representatives were the friends Richard Beer-Hofmann (1866–1945, Der Tod Georgs , story 1900), Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874–1929, poems, yesterday , letter from Lord Chandos ), Arthur Schnitzler (1862–1931, Anatol's wedding morning ) and Felix Salten . Elements of symbolism, impressionism, and decadence can be found in her early works. Even Peter Altenberg with its impressionistic prose sketches ( As I see it , 1896) and the young Karl Kraus (1874-1936) can be counted among Young Vienna. With the closure of Café Griensteidl in 1897, young Vienna came to an end, the authors often turned to other things. Leopold von Andrian , whose lyrical prose poem The Garden of Knowledge (1895) was highly valued by Stefan George , became a diplomat. As early as 1897, Karl Kraus mocked Hermann Bahr and the others in Die demolirte Litteratur . In 1899 he founded his own magazine Die Fackel (1899–1936), in which he himself was to promote many young talents between 1905 and 1912.

As the center of Viennese coffee house literature , Café Central was to succeed the Griensteidl. In addition to Altenberg and Hofmannsthal, Egon Friedell , Leo Perutz and Alfred Polgar were regular guests.

The doctor Arthur Schnitzler influenced psychoanalysis

Arthur Schnitzler made a name for himself as a playwright and narrator over the next few years. In his works he shed light on the mental state of Viennese civil society ( Liebelei 1895, Der einsame Weg 1896, Das weite Land 1911). Leutnant Gustl (1900) was the first text in German-language literature to be entirely designed as an inner monologue in lived speech . Schnitzler also brought criticism of rampant anti-Semitism on the stage ( Professor Bernhardi 1912).

Hofmannsthal developed from a symbolist poet and writer of fragments of drama ( The Death of Tizian 1892) to the revival of ancient (e.g. Elektra 1903) and baroque theater ( Das Salzburger Großes Welttheater 1922). From 1910 he was also the librettist for Richard Strauss ' operas ( Der Rosenkavalier 1910, Die Frau ohne Schatten 1913/15).

Poetry had a high priority in the modern age. Its most important representative was the Prague Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926). Viennese representatives who also belonged to the symbolist-impressionist fin-de-siècle style were Berthold Viertel (1885–1953) and Felix Dörmann (1870–1928).

The novel as a large literary form was less important. Worth mentioning are the fantastic novels The Other Side (1909) by Alfred Kubin and Der Golem (1915) by Gustav Meyrink . Rilke's notes by Malte Laurids Brigge (1910) address the social structure and the unworthy living conditions in big city life (de-individualization, anonymization, social coldness).

Great cultural influence had in Vienna features section . In the succession of Ludwig Speidel and Hugo Wittmann , it reached its peak at the turn of the century. Outstanding representatives were Theodor Herzl (1860–1904), Felix Salten (1869–1945), Ludwig Hevesi (1842–1910) and Alfred Polgar (1873–1955).

The Austrian cabaret scene began to establish itself. A first attempt was the Jung-Wiener Theater zum liebe Augustin by Felix Salten in 1901, which was unsuccessful. The night light (1906–1907), however, was successful, but was soon replaced by the Cabaret Fledermaus (1907–1913). In the restaurant, which was decorated in Art Nouveau style throughout by Josef Hoffmann , texts and a. brought by Altenberg, Bahr, Friedell and Polgar. Only the sketch Goethe by Friedell / Polgar (1908) should be emphasized. Grete Wiesenthal started her world career as a dancer from here.

expressionism

Georg Trakl

The beginning of Expressionism in Vienna can be set with the publication of the book Die träumenden Knaben in 1908. The book was published by the Wiener Werkstätten publishing house , is dedicated to Gustav Klimt and is by Oskar Kokoschka . The poem of the same name is stylistically way ahead of the illustration: "red fish, red / stab yourself to death with the three-edged knife / tear yourself in two with my fingers / that the silent circling is an end ..." Kokoschka also wrote some dramas, e.g. . B. Murderer, Hope of Women (1907).

Some expressionist authors first published their first works in the Fackel von Karl Kraus, such as the poets Franz Werfel and Albert Ehrenstein . The last one suddenly became famous with the story Tubutsch (1911). Kraus also supported Herwarth Walden in Berlin in founding the expressionist magazine Der Sturm and found Viennese authors for him, although he was rather reserved about Expressionism. In 1910, Ludwig von Ficker's magazine Der Brenner in Innsbruck became a mouthpiece for Expressionism. Here v. a. the outstanding lyric poet Georg Trakl (1887–1914) sponsored.

With her autobiographical and socially critical key novel Die Vergiftung , Maria Lazar made one of the most important female contributions to literary expressionism in 1920.

After the World War, representatives of the expressionist drama were the young Arnolt Bronnen ( parricide 1920) and Franz Theodor Csokor ( Ballad von der Stadt , written in 1922).

First World War

Most writers, regardless of their political worldview, followed the general enthusiasm for war. Only a few, like Karl Kraus (essay In this great time , November 1914) or Arthur Schnitzler (remained silent in public), rejected him from the start. Others, like Stefan Zweig , quickly turned into active pacifists. In contrast to the German Reich, which sent numerous artists to the front, the authorities in Austria-Hungary made many efforts to use artists in the hinterland for propaganda. So many writers were able to stay in the war press quarters as war correspondents or in the war archives. a. Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Rilke, Polgar, Alexander Roda Roda . Worth mentioning here is Alice Schalk , who was the only female war correspondent who wrote for the Neue Freie Presse . Hofmannsthal wrote patriotic works (Prinz Eugen) and defended the Austrian idea in speeches and essays. Other authors, whose names did not carry so much weight, definitely had to go to the front. The best known is probably Georg Trakl , who committed suicide after the Battle of Grodek .

A completely different development could be seen in the non-German-speaking countries of the Danube Monarchy. Here the aversion to war for "Emperor and Fatherland" was stronger. A timeless example of the sentiment against the war is written in the Czech language book The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hašek . In his special language, he described the absurdity of the agitation and mobilization before and after the beginning of the First World War . The figure of the tragic-comic antihero Schweik became a role model for countless other authors, cabaret artists, actors and bon vivants, the bureaucracy , the monarchy, the army , the war, the hospital or simply the “everyday madness” with his way of “fulfilling his duties” “Wanted to make their satirical pen strokes and language exercises the goal.

In comparison with the other countries involved (Ernst Jünger and Arnold Zweig in Germany, Henri Barbusse in France), the First World War found little echo in Austrian literature. The collapse of the monarchy and the search for a new identity were more formative. The big exception is the war drama The Last Days of Mankind (1919/22) by Karl Kraus .

During the First World War, the so-called War Surveillance Office controlled both the newspapers and the soldiers' mail.

Interwar period

Joseph Roth writes about the end of the monarchy

The collapse of the monarchy and the associated reduction of the large empire to a small country were not easy for many writers. There were problems to identify with the new state and to develop a new self-confidence. As a result, many writers conjured up the "old times" and found it difficult to make the transition to the new reality at first. These included, for example, Joseph Roth , Karl Kraus , Hugo von Hofmannsthal , Robert Musil , Marta Karlweis . The motive of the loss of one's own identity, triggered by the end of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, was central to Alexander Lernet-Holenias' work , such as his fantastic novella The Baron Bagge .

Joseph Roth (1894–1939) paints a sad picture of the crumbling monarchy in his novel Radetzkymarsch , named after the music piece of the same name by Johann Strauss' father for the hero of the Battle of Leipzig. The Kapuzinergruft (1938) continues the description of the decline of Austria until 1938. The nostalgic, legitimist attitude of the author is reflected in his works .

At the same time there was a turn to new ideas and thinking models. Social democracy, the labor movement, but also conservative and religious currents grew stronger and stronger. The camps hardened noticeably, which can also be seen in the literature of the time. The focus was on Berlin and Prague (Kafka, Meyrink, Brod , Hašek), and the poor economic situation also exacerbated the situation. However, the need to earn money forced some writers to work as journalists and thus enlivened the feature pages ( Kisch , Polgar, Friedell, Roth, Maria Lazar ). Cabaret was able to operate free of censorship and thus gained in importance again ( Karl Farkas , Fritz Grünbaum , Peter Hammerschlag , Jura Soyfer , Polgar, Friedell). Socio-critical and political works were also published, such as Werfel's novel The Forty Days of Musa Dagh , which vividly describes the genocide of the Ottoman Empire against the Armenians, which has been completely ignored internationally.

While Arnolt Bronnen and other young authors wrote works that contained socialist ideas, others such as Mirko Jelusich , Karl Hans Strobl or Bruno Brehm turned to nationalist ideas. These tensions ultimately led to the split of the Austrian PEN Club in Ragusa in 1933 as an outward sign . The German-nationally oriented authors founded the Association of German Writers Austria as a spin-off .

Well-known works by Stefan Zweig are great moments of mankind , Die Schachnovelle and Die Welt von Gestern

The interwar period produced a lot of important literature. In 1923 Joseph Roth published The Spider Web . This was followed by Marta Karlweis ( An Austrian Don Juan , 1929), Ödön von Horváth ( Stories from the Vienna Woods , 1931; Youth Without God , 1937), Hermann Broch ( The Enchantment , first version 1935/36, published posthumously 1953), Elias Canetti ( Die Blendung , 1936) Albert Drach ( The Punch and Judy Game by Master Siebentot , first version 1938/39, published 1965), Ernst Weiß ( The Eye Witness , written 1939, published posthumously 1963). Robert Musil wrote the novel of the century The Man Without Qualities , Stefan Zweig published a large number of essays, short stories and novels. Karl Kraus continued to publish The Torch .

The “ corporate state ”, also known as Austrofascism , largely eliminated opposition reporting by mastering the public communication system. A total of 325 books, especially those by socialist or social democratic authors, were banned. On the other hand, authors and publishers who had already been banned from working in Nazi Germany could live and publish in Austria unhindered. Gottfried Bermann Fischer, for example, emigrated to Vienna and was able to publish works by authors such as Thomas Mann and Carl Zuckmayer there until 1938 . Despite the widespread anti-Semitic mood in society, an essentially “legally correct treatment of Jews” in Austria was established for the period between 1933 and 1938. Jewish authors and intellectuals such as Joseph Roth, Stefan Zweig and Sigmund Freud lived in Vienna until 1938.

National Socialism and Exile Literature

On March 12, 1938, the German Wehrmacht invaded Austria, and the " Anschluss " with the German Reich was completed. On April 30, 1938, a book burning took place in Salzburg . It was staged by the SS man, teacher and writer Karl Springenschmid . Independent literature and literary criticism was no longer possible. Blood and soil literature was promoted by the regime , and there was also more or less ideology-free entertainment literature .

Writers withdrew to Inner Emigration . They remained silent on political issues, wrote for the drawer or on non-political issues. It was easier to bring artists into line and control them in radio, film, theater and literature than in cabaret , which had direct contact with the audience and was thus able to skilfully bypass censorship. One of the most famous cabaret stages was the Wiener Werkel , where almost without exception works by left-liberal and racially persecuted authors were performed until it was closed in 1944 due to the general theater ban. From an artistic point of view, experiments were carried out, and Rudolf Weys created the so-called middle piece as a new genre of Viennese political theater and cabaret. The name alludes to the position as a combination of theater and cabaret . Rudolf Weys was co-founder of the renowned cabaret theater Literatur am Naschmarkt and later the in-house author of the Wiener Werkel . Other important authors who used the middle section to significantly modernize and further develop the cabaret were, for example, Fritz Eckhardt or Jura Soyfer, who died of typhus in the Buchenwald concentration camp .

exile

Many Jewish and / or politically different poets left the country in 1938: Theodor Kramer , Veza and Elias Canetti fled to England, Joseph Roth, Robert Musil, Stefan Zweig, Ödön von Horváth, Maria Lazar and Marta Karlweis also had to flee, others like Else Feldmann , Jura Soyfer, Adolf Unger , stayed and were murdered by the National Socialists. Authors like Franz Werfel, Hermann Broch , Alfred Polgar , Maria Lazar , Ernst Lothar and Marta Karlweis had to stay abroad at the time of National Socialism. Many found it difficult or impossible to find their way around. After the war, some of them stayed abroad (Elias Canetti received the Nobel Prize for Literature as a British citizen), and some returned. It is noticeable that many could no longer follow up on their successes in the interwar period and in exile. This was probably due to the fact that the old reading audience was either expelled or murdered and the new audience was not interested in the returning authors, with a few exceptions such as Friedrich Torberg . This led to literary impoverishment, from which Austria would not recover until the early 1960s. This did not change until the 1980s, when the Jura Soyfer Society or the Theodor Kramer Society were founded.

Literature from 1945

post war period

After the Second World War, a vacuum was revealed in art and culture, which was only slowly filled again. Some speak of a literary zero point after the 1933 book burning . The " rubble literature " described a collapsed world; only now was Franz Kafka discovered. The Austrians in exile, who were scattered all over the world, only partially returned, and the returnees often found it difficult to cope with the new conditions. Jean Amery was in a concentration camp, from Czernowitz originating Paul Celan and Rose Auslander came to Austria. Hans Weigel and Friedrich Torberg returned after the war, Erich Fried only in the 1980s. Elias Canetti, Franz Werfel and Hermann Broch remained in exile.

The cultural landscape - magazines, publishers, artist organizations and groups in the regions - had changed and began to grow together into something new. The Bregenz Festival (1946), the Salzburg Festival (1945) and the Wiener Festwochen (1949) offered artists the opportunity to present their works for the first time. Many new literary currents and forms emerged and existed at the same time, with the motivation to process what had been experienced, to catch up on missed developments in world literature and to break new ground.

Authors who professed National Socialism, such as Franz Nabl and Karl Heinrich Waggerl , kept their positions and continued to exert influence in literature. Max Mell and Rudolf Henz belonged to the Catholic camp. The Austrian PEN Club was very conservative. On the other hand, authors such as Ilse Aichinger , Ingeborg Bachmann , Alexander Lernet-Holenia , Gerhard Fritsch and Hans Lebert tried to reorient. Hans Lebert wrote the novel Die Wolfshaut, which takes place in a fictional place called Silence, an allusion to the denial of complicity in National Socialism. Heimito von Doderer (1896–1966) is known for his meticulously worded novels ( Die Strudlhofstiege , Die Demonen ). Even Albert Paris (1887-1973) wanted to build on the spilled modern tradition. Aichinger, Bachmann Celan and Fried were members of Group 47 in Germany, which set the tone for post-war literature . The new freedom resulted in innovative short stories, narrative literature as well as women's and folk literature were able to establish themselves; diaries were also published, and modern dramas (dialect poetry, play with language, restorative and innovative storytelling, new motifs such as outsiders, death and illness) were created.

The Allied occupying powers founded media that were supposed to influence the zones of occupation ( diary , red-white-red ). They also set up an "Austrian Censorship Office" which censored letters until 1953. Since then there has been no more state censorship in Austria.

There was hardly a market for artists; therefore the state took over the art funding. At the same time, the institutions urged that artists should help to strengthen national awareness, including by spreading the victim thesis . The media world had also changed a lot. The radio, and especially television, offered new opportunities for the dissemination of literary texts, and the radio drama flourished again. The party newspapers increasingly had to give way to the tabloids, and the media became increasingly concentrated. The state intervened actively in the events by exerting political influence on the ORF .

Cabaret

Based on the workers' piece of the 19th century and the agitprop piece of the 1920s, cabaret was developed from a series of individual pieces and the revue theater in the 20th century to a serious art form. Names of authors who have contributed significantly to the development of this new art form are:

The Viennese group

The Vienna group included Gerhard Rühm (* 1930), Konrad Bayer (1932–1964), H. C. Artmann (1921–2000), Friedrich Achleitner and Oswald Wiener . The affinity to the language game is a constant in Austrian literature; Ernst Jandl (1925–2000) are among the better-known representatives . Important poets were Friederike Mayröcker (* 1924) and Christine Lavant (1915–1973).

Literature from the 1960s

Ingeborg Bachmann
Thomas Bernhard was insulted as a "nest polluter"

Austrian literature flourished in the 1960s and 1970s, when authors such as Peter Handke (* 1942), Ingeborg Bachmann (1926–1973) and Thomas Bernhard (1931–1989) permanently changed the German literary landscape. Important contemporary authors such as Norbert Gstrein , Elfriede Jelinek (* 1946), OP Zier , Sabine Gruber and Ruth Aspöck also work in this tradition . Some authors were also rediscovered and received anew, as the example of Marlen Haushofer shows, who, in addition to children's books, also deals with a number of interesting topics such as the position of women or the disenchantment of the idyll in her works. Important poets are Christine Busta , Elfriede Gerstl , Robert Schindel .

In 1973 the Graz Authors' Assembly was founded, to which Barbara Frischmuth , Peter Handke , Ernst Jandl, Alfred Kolleritsch , Friederike Mayröcker and Michael Scharang belonged. Above all, they protested against the conservatism of the PEN Club with regard to the awarding of literary prizes. With his public abuse, Peter Handke tried to break new ground in communication in drama. Jandl and Mayröcker wrote concrete poetry . Other groups in Graz are the Forum Stadtpark and the Grazer Gruppe .

Thomas Bernhard (1931–1989) caused a theatrical scandal and a fierce socio-political controversy with Heldenplatz . He criticized the failure to come to terms with the National Socialist past and the repression mentality in Austria.

Marianne Fritz (1948–2007) wrote several very extensive novels with an idiosyncratic language of forms and narrative that go beyond the boundaries of genre and general linguistic conventions. Christoph Ransmayr mixes historical facts with fiction. In Kitahara's disease , he creates a scenario in which Austria received no help from the Marshall Plan and worked out a complex hypothetical counter-world. In Josef Haslinger's Opera Ball, there is an attack on the Opera Ball in which all guests including the government are killed and a fascist party comes to power. Milo Dor , a born Serb, describes the dangers of right-wing extremism and immigration.

During the 1980s, Jewish literature re-formed. Robert Schindel published the novel Gebürtig , Robert Menasse writes essays about Austria, another author is Doron Rabinovici .

Austrian Slovene-speaking authors are Janko Ferk, Gustav Januš, Florjan Lipuš , Cvetka Lipuš and Janko Messner . Peter Handke has translated several Slovenian works into German.

present

Elfriede Jelinek was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2004
Michael Köhlmeier in Olomouc
Crime writer Wolf Haas

Marlene Streeruwitz , who was influenced by Oswald Wiener , has carried feminist ideas of the 1970s into the present. Werner Schwab mocks and unmasks the aesthetic literary language with hearty, strong expressions and bizarre word combinations. In contrast, Ransmayr is looking for a mediating position in terms of both content and style.

In Die Arbeit der Nacht, Thomas Glavinic describes the story of a man who is completely alone overnight. In the wall of Marlen Haushofer the protagonist is suddenly cut off by an impenetrable wall invisible from the world and has to survive alone in a mountain hut.

Daniel Kehlmann achieved great audiences with Die Vermessung der Welt and Wolf Haas with his “Brenner” thriller, which is characterized by a very idiosyncratic style of language with an Austrian characteristic.

Well-known authors such as Franzobel , Arno Geiger, Norbert Gstrein, Peter Handke, Christoph Ransmayr , Peter Henisch , Elfriede Jelinek, Michael Köhlmeier and Gerhard Roth regularly publish new works. Lesser known authors are Reinhold Aumaier , Adelheid Dahimène , Dimitré Dinev , Martin Dragosits , Klaus Ebner , Günter Eichberger , Janko Ferk , Olga Flor , Evelyn Grill , Constantin Göttfert , Wolfgang Hermann , Rudolf Kraus , Egyd Gstättner , Klaus Händl , Ludwig Laher , Gabriel Loidolt , Wolfgang Pollanz , Gudrun Seidenauer , Linda Stift , Vladimir Vertlib , Christine Werner , Peter Paul Wiplinger .

Current literary magazines are literature and criticism , Erostepost , (Salzburg) Manuscripts , Sterz , Typist and Lichtungen (Graz), Waspennest und Kolik (Vienna), Cognac & Biskotten (Innsbruck), DUM (Lower Austria).

Austrian literary prizes

See also: List of literary prizes in Austria

See also

Literature on the subject

One-volume literary stories

  • Fritz Martini: German literary history. From the beginning to the present . 19th, revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-520-19619-0 (licensed edition by KOMET-Verlag 2003 in Cologne, ISBN 3-89836-381-3 ) (standard work) .
  • Viktor Žmegac (ed.): Small history of German literature. From the beginning to the present . Marix, Wiesbaden 2004, ISBN 3-937715-24-X .
  • Wynfrid Kriegleder : A Brief History of Literature in Austria. People - books - institutions. Praesens, Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-7069-0665-4
  • Klaus Zeyringer and Helmut Gollner: A literary history: Austria since 1650. , Studien-Verlag, Innsbruck 2012, ISBN 978-3-7065-4972-1
  • Herbert Zeman (Hrsg.): Literary history of Austria. from the beginnings in the Middle Ages to the present . 2nd, revised and updated edition. Rombach, Freiburg im Breisgau 2014, ISBN 978-3-7930-9734-1

Multi-volume literary stories

History of literature in Austria from the beginning to the present , ed. by Herbert Zeman, Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, Graz 1994ff (7 volumes planned, published so far)

  • Volume 1: The literature of the early and high Middle Ages in the dioceses of Passau, Salzburg, Brixen and Trient from the beginning up to the year 1273 by Fritz Peter Knapp, Graz 1994, ISBN 3-201-01611-X .
  • Volume 2: The literature of the late Middle Ages in Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Salzburg and Tyrol from 1273–1439 by Fritz Peter Knapp
    • Half volume 1: The literature in the time of the early Habsburgs until the death of Albrecht II. 1358 , Graz 1999, ISBN 3-201-01721-3 .
    • Half volume 2: The literature at the time of the Habsburg dukes from Rudolf IV. To Albrecht V (1358 - 1439) , Graz 2003, ISBN 3-201-01812-0 .
  • Volume 7: The 20th Century , ed. by Herbert Zeman with contributions by Walter Zettl, Joseph P. Strelka, Ernst Fischer, Wolfgang Kraus and Herbert Zeman, Graz 1999, ISBN 3-201-01687-X .

History of German literature from the beginning to the present . Founded by Helmut de Boor and Richard Newald. Beck, Munich 1971– (12 volumes planned, published volumes and partial volumes partly in a more recent version)

  • Volume 1: The German literature from Charlemagne to the beginning of courtly poetry: 770–1170 . 9th edition, edited by Herbert Kolb. Beck, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-406-06088-9 .
  • Volume 2: The courtly literature: preparation, flowering, conclusion; 1170-1250 . 11th edition, edited by Ursula Hennig. Beck, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-406-35132-8 .
  • Volume 3: German literature in the late Middle Ages .
    • Part 1: Decay and New Beginning: 1250–1350 . 5th, revised edition, revised by Johannes Janota. Beck, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-406-40378-6 .
    • Part 2: Couples poems, drama, prose. Edited by Ingeborg Glier. Beck, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-406-00713-9 .
  • Volume 4: German literature from the late Middle Ages to the Baroque .
    • Part 1: The Late Middle Ages, Humanism and Renaissance: 1370–1520. 2nd edition, revision. by Hedwig Heger. Beck, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-406-37898-6 .
    • Part 2: The Age of Reformation: 1520–1570 . Edited by Hans Rupprich . Beck, Munich 1973, ISBN 3-406-00717-1 .
  • Volume 5: The German Literature from Late Humanism to Sensibility: 1570–1750 . Unchanged reprint of the 6th, improved edition. With a bibliographical appendix. Beck, Munich 1975, ISBN 3-406-00721-X .
  • Volume 6: From Klopstock to Goethe's death .
    • Part 1: Enlightenment, Sturm und Drang, early classical period: 1740–1789 . By Sven Aage Jørgensen, Klaus Bohnen, Per Øhrgaard. Beck, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-406-34573-5 (special edition 1999; formerly under the title: Richard Newald: End of Enlightenment and Preparation of Classics ; later also under the title: Sven Age Jørgensen: Enlightenment, Storm and Drang, Early Classic ).
  • Volume 7: German literature between the French Revolution and the Restoration .
    • Part 1: The Age of the French Revolution: 1789–1806 . 2nd, revised edition, edited by Gerhard Schulz . Beck, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-406-46700-8 .
    • Part 2: The Age of the Napoleonic Wars and the Restoration: 1806–1830 . Edited by Gerhard Schulz. Beck, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-406-09399-X .
  • Volume 9: History of German-Language Literature .
    • Part 1: 1870–1900: from the founding of the empire to the turn of the century . Edited by Peter Sprengel. Beck, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-406-44104-1 .
    • Part 2: 1900–1918: from the turn of the century to the end of the First World War . Edited by Peter Sprengel. Beck, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-406-52178-9 .
  • Volume 12: History of German Literature from 1945 to the Present . Edited by Wilfried Barner. Beck, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-406-38660-1 .

Literary stories with primary texts

  • German literature. An outline in text and illustration . Reclam, 2000, ISBN 3-15-030022-3 (a total of 17, also individually available volumes on different epochs).

reference books

  • Susanne Blumesberger: Handbook of the Austrian authors of books for children and young people . 2 volumes. Böhlau, Vienna 2014. Digital copies on the pages of the OAPEN Library: Volume I (AK) , Volume II (MZ) .
  • Horst Dieter Schlosser: dtv-Atlas German literature . dtv, 2002, ISBN 3-423-03219-7 .
  • Gunter E. Grimm and Frank Rainer Max (eds.): Life and work of German-speaking authors from the Middle Ages to the present . Reclam, 1993, ISBN 3-15-010388-6 (also available in separate editions on different epochs).

Main topics

Austria

Say

  • Käthe Recheis (Ed.): Legends from Austria. Carl Ueberreuter Verlag, Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-8000-2804-2 .

Danube

  • Reimund Hinkel: Vienna on the Danube. The great river, its relationship to the city and the development of shipping through the ages. Vienna 1995.
  • Claudio Magris : Danube. Farrar Straus & Giroux Verlag, ISBN 1-86046-823-3 .
  • Péter Esterházy: Down the Danube. Residence, 1992.

Austrian literature in Yiddish

  • Armin Eidherr: You asked about the poets ... (Yiddish culture in Austria). In: Nitsche: Austrian poetry and no word German , pp. 37–46.
  • Armin Eidherr: On a quiet path ... Yiddish writers in Vienna. Dossier in: Literature and Criticism, No. 273/274. Salzburg April 1993, pp. 47-83.

Tyrol

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler : Austria and Central Europe (pdf, kakanien.at; 106 kB). See also: Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler : Austrian contemporary literature from 1990 ( eLib.at )
  2. ^ Hugo von Hofmannsthal: Remarks , quoted from: Hugo von Hofmannsthal: Collected Works in Individual Editions, Volume "Prosa IV", 1966, pp. 101-106
  3. ^ Johann Holzner: Literature in South Tyrol - German, Austrian, Italian literature? In: Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler (Ed.), History of Literature: Austria: Prolegomena and Case Studies , Erich Schmidt, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-503-03703-9 , pp. 91–99, here pp. 92–94.
  4. ↑ See censorship in: Austria-Forum, the knowledge network.
  5. ↑ Full text project Gutenberg DE .
  6. ^ Franz Haas: Angry sparkling expressionism. In: nzz.ch. March 6, 2015, accessed October 14, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Historical Commission of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association (Ed.): Archive for the history of the book industry, vol. 53, Frankfurt / Main 2000 ISBN 3-7657-2296-0 p. 51f.
  8. ^ Helmut Wohnout: Political Catholicism and Anti-Semitism. in: Gertrude Enderle-Burcel / Ilse Reiter-Zatloukal (eds.): Anti-Semitism in Austria 1933-1938 . Böhlau Verlag, Vienna-Cologne-Weimar 2018 ISBN 978-3-205-23244-5 pp. 167–194 here p. 181
  9. ↑ See also Klaus Zeyringer: Austrian literature since 1986 and Wendelin Schmidt-Dengler: Austrian contemporary literature from 1990 in the eLibrary project